New Officers and Board Members for Sisters in Crime

Sisters in Crime—an international organization create to promote the ongoing advancement, recognition and professional development of women crime writers—elected a new slate of officers and directors at its annual meeting in Long Beach, California this past weekend.

President: Catriona McPherson
Catriona McPherson was born in Scotland, but moved to California in 2010. Catriona is the multi-award-winning author of the Dandy Gilver detective stories and acclaimed stand-alones. She served as SinC vice-president.

Vice President: Leslie Budewitz
Leslie Budewitz is a practicing trial attorney, the first Agatha winner for both fiction and non-fiction, and a regular inSinC columnist. She lives and writes in Montana.

Secretary: Susan Shea
Susan Shea spent more than two decades as a non-profit executive before beginning her best-selling mystery series featuring a professional fundraiser. Susan is currently the president of SinC-Northern California.

Treasurer/AC Representative (NonVoting): Lori Roy
Lori Roy won the Edgar Award for her first novel, Bent Road, and was nominated for Until She Comes Home. The former tax accountant is a native of Kansas who now lives in west central Florida with her family.

Chapter Liaison: Martha Reed
Martha Reed won a 2006 IPPY for Best Regional Fiction and The Choking Game is just out. She coordinates SinC's 50 chapters. She loves coffee, big jewelry, and the never-ending antics of her extended family.

Publicity: Simon Wood
Simon Wood is a California transplant from England. His former professions are often highlighted in his Anthony Award-winning thrillers. The One That Got Away is due out in April. He also writes horror as Simon Janus.

Library Liaison: Cari Dubiel
Cari Dubiel is the computer services manager at Twinsburg Public Library in Ohio. She coordinates the SinC presence at both the American Library Association's and the Public Library Association's national meetings. She is also writing a mystery.

Monitoring Coordinator, AC Survey Representative: Barbara Fister
Barbara Fister is an academic librarian, a regular columnist for Library Journal and Inside Higher Ed, and is the author of the Anni Koskinen PI series set in Chicago.

Bookstore Liaison: Clare O'Donohue
Clare O’Donohue is the author of seven novels in two series—The Someday Quilts Mysteries, the Kate Conway Mysteries—and two e-novellas. She is also a TV producer on the A&E show, “After The First 48.”

Member-at-Large: Frankie Bailey
Frankie Bailey is the author of the Hannah McCabe police procedurals and the Lizzie Stuart amateur sleuth series. She is a criminal justice professor at SUNY-Albany and a past president of SinC.

Member-at-Large: Julie Hennrikus
Julie Hennrikus is president of SinC-NE and serves on its Crime Bake committee. the executive director of StageSource, a service organization for theater artists and companies in the greater Boston area, has published several short mysteries.

Member-at-Large: G.M. Malliet
G. M. Malliet is the Agatha Award-winning author of the DCI St. Just and Father Max Tudor mysteries. She has been nominated for numerous other awards. A Fatal Summer arrives in October. She lives with her husband in the Washington DC area.

Member-at-Large: Hank Phillippi Ryan
Hank Phillippi Ryan is a Boston NBC affliate on-air investigative reporter. The former SinC president has won three Agatha, the Anthony, the Macavity, and the Mary Higgins Clark awards. Truth Be Told was out in October.

Immediate Past President: Laura DiSilverio
Laura DiSilverio turned from being an Air Force intelligence officer to writing mysteries with a good sprinkling of humor—under her own name and as Ella Barrick. After living around the world, she settled with her family to write in Colorado.

We also have five non-voting advisors and goal champions. The goal champions work with other members of the board towards specific core goals that were laid out in our strategic plan.

Non-Voting Library Advisor: Mary Boone
Mary Boone served as library liaison for many years. An Ohio librarian, she is happy to be paid to turn readers on to books—especially those by SinC members.

Non-Voting Membership Goal Champion: Kate Flora
Kate Flora has written numerous crime novels, is a founding member of New England Crime Bake, and is a former SinC president. She teaches writing and does manuscript critiques for Grub Street in Boston.

Non-Voting Education Goal Champion: Cathy Pickens
Cathy Pickens teaches: SinC-sponsored writing workshops and business at UNC-Charlotte. Another former SinC president, she won the St. Martin’s Press Malice Domestic Award for Best Traditional Mystery.

