Despite the Heat, We’re Working to Spread the Word about Our Chapter!

Although we were disappointed (but very understanding) about the cancellation of the 10^th Annual Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair on August 14^th, it did give us an opportunity to hold our August chapter meeting on our usual second Saturday of the month. Ten of us gathered on Zoom, and much of our lively discussion centered on our publicity efforts.

We’re thrilled with our new logo designed by Miki Reilly-Howe’s colleague, Doug Sovonick. And thanks to Susan Bell and Lynda Rees, we now have bookmarks and a banner featuring our new logo to take to book fairs, conferences, and book signings. Speaking of book fairs, we’re still brimming with excitement that the anthology co-edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch, Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, has been selected for the Kentucky Book Festival which will take place on November 6^th at Joseph-Book Booksellers in Lexington.

 

Meantime, our new publicist, Lynda Rees, is about to start work on a brochure about the chapter, as well as a PR campaign. Miki Reilly-Howe volunteered to assist with strategizing. Lynda will also set up a Facebook page for the chapter and work on enlarging our presence on social media.  

We’re delighted to report that our Speaker’s Bureau is up and running, and Elaine Munsch has her first booking! She will speak on the history of women crime writers at the Owensboro public library.

Starting up in September is our new online critique group which plans to meet twice monthly and includes: Susan Bell, Elaine Munsch, Lorena Peter, Jeanette Pope, and Miki Reilly-Howe.  We’re excited that chapter members will have more opportunities for regular feedback on their works-in-progress.

Following our business meeting, we discussed the first chapter of Janet Burroway’s classic Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft, 10^th edition. My favorite part of our discussion was the sharing we did about childhood memories that might spark ideas for stories. Interestingly, several of us had stories about angry parents! We plan to tackle Chapter Two of Burroway’s book at our September 11th meeting. Jeanette Pope will lead our discussion.

Member News

 

Lynda Rees’s historical romance, Gold Lust Conspiracy, was published in audiobook by Audible and Amazon: https:adbl.co/3rLu450 The response has been so positive that she’s already working on the sequel!

In addition, Lynda recently launched a children’s picture book, NO FEAR, available on Amazon. https://amzn.to/2V6rf2m.

 

Beth Henderson has launched the Witchur-Wolfe Detection series, which she describes as a “paranormal comedic cozy mystery series with a touch of romance.” The first of the four-book series, When Harry Killed Sally, is now up for pre-sale on Kindle: http://getbook.at/HarrySally

When investigative reporter Emmalyst Whichur teams up with Conor Wolf to prove Harry’s innocence in the murder of Sally, they hope to spring Harry before the Full Moon arrives: “After all, in Killaman Falls, if a witch and a werewolf walk into the same bar, things really can’t be the same ever again.”

 

Jeanette Pope’s book signing for her newly released Desperate Angles will take place on September 18^th at Mike Linnig’s Restaurant- 9308 Cane Run Rd. Louisville, KY  40258 between 11 and 2 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

Lynda Rees and Lynn Slaughter will be participating authors at the Lexington Book Bash from 10-4 PM on August 28 at Double Tree Suites by Hilton Hotel, 2601 Richmond Road in Lexington. They both plan to have information about the chapter handy at their tables.

Lynn Slaughter contributed an article, “The Three Best Pieces of Writing Advice I Ever Received” to Teen Ink which is scheduled to come out this month. She will also be a guest on George Cramer’s blog on August 30^th to talk about her recently released Leisha’s Song: https://gdcramer.com

 

 

 

We hope everyone is staying cool and safe, and we look forward to seeing folks at our next chapter meeting on September 11^th!

 

The 10th Annual Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair, originally scheduled for August 14, 2021, has been rescheduled to next year: SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2022 AT 10 AM EDT – 4 PM EDT

July has been an Exciting Month

July has been an exciting month for our chapter, especially our acceptance to the 2021 Kentucky Book Festival. Here are some highlights:

Kentucky Book Festival

Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon, edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch, has been selected for inclusion in the Kentucky Book Festival to be held on November 6^th at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington. Although the anthology is not an official Sisters in Crime publication, several of our chapter members have works in the anthology, so we are thrilled to celebrate our talented Derby Rotten Scoundrel authors and editors!

