Agatha Christie often broke the “rules” of mystery writing. And yet, one could argue her reliable storytelling kept readers coming back book after book. With juicy twists and surprises, of course. What can we learn from Christie’s measured, deliberate, but irreverent approach to bring new dimension to our stories?
Lisa Haneberg loves to explore Galveston Island’s gritty back streets, stellar seafood joints, magnificent natural areas, and all points in between. In addition to the Spy Shop Mysteries she’s authored over a dozen nonfiction books. Lisa is a founding board member of the Lexington Writer’s Room, a nonprofit coworking space for active writers. She earned an MFA degree from Goddard College. She lives with her husband and dog in Lexington, Kentucky.
On May 14, we had our first combined in-person and Zoom meeting held at the Middletown Library. What a thrill to get to see chapter members Susan Bell, Leanne Edelen, Patience Martin, Elaine Munsch, Lorena Peter, Jeanette Pope, and Miki Reilly-Howe in person!
And many thanks to Elaine Munsch for arranging such a dynamic speaker for us. Kathy Stearman, author of IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUN, LESSONS FROM MY GLOBAL CAREER AS A FEMALE FBI AGENT, was a wonderfully informative storyteller and was refreshingly open about her opinions as well as her experiences.
Elaine had terrific technical help from Susan and Leanne on Zooming the meeting, and assistance from Patience, Jeanette, and Lorena on everything else!
Lisa Henneberg
For our June 11 meeting, our favorite motorcycle-riding author and chapter member Lisa Haneberg will be our guest speaker at 1 PM.
Her talk is titled: “Are you a Methodical Writer, Mystery Maverick, or Both?” I am already intrigued!
Prior to Lisa’s talk, we’ll have a short business meeting and Miki Reilly-Howe will do another brief presentation on the craft book we’re working our way through, Janet Burroway’s WRITING FICTION, A GUIDE TO NARRATIVE CRAFT.
As some of you know, we’ve made some changes this year that grew out of our retreat. I’m especially delighted that our critique group is going strong. It is so valuable to get regular encouragement and feedback from fellow writers. I also love that we’ve added a professional development piece to our programming, and a special shoutout to Miki Reilly-Howe who volunteered to take over leading our sessions on Burroway’s craft book. Miki is an excellent presenter who designs the world’s best Power Points!
Critique Group
The Critique group meets bi-weekly to share our manuscripts for review. The merry band now includes Leanne Edelen, as well as Elaine Munsch, Miki Reilly-Howe, Susan Bell, Pamela Hirschler, and Sherry Youngquist. Sadly, Lorena Peter is taking a hiatus due to a busy schedule this summer.
Because our group is geographically scattered, we do these critique sessions exclusively via zoom.
Member News
Elaine Munsch reports that she’ll be attending the Writer’s Police Academy at the beginning of June.
On June 25, she’ll participate in the North Coast Indie Authors Book Fair held in Lorain, Ohio.
Spring is finally here, with all the tumultuous, roller coaster weather so typical of Kentucky. Trees are leafing, flowers are blooming, and Derby Rotten Scoundrels is spreading its wings towards our first, in person meeting since 2020.
Kathy Stearman, Former FBI Agent
On May 14, we will welcome as our guest speaker, former FBI Special Agent Kathy Stearman. The Middletown Library will be hosting the event, and we will be providing some light refreshment. The event will be open to the public, and this will be our first hybrid event – we will combine the in-person with zoom, for those who can not attend. We really hope we can get good participation from our members. Louisville’s locally-owned bookstore, Carmichael’s, will be providing books for sale – both Kathy Stearman’s It’s Not About the Gun, and our anthology, Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon.
Please email me to RSVP for the event. The Middletown Library needs to know how many people will attend. We hope to see you there! I’ll send out a second email about this event, and the particulars. Stay tuned for that.
Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair
Susan Bell
The Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair was held on April 9th, in LaGrange. In lieu of an April chapter meeting, a few of your fellow Scoundrels participated in the event.
On a rainy and snowy morning, Susan Bell, Lorena Peter, and Gloria Casale put on their book-seller hats (plus winter coats) and trekked out to Eastern Jefferson County. It was a cold, blustery day, which reduced crowd size, but we did have some success selling books. DRS sold six bourbon anthologies and three older Derby anthologies (for a net return of $91 + change). In addition to that, we sold one of Elaine’s Dash Hamond series books.
