Lynn Slaughter

Lynn reports that she is an M & M Finalist for the Chanticleer International Book Awards in the mystery category.

Also, she is a finalist in the Book Excellence Awards in mystery for DEADLY SETUP.

Lynn will be joining the board of Louisville Literary Arts.

Congratulations Lynn!

 

Elaine Munsch and Susan Bell

Elaine and Susan would like you to join us at the Jeffersonville Library, Saturday, April 1st, from 1:30 until 3 p.m.

The library is located at 211 E. Court St., Jeffersonville, IN, 812-285-5630

 

That’s all for now, folks!

 

Few elements of punctuation are as daunting as the comma. When do I use it? Where do I put it? There are rules, and sometimes controversy (Oxford commas come to mind).

Reference this article on  8 basic uses of commas:  Commas (Eight Basic Uses)

This month, we will focus on independent clauses.

Independent Clause plus a Dependent Clause:

Boomer, a cat who started life in the park, enjoys playing in my backyard. The independent clause in this sentence is: Boomer enjoys playing in my backyard. This is a complete thought, with a subject (Boomer), a verb (enjoys), and an object phrase (in my backyard). As an independent clause, the above statement does not require a comma. The following clause is dependent, because it cannot stand alone: a cat who started life in the park The dependent clause is almost a parenthetical description, used to provide a little ‘background’ info on Boomer, but not essential to the main clause. When you add the two clauses togther, you need to separate them with a comma (in this case, two commas, because the dependent clause is dropped into the middle of the independent clause: Boomer, a cat who started life in the park, enjoys playing in my backyard.

Two Independent Clauses in one Sentence:

We can connect two independent clauses in a few different ways. The first method is to use a coordinating conjunction. There are seven coordinating conjunctions in English: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. You can remember these with the acronym FANBOYS. Example: The following two clauses are independent because they can each stand alone as a complete thought: My dog is an Australian shepherd. I don’t have any sheep for him to herd. When combined, they need a comma and a conjunction (but) to connect them. My dog is an Australian shepherd, but I don’t have any sheep for him to herd.   You don’t have to use a coordinating conjunction to connect independent clauses. You can also use certain punctuation marks. These are semicolons, em dashes, and colons. When you use a semicolon, you do not include a coordinating conjunction. You can use a transitional word or phrase after the semicolon, like “however” or “as a result.” These are called independent markers. Examples: I used to live in Montreal; however, I am not fluent in French. We discovered the thief—it was my next-door neighbor! You don’t usually see colons separating independent clauses. The independent clauses must be closely related to use a colon. The emphasis should also be on the second clause. The results of the study surprised us: the animals responded positively to the visual stimuli. reference: Independent Clause: What It Is Explained with Examples

I hope you have enjoyed my TED talk!

Book Signing at Barnes and Noble 1 – 3PM

Join your sisters in crime for a book signing at Barnes and Noble on Hurstbourne. Books make a perfect holiday gift. Authors participating:

Elaine Munsch – A Haunting at Marianwood 

Lynn Slaughter – Deadly Setup and other titles

Carol Preflatish – Witch Hunt and other titles

Lynda Rees – Operation Second Chance and other children’s titles

Jeanette Pope – Desperate Angles and other titles

Susan Bell – Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon

Gloria Casale – Shadow Road (note – Gloria’s books will be available, but Gloria has a conflict with another signing)

 

Location:

Barnes and Noble

Holiday Dinner – Olive Garden 4PM

Join us for our annual Holiday Dinner at Olive Garden on Hurstbourne. We’ll be celebrating another great year, awarding Elaine Munsch for her services as Volunteer of the Year, and electing our new board for next year. If you can’t attend, please be sure to email Lynn Slaughter with your vote for the board.  Our nominees for 2023 are:

President: Elaine Munsch

Vice-president: Carol Preflatish

Secretary: Leanne Edelen

Treasurer: Patience Martin

Programs: Miki Reilly-Howe

Webmaster/Membership: Susan Bell

Location:

Olive Garden

We’ve had very few opportunities to meet as a group over the past year, so I hope you can join us at the signing and/or the dinner later in the day. We look forward to seeing you on December 3!

 

 

In this season of Thanks and Giving, I am so thankful for our wonderful Sisters in Crime chapter which has given all of us encouragement, support, and an empowering community on our writing journeys!

Although I loved being a workshop presenter and reader at the Louisville Literary Arts’ Block Festival, I was sad to miss our November meeting, which included another powerhouse presentation from Miki Reilly-Howe on Janet Burroway’s classic craft book, Writing Fiction.  