The anthology includes the following authors:

Deborah Alvord ** Edmund August ** Susan Bell ** Barbara Blackburn ** Karen Quinn Block ** Mike Bradford ** Virginia ‘Din’ Dulworth ** M. E. Gaskins ** Sarah E. Glenn ** Debi Huff ** Shirley Jump ** Gwen Mayo ** Elaine Munsch ** Lorena R. Peter (Lorena Reith, Jr.) ** Debby Schenk ** Tamera Shaw ** Sheila Shumate ** Cheryl Stuck ** Milton C. Toby ** Jo Tucker ** Heidi Walker

Read more here: Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon

New Logo

Chapter member Miki Reilly-Howe arranged for a fabulous graphic designer to design a new logo for our chapter. We are thrilled and now await the approval of national (We’re pretty confident they’ll like it as much as we do!)

Speaker’s Bureau

Plans are underway for our new project, a Speaker’s Bureau, which would offer presentations to libraries and other groups in Kentucky and Indiana. The amazing Elaine Munsch is putting together a brochure to advertise our services. We are offering eleven presentations:

• A Brief History of Women Crime Writers
• The History of Young Adult Literature
• Writing Contemporary Young Adult Fiction
• Getting That First Book Written and Published
• Authors Share Their Stories
• Where Do Writers Get Their Ideas
• Writing Mysteries with a Kentucky Slant
• Writer’s Secrets on Staying Organized
• The Business of Publishing
• When Two Heads Are Better Than One
• To Travel or Not to Travel
• Why Doesn’t the Movie Do Justice to My Favorite Book?

Presenters include: Elaine Munsch, Lorena Peter, Jeanette Pope, Carol Preflatish, Lynda Rees, and Lynn Slaughter.

Our New Publicist!

Board member Lynda Rees has been appointed by the board to take on a new volunteer position, publicist for our chapter. We are thrilled to have someone of Lynda’s expertise and energy on the job to spread the word about our chapter! The Board has decided to submit to the chapter changes in the by-laws which would officially add two board positions: publicist and webmaster. We will vote on these at the end of this year.

Volunteer of the Year

The Board voted to establish an annual award, Volunteer of the Year, to honor chapter members who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in contributing their time and talents. The Volunteer of the Year will receive a certificate, be honored at our December luncheon, and have their upcoming national and chapter dues paid for by the chapter. We voted to award this year’s Volunteer of the Year award to Susan Bell, who has not only served as our Secretary, but has been our webmaster and our playwriting coordinator. Congratulations, Susan, and please know how much we appreciate you!

Chapter Meeting

Iced at the Easy

The Frazier Museum no longer has the resources to produce or help produce plays. A sub-committee consisting of Susan Bell, Patience Martin, Elaine Munsch, and Jeanette Pope will continue to seek other avenues of getting Iced at the Easy, based on an idea by Jeanette Pope, produced either fully or in staged readings.

Writer Support Session

In other news, we had a lively chapter meeting on July 10. Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch submitted strong submissions for critique. Susan’s Autumn Picnic is chock full of atmosphere and suspense about that suspicious young man in the woods covered in blood and carrying an axe! And Elaine’s Dash is as entertaining as ever as he investigates the mysterious death of his aunt.

August Meeting

Because so many chapter members are participating in the 10^th Annual Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair on August 14^th, we decided to cancel our August chapter meeting and encourage everyone to come and support our DRS authors at the fair: Susan Bell, Gloria Casale, Elaine Munsch, Carol Preflatish, Lynda Rees, Lynn Slaughter, Jeanette Pope, Lorena Peter, and Pam Turner. The event will be held at 307 W. Jefferson Street in LaGrange Kentucky at the Community Center. Contact person is Tony Acree: tonyacree@gmail.com.

Zoom Continues

The Board has decided that at least through the end of the year, chapter meetings will continue to be held online, especially since several of our members have long drives to get to face-to-face meetings. Beginning with the September 11^th meeting, we will hold our business meeting from 12-1 and then from 1-2, we will either have a speaker or work our way through a craft book. In September, we’ll begin discussing chapter one of Writing Fiction, A Guide to Narrative Craft, Tenth Edition, by Janet Burroway, available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and IndieBound.

New Critique Session – Writer Support

At the retreat, attendees expressed an interest in a writing support group that would meet more often and allow for more frequent opportunities for feedback. The first DRS critique group will meet twice monthly at a separate time from our regular meetings. The group includes: Susan Bell, Elaine Munsch, Lorena Peter, Jeanette Pope, and Miki Reilly-Howe. Beth Henderson, Lynda Rees, and Lynn Slaughter have also volunteered to offer feedback to anyone requesting an extra pair of eyes on their work.

Speaker’s Bureau Prologue

In other news, Elaine Munsch, Jeanette Pope, and Lynn Slaughter will serve as a Derby Rotten Scoundrels guest panel for the Speed City Indianapolis chapter on July 24^th. We’ll share our chapter retreat and playwriting experiences.