Gloria CasaleLorena Peter
Thanks to Gloria Casale and Lorena Peter for participating. And special thanks to Lorena for her deft skills in wrangling customers to the table and engaging them in conversation . . . leading to sales!
And a special shout out to Karen Block, who made delectable bourbon balls – the recipe for which is in our bourbon anthology – these were a big hit with customers and also led to sales.
I didn’t count the total number of authors there, but some of our previous speakers participated: Lee Pennington, Erv Klein, and Bill Noel.
One wonders: are these events worth the effort? It’s a long day, physically challenging loading books into and out of the car, hours of sitting. But there are benefits outside the sales. First, we’re promoting the organization by attending. One gentleman there was interested in setting up a book fair in Louisville, to rival that of other cities. He took our contact information. Second, an event like this is a reminder that there is a community of writers here in the region. I enjoyed chatting with Lee Pennington and his lovely wife. It turns out Lee taught my brother Benn writing, at JCC, many years ago, and they are still good friends. Building connections with other authors has merit in its own right, but you never know where those connections may lead in the future.
We’re Growing
DRS boasts two new members: Pamela Hirschler and Sherry Youngquist. Pam is out of Frankfort, a published poet, current member of SinC, and is an unpublished mystery writer. Sherry is out of Bowling Green and is currently working on an amateur sleuth/cozy mystery. Both Pam and Sherry have joined our Critique Group – more on that below.
Critique Group
For the past seven months, a small group of Scoundrels has been meeting bi-weekly to share our manuscripts for review. Our merry band includes Elaine Munsch, Miki Reilly-Howe, Lorena Peter, Susan Bell, and our two new DRS members, Pam and Sherry.
Every two weeks, we get together via zoom and share our feedback on three manuscripts per session. We try and offer useful commentary to the author, while supporting their effort to tell their tale. I find it very useful to know, as I write content, that there will be intelligent minds reading the material, and soon. Writing is such a solitary journey, it is very helpful to remember that you are doing this to be read by others. This focuses the mind: entertain them, make them think, make them feel, don’t disappoint!
Here’s a brief blurb about each (the titles indicated are sometimes working titles):
Saving Remy (Miki): this story focuses on the murder of a single mother from Ukraine. Her orphaned son is the only witness, but his refusal to speak forces a child psychologist to work with police to find the killer.
Maud – working title (Elaine): another installment of Elaine’s delightful Dash Hammond series; this time Dash must solve events surrounding the death of his distant Irish cousin, Maud, and resolve loose ends of her mysterious past, including murders and a missing girl.
Inexplicable Dread (Lorena): Lorena explores the fevered politics of our time in a mystery melded with a little science fiction and tarot cards.
Drowning in Doubt (Susan): Hannah is a 14-year old girl who witnesses what she thinks is a murder, but which authorities believe to be a tragic boat accident. She and her cousin Luke seek to reveal the killer.
Tree’d (Pam): Quarreling neighbors lead to unintended consequences in this funny take on the hazards of living in suburbia.
Coastal Town Georgia – working title (Sherry): in this cozy/mystery, Sherry introduces us to a colorful array of small-town inhabitants, white squirrels, cheddar-bacon ranch pretzels, and murder, all set in a small coastal community in Seabrook, Georgia.
Bourbon Anthology News
A big shout out to Elaine Munsch, who has been quite busy the past several months marketing our bourbon anthology, Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon. She has cold called multiple distilleries, museums, gift shops, and traveled to Bardstown to find anyone and everyone who might be interested in stocking our book for sale. So far, we have the book on shelves at The Frasier, in downtown Louisville and at Shaq & Coco bookstore in Bardstown. The book is also on the shelf at Carmichael’s, here in Louisville.
Elaine has made contact with Old Forester, Maker’s Mark, Keeneland, Kentucky Horse Park, the Talbot Inn, the Derby Museum. We actually left a copy with Old Forester for their buyer to peruse before making a decision. We hope to make further inroads with these initial outreach efforts in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Member News
Leisha’s Song by Lynn Slaughter is a finalist for the Imadjinn Award for Best YA Novel.
Lynn’s novel, Missed Cue, won the Florida West Coast Writers contest for unpublished work in the mystery-suspense category.
You know you have a vibrant organization when the president is down for the count, and things continue without a blip as we usher in spring! As some of you know, I had major spinal surgery on February 23. I had no idea that three weeks out, I’d be in pretty severe pain and barely able to function. As John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.” At any rate, I appreciate all of the get well wishes. I treasure every one of them.