Thanks to Susan Bell’s excellent recording skills, I got a chance to listen to the terrific talk by Catherine Luttinger, currently a freelance developmental editor who has also worked as a literary agent and an editor at a major publishing house. Miki Reilly-Howe, who has been working with Catherine on her own debut novel, asked her super questions, and we learned a lot.

 

Catherine clarified that a developmental editor offers deep and substantive feedback on a novel as a whole, working with story development, plot aspects, dialogue, and world building. A good developmental editor will work to help make the writer’s voice “the most powerful it can be” and point out places where an author is telling rather than showing, as well as over-explaining and not fully trusting “the readers’ creativity to fill in the blanks.”

Catherine loves her job and the “treasure hunting” involved and thoroughly enjoys helping a manuscript become great.

 

 

 

Whether an author plans to seek traditional publication or self-publish, she strongly advises enlisting the services of an editor. Even something as basic as spelling or formatting errors can be extremely distracting and torpedo a writer’s chances of publishing success. Catherine admits she herself finds it hard to focus on content when she encounters spelling errors. From a behavioral science perspective, Miki points out that writers have only a split second to make a positive impression.

 

 

The second part of Catherine’s talk dealt with literary agents. In recent years, literary agents have taken on more and more of the editorial process role and aim to make the manuscript the best it can be for submission. An agent is the writer’s advocate and will not only try to sell the book to a publisher but will review contracts and push for publicity and marketing for the author’s work. Agents take a 10-20 percent commission off of net sales.

While there are lots of agents out there, there are many fewer publishing houses because of consolidation. It’s vital for authors to do research to find agents that are a good fit for them. Research what they’re looking for and what books they’ve represented.

 Authors need to nail their query letters and submission packets. With agents receiving thousands of queries, they’re looking for reasons to reject submissions.

It’s important to personalize query letters, and authors may even want to enlist the help of a freelance editor to polish their query letters, since first impressions are so important.

Miki pointed out something I think we all need to keep in mind, which is how important encouragement is. She noted that she might have abandoned her writing project had she not received Catherine’s positive feedback that she had a good story worth pursuing. Honest support and encouragement is such an important gift we can give one another.

I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of the good points Catherine made in her talk, and I encourage you to go to listen to the entire presentation!

 

Book Signing! I’m looking forward to December 3^rd. Books make great holiday gifts, and from 1-3 PM at the Hurstbourne Barnes and Noble, seven chapter members, Susan Bell, Gloria Casale, Elaine Munsch, Jeanette Pope, Carol Preflatish, Lynda Rees, and Lynn Slaughter, will be signing their books.

 

 

 

Then, at 4 PM, we’ll have our annual holiday luncheon at Olive Garden on Hurstbourne in Louisville, where we’ll vote on nominees for the board and present the Volunteer of the Year Award to Elaine Munsch. If you do not plan to attend the holiday luncheon, please submit your votes for board positions to Lynn Slaughter, lynnslaugher03@gmail.com, prior to the December 3^rd meeting.

 

 

Our nominees for 2023 are:

President: Elaine Munsch

Vice-president: Carol Preflatish

Secretary: Leanne Edelen

Treasurer: Patience Martin

Programs: Miki Reilly-Howe

Webmaster/Membership: Susan Bell

Publicist: We’re still looking!

Also: Elaine has sent out a questionnaire to chapter members about what kinds of programs, topics, and activities members would like to see the chapter get involved in. 

Writing News

Carol Preflatish attended three conferences or festivals in the last month, Prime Crime in Indianapolis, Purrs in the City in Jeffersonville, and the Writer’s Block Festival in Sellersburg. She was joined at Prime Crime by Elaine Munsch and Lynda Rees.

 

 

 

Carol reports finding both Prime Crime and the Writer’s Block Festival “very educational and informative.” And at Purrs in the City, she sold the most books at one event since 2018! She was also interviewed for a magazine article about drinking tea to help with weight loss. The article in which she’s identified as a mystery writer will appear in the print issue of Woman’s World Magazine and will be on sale on or about December 8.

 

 

 

 

Lynn Slaughter participated in the Louisville Book Festival and the Kentucky Book Festival at the end of October and this month, presented a workshop on “Writing Young Adult Fiction 101” at the Louisville Literary Arts’ Block Festival, where she also did a reading from her latest YA novel, DEADLY SETUP. This month, she’s excited to begin teaching a creative writing class at the Louisville Academy of Fine Arts.

 

 

 

All for now. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we hope to see you on December 3^rd!