Speakers

Our business meeting was followed by a terrific presentation by Gwen Mayo and Sarah Glenn, the publishers of Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon. They gave us a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to found and run a small independent press. It was absolutely fascinating.

You can watch their presentation here: Speaker Series

Member News

Our former president, Beth Henderson, reports she’s doing her happy dance because she just got a contract from The Wild Rose Press for her romantic suspense novel, Ghost Notes, to be published in 2022. Congratulations, Beth!

Jeanette Pope reports she had a wonderful time networking at Imaginarium and got to spend time with her mentor, Lee Pennington, former poet laureate of Kentucky and all-around fabulous writer and filmmaker.

 

 

 

Carol Preflatish also had a super time at Imaginarium and sold lots of books!

 

 

 

 

Lynn Slaughter’s guest essay on her approach to starting a novel appeared on Debra Goldstein’s blog: https://www.debrahgoldstein.com/guest-blogger-lynn-slaughter-starting-a-novel-one-writers-approach/. On July 20, Lynn was interviewed by Leah Stuhler on YA Book Chat about her newly released Leisha’s Song.

That’s it for now! Hope to see you all on August 14 at the Book Fair in LaGrange and on September 11^th, our next chapter meeting. Happy Writing!

 

What a busy and productive month this has been for our chapter! On June 5, eight of us gathered for an all-day retreat at General Butler State Park, beautifully organized by our V-P, Carol Preflatish.

We did lots of bonding and rewrote our mission statement, identified five over-arching goals and discussed a variety of action steps. I’ll be giving you regular updates as we begin to implement changes and new initiatives that grow out of our goals, which are to actively pursue:

– Community Service and Community Outreach
– Assist in the professional development of our members
– Grow our membership
– Recognize the volunteer contributions of our members to the chapter
– Restructure the board to better address our chapter needs

Chapter Meeting

The following week, we had our chapter meeting. Elaine Munsch and Jeanette Pope shared strong submissions for the critique portion of our meeting. Clues are piling up that Dash’s aunt did not die of natural causes in Elaine’s latest Dash Hammond novel. And in Jeanette’s work, private investigator Slicks is doing his best to protect his endangered client Elise, and his attraction to her is definitely beginning to sizzle!

At our business meeting, we discussed ideas which came out of the retreat:

– the possibility of having a separate critique group that would meet online twice monthly so writers could get their work reviewed more frequently.
– Alternating speakers with professional development sessions. Susan Bell suggested we read a section/chapter of a craft book on a given topic, such as characterization, and then the following month read a novel and dissect it for that topic.
– Alternating on-line meetings with face-to-face meetings. (We’ve since learned that we can resume our face-to-face meetings at Barnes and Noble on Hurstbourne Lane beginning in August!)
– Creating a Speakers’ Bureau to make library visits (possibly combined with book sales and signings)
– Restructuring our board to include a publicist and the need to invite others to step up to board positions, especially with Susan Bell stepping down next year. Susan has been doing three jobs: serving as secretary, webmaster, and playwriting coordinator. We are so grateful for all she’s done for us and certainly understand her desire to spend a little more time writing!

We voted to purchase a $50 sponsorship of this year’s Imaginarium.
As we are in need of updated chapter bookmarks, Miki Reilly-Howe has generously volunteered to redesign them.

With Elaine Munsch, Susan Bell, and Jeanette Pope meeting with staff from the Frazier History Museum regarding our play, Iced at the Easy, on June 23, we have all fingers and toes crossed that the Frazier may be interested in producing the play as one of their venue attractions.

June Speaker(s)

Following our business meeting, we had a delightful visit from a panel representing the Speed City Indiana chapter of Sisters in Crime. They have a whopping 47 members and shared their experiences producing anthologies as well as a play. On July 24, Elaine Munsch, Jeanette Pope, and Lynn Slaughter will zoom with their chapter to talk about our retreat experience and efforts to reinvigorate our chapter.