VP Lynda Rees did a great job running our March chapter meeting. Two of the fourteen attendees are new members, and I want to say a special welcome to Pam Hirschler and Sherry Youngquist. We’re thrilled to have you both on board!
Carol Preflatish has been doing a great job posting chapter members’ news on Twitter and encourages everyone to like and follow chapter posts.
Following the business meeting, Miki Reilly-Howe did another superb job of leading a discussion on Janet Burroway’s craft book, Writing Fiction. And if you’re looking for a writing prompt to get your creative juices rolling, Mikki has provided a host of terrific prompts at the end of her talk (the video of which is posted on youtube: Miki Presentation). We are so grateful to Miki for her excellent presentations (including Power Points to die for!).
In April, in lieu of our regular chapter meeting, several of us will participate in the Kentuckiana Independent Author Fair’s in LaGrange, coordinated by Tony Acree. This is a fun fair, a great place to meet regional authors and readers. We hope to see lots of you there.
And in May (drum roll please), we will have our first face-to-face (combined with Zoom) meeting in more than two years!
On May 14 at the Middletown Library, we will host guest speaker Kathy Stearman, a former FBI agent and author of IT’S NOT ABOUT THE GUN. We’ll have refreshments on hand and copies available for sale of Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, co-edited by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch. The anthology includes stories by many of our chapter members and is an especially fun read as we approach the Kentucky Derby.
In other news, the national organization of Sisters in Crime has awarded our chapter a $400 grant to use as needed. I can hardly wait for the lively discussions we’ll have as to how to spend the money!
Member News
In case you missed it, Carol Preflatish’s fourth Nathan Perry Mystery, WITCH HUNT, is out!
Carol was a guest on the Star Chamber Show podcast on February 23 talking about her book and her writing:
Former DRS President Beth Henderson continues to get rave reviews on her work.
Her newly released RAVENS EDGE, written under the name J.B. Dane, was awarded a 5 ++ stars rating by Mrs. N. at NN Light’s Book Heaven who described the book as a brilliant “mash-up of urban fantasy, paranormal mystery and comedic mystery.”
All for now! We hope to see many of you at the Kentuckiana Independent Authors Fair! Hours are 10-4 PM at:
The video of our February guest speaker, Erv Klein, is now available on Youtube, see link below. Erv gave a wonderful talk to our group about his latest book, Squat, hist first book, Subterfuge, an historical fiction mystery, and how he came to be a fiction writer late in life.
Erv, a life-long resident of Louisville, published the historical fiction mystery, Subterfuge, in 2019. In 2020, it won the Imadjinn Award for Best Historical Fiction at the Imaginarium Writers’ Fest. His second book, Squat, set in small-town Kentucky, will be published soon. He is working on a manuscript tentatively titled What Joan Knew, and hopes to have it published in 2022.
Erv has been on the Board of Directors of Louisville Literary Arts since January, 2020, and is currently its President. He is on the adjunct faculty at Indiana University Southeast, and works part-time as a lobbyist and teaches continuing education for a trade association.
Elaine Munsch reports that she’ll be attending the 
For the past seven months, a small group of Scoundrels has been meeting bi-weekly to share our manuscripts for review. Our merry band includes Elaine Munsch, Miki Reilly-Howe, Lorena Peter, Susan Bell, and our two new DRS members, Pam and Sherry.
A big shout out to Elaine Munsch, who has been quite busy the past several months marketing our bourbon anthology, Mystery With a Splash of Bourbon. She has cold called multiple distilleries, museums, gift shops, and traveled to Bardstown to find anyone and everyone who might be interested in stocking our book for sale. So far, we have the book on shelves at The Frasier, in downtown Louisville and at Shaq & Coco bookstore in Bardstown. The book is also on the shelf at Carmichael’s, here in Louisville.
Leisha’s Song by Lynn Slaughter is a finalist for the Imadjinn Award for Best YA Novel.
In case you missed it, Carol Preflatish’s fourth Nathan Perry Mystery, WITCH HUNT, is out!
Former DRS President Beth Henderson continues to get rave reviews on her work.
The video of our February guest speaker, Erv Klein, is now available on Youtube, see link below. Erv gave a wonderful talk to our group about his latest book, Squat, hist first book, Subterfuge, an historical fiction mystery, and how he came to be a fiction writer late in life.