Non-Voting Education Goal Champion: Marcia Talley
Marcia Talley used her experiences with breast cancer as background for her award-winning Hannah Ives mystery series. The daughter of a career Marine, the former SinC president travelled the world with her military family and continues to do so as a SinC ambassador at mystery conferences and events.

Non-Voting Membership Goal Champion: Molly Weston
Molly Weston is our inSinC Quarterly editor. She reads about 200 mysteries a year and has been reviewing and lecturing about mysteries for nearly 25 years. She also is a media escort in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area and enjoys moderating crime fiction panels at panels across the country.

Photos of all our new board members and officers can be seen on the Sisters in Crime Board of Directors page. Please join us in welcoming our new officers!

Solving Mysteries in the Library

By Susan Van Kirk

 

Originally published at http://andsometimesshewrites.blogspot.com

 

Librarians definitely solve mysteries!

 

I spent April 21, SinC's "Solving Mysteries Day," working as a volunteer at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, Illinois. Monmouth is a town of 10,000 in west central Illinois about 20 miles from the Mississippi River. 

Kathy is the saintly woman designated to keep an eye on me. What a patient person! In this photo, were are standing in front of books by authors who are members of Sisters in Crime.

On Saturday, we solved a lot of mysteries -  such as figuring out what is in all the nooks and crannies of the huge old building. Some of the doors in the upstairs are heavy metal and slide open and closed as if we were in a meat packing plant. Very, very old.

 
Here I am checking out a book for a patron. The library is a hub of activity in this little town. Working here would help you see a huge cross section of the town.

A librarian's job is a lot like teaching. First, you rarely sit down or get a chance to go to the bathroom. Second, you are always answering peoples' questions or trying to find things to help them.

I learned how to check books in and out, how to shelve, download digital books, figure out how to check out a book with a hand-written barcode, and how to make the (*&!!#) wand work to check out books.

Kathy told me of an amazing mystery. The library had some books that were overdue and tried to reach the patron by sending a letter. The letter came back from the post office marked "deceased." Instead of just writing it off, the librarians began asking selected patrons if they had seen this person. (Remember, this is a small town!) 

One of the question-ees had not seen the individual, but a few weeks later she approached the desk and explained that the person they had been seeking was sitting at a computer a few yards away. The librarian was able to confirm the person's name and give him that bad news that he owed money for books. The good news was that he wasn't dead.
 

 

This is one of the "nooks and crannies" where "old technology" goes to die. Remember the old card catalog?




 
I also learned of a guilt letter. Someone who had stolen books years ago and not returned them had an attack of guilt and wrote the library a letter. He wanted to apologize for taking the books and offered to make restitution after quite a few years had gone by. I wondered about the statute of limitations on stolen books.

All in all, it was a great day and I felt like I had done my share to say "thank you" to our library for all they do in supporting local authors, educating people, and providing amazing services. 

 

Susan Van Kirk, a SinC member author who participated in SinC's "Solving Mysteries Day," is at work on a mystery with ties to historic events that occurred in her Illinois town. The library has been an invaluable source of information for her work. 

Solving Mysteries Day: On Saturday, April 21, SinC member authors volunteered in libraries and bookstores in hometowns from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they worked as volunteers doing whatever a manager asked of staff members - shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, and more. The day had two themes: "Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day" and "Booksellers Solve Mysteries Every Day."

Solving Mysteries Every Day

Today, Sisters in Crime's "Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day" event is taking place in libraries and bookstores across the nation, from Livermore Falls, Maine, to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

To support the project, a group of 21 SinC members volunteered to go into bookstores and libraries between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time to help those on the front lines of crime fiction - the very important people who help get crime fiction into the hands of interested readers. 

            "In honor of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Sisters in Crime, we are very pleased to be able to thank some of the people who work the hardest on the front lines of publishing by rolling up our sleeves and working beside them," said Frankie Y. Bailey, President of Sisters in Crime.

 The participating authors, bookstores, and libraries include:

          Frankie Y. Bailey, at The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, NY

                      Gail M. Baugniet, at the Maikiki Community Library in Honolulu, HI

                      Charlotte Cohen, at the Santa Ana Public Library in