Meantime, board member Lynda Rees has been working hard on several fronts: collecting information on upcoming book conferences and festivals, possible venues for our play, and a listing of members’ skills. Speaking of upcoming events, here are a few:

– July 9-11 Imaginarium Convention Louisville, KY
https://www.entertheimaginarium.com/

-July 8-11 In Your Write Mind Writer’s Conference (online)
https://inyourwritemind.setonhill.edu/

– June 28-July 10- Thrillerfest and Thriller Awards (online)
https://thrillerfest.com/

– July 14-17, 2021 More than Malice and Agatha Awards (online)
https://www.malicedomestic.org/

– August 19-22 Killer Nashville Nashville, TN
https://killernashville.com/

– August 28 Legendary Book Bash, Lexington, KY (book sale and signing opportunity)
Contact Michelle Areaux at: michelle@kingstonpublishing.com

– October 2 (tentative) Kentucky Book Fair at Fleming County Public Library, Flemingsburg, KY
Contact Stephanie Morgan at smorgan@fleminglibrary.org

– October 22-24 Prime Crime, formerly Magna cum Murder, Indianapolis, IN
https://ccprimecrime.com/

– November 6 Kentucky Book Festival Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Lexington KY
https://kybookfestival.org/

Member News

Last, but certainly not least, we have several chapter members who have news to share:

Beth Henderson is offering a workshop July 5th-August 1st on Mixing Murder and Magic: Writing the Urban Fantasy P.I. to Life!

Savvy Authors – Mixing Murder and Magic, Writing the Urban Fantasy PI to Life

 

 

 

 

Carol Preflatish’s book, Homecoming to Murder, placed third in the Best Mystery category of the Critters Reader’s Poll. On July 9-11, Carol will be signing Homecoming to Murder and The Coin Collector from her Nathan Perry Mystery series, as well as one of her romances, Her Bluegrass Beau, at the Imaginarium Convention in Louisville.

 

 

 

 

Lynda Rees’s Operation Second Chance is a finalist in Imaginarium 2021. Lynda writes contemporary romance and romantic suspense set in rural Kentucky. She recently released her eleventh-thirteenth audiobooks:.
Parsley, Sage, Rose, Mary & Wine, Bk. 1 The Bloodline Series, released 3/1/21 in audiobook. Listen to it at:

https://adbl.co/2CKl9eV and available in all formats at http://amzn.to/2ytEuth

Widowed Lemon Sage Benton wants a fresh start after her brutal past. When a mutual friend is murdered, Sage clashes with Sheriff Wyatt Gordon, but the heat between is so fierce it can’t be ignored. Wyatt wants Sage, though her independent, impulsive nature wrecks havoc with his life. The killer wants Sage also.

For the free ebook prologue of The Bloodline Series, and to become a VIP, you can get Leah’s Story at: https://preview.mailerlite.com/t1a6j6

Deputy Leah Patton is a fan favorite in Parsley, Sage, Rose, Mary & Wine. Lynda wrote Leah’s story to fulfil requests for more about Leah.

Lynda’s contemporary romance, 2nd Chance Ranch was released in December in audiobook. It can be found at:

http://adbl.co/3aJYPkj 2nd Chance Ranch is also available in all formats at: https://amzn.to/2WQg1wW

Wounded Warrior, Captain Chance Gordon’s future depends on the woman he loves and deserted.

In April, 2021, Lynda released her romantic suspense novel, Operation Second Chance, in audiobook. It’s available on Audible at:

https://adbl.co/3bYBZFQ and in all formats at: https://amzn.to/2WKeqbH

Scrawny Dex leaves broken hearted and returns to Sweetwater as a Navy Seal. Motorcycling, horseback-riding, widowed Zoe, had been a fellow misfit but sent him away for his own good. Time and distance hasn’t broken their bond. Reconciliation puts Zoe in a killer’s cross hairs.

Lynn Slaughter’s Leisha’s Song, a YA contemporary romantic mystery, will officially be published by Fire and Ice on June 22nd and is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
On scholarship at a prestigious New England boarding school, Leisha never intended to fall in love with classical singing or get involved with Cody Harrington—let alone risk her life trying to find her missing teacher.

In connection with the release, Lynn has enjoyed being a guest author at meetings of Kentuckiana Romance Writers, Women Who Write, and Bard’s Corner Writer’s Group.

 

 

Pamela Turner’s fairy tale fantasy, The Judas Dilemma, is now available from MuseItUp Publishing, available at

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0933NLKHS/

When Victoria Gregory is attacked by the angel Kushiel, she’s rescued by Judas Iscariot who tells her that Kushiel wants the ancient silver coin she recently received for her birthday. The coin controls his dragon demon, a curse Kushiel cast on Judas as punishment for betraying Jesus. In fact, Kushiel wants all thirty coins which together will unleash the Celestial Dragon and enable Kushiel to annihilate humanity and get rid of Judas. But to do that, he must convince one of Judas’s friends to betray him. Tricked into giving Kushiel her coin, Victoria travels to Hell with the very person who double-crossed her and Judas. Can she trust her new partner to help her rescue Judas? Or will she be trapped in Hell forever?

 

In closing, I hope to see many of you at our next online meeting on July 10. Our guest speakers will be Gwen Mayo and Sarah Glenn, publishers of the anthology, Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch and available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Walmart, and Target.

Due to visiting extended family (got to hug my NYC grandkids for the first time in more than a year!), I missed our May chapter meeting. But after reading the works submitted for feedback and Susan Bell’s meeting minutes, as well as listening to the recording of Lynda Rees’s informative talk—I almost feel as though I’d been there!

First off, I loved both Elaine Munsch’s and Miki Reilly-Howe’s submissions. Elaine’s opening of her new mystery novel featuring the dashing, appropriately named Dash Hammond, is chock full of her signature humor and wonderful voice. Naturally, Elaine wastes no time introducing a dead body, a distant cousin Dash and his father went to see in Cleveland.

Meantime, Miki’s novel, Saving Remy, is developing beautifully. Miki skillfully tells the story of the aftermath of the murder of a hard-working, devoted mother from two points of view. One is that of the child psychologist working with seven-year-old Remy who witnessed his mom’s murder and is so far refusing to speak. The other is that of the detective investigating the murder. Miki does a terrific job of getting into the heads of her characters and helping us identify with them.

Needless to say, I can’t wait to read more of both of these works!

The business meeting included lots of discussion of our upcoming June 5^th visioning retreat and was followed by Lynda Rees’s talk which covered a wide range of topics. It was fascinating to learn about Lynda’s eclectic background which includes time growing up in an Appalachian mining community, moving to a mob-infested community in northern Kentucky, and later enjoying a long career with Proctor and Gamble which involved extensive travel to exotic locations. No wonder Lynda says she is never at a loss for story ideas! She also discussed strategies for varying pace in writing fiction and the importance of knowing your characters intimately in order to bring them to life on the page. She concluded her talk with a helpful list of tips for aspiring writers, the most important of which (not surprisingly!) are to steadily write, revise, and continuously commit to learning about craft, as well as the publishing world.

In other news about our members:

Member News

 

Beth Henderson continues to get super reviews on her new release, UNTIL… Meantime, she is set to teach two workshops. June 1^st-28^th, she’ll teach “Writing the Historical Mystery” as part of the Kiss of Death RWA Online Fiction Writing Workshop. Click for more info:  Kiss of Death 2021 Coffin Workshops

Then, through Savvy Authors, she’ll present “Mixing Murder and Magic: Writing the Urban Fantasy P.I. to Life” from July 5^th through August 1^st. Click for more info: Mixing Murder & Magic: Writing The Urban Fantasy P.I. to Life with Beth Daniels

Her short mystery, “The Tombstone Affair,” will appear in the July release of the SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY RIDES Anthology from Dark Owl Publishers.

Patience Martin narrated a new release on Audible by an outstanding Kentucky Author, Marlene Mitchell.  Click for more info: The Women of Magnolia

Jeanette Pope, author of the recently released Desperate Angles, has completed her application for the Sisters in Crime’ Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for crime fiction writers of color. All of our fingers and toes are crossed!

Carol Preflatish will sign the first two books in her Nathan Perry Mystery Series at the Imaginarium Convention on July 9-11 at the Holiday Inn Louisville East on Hurstborne Lane.

Lynn Slaughter is excited about her first pre-publication review of her forthcoming Leisha’s Song (out June 22^nd from Fire and Ice). https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/leishas-song/ She will be the guest speaker at Kentuckiana Romance Writers on May 22^nd and will talk about combining romance with suspense, her path to publication, and writing outside her identity group. https://kentuckianaromancewriters.com/event/may-meeting/

 

Pamela Turner’s paranormal suspense novel, The Judas Dilemma, will be released on June 8 by MuseItUp Publishing. When Victoria Gregory is attacked by the angel Kushiel, she’s rescued by Judas Iscariot who tells her that Kushiel wants the ancient silver coin she recently received for her birthday. The coin controls his dragon demon, a curse Kushiel cast on Judas as punishment for betraying Jesus. In fact, Kushiel wants all thirty coins which together will unleash the Celestial Dragon and enable Kushiel to annihilate humanity and get rid of Judas. But to do that, he must convince one of Judas’s friends to betray him. Tricked into giving Kushiel her coin, Victoria travels to Hell with the very person who double-crossed her and Judas. Can she trust her new partner to help her rescue Judas? Or will she be trapped in Hell forever?

In closing, I hope to see lots of you at our next online meeting on June 12. Following our critique session and business meeting, we’ll host a guest panel from the Speed City Indiana Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Hope to see you all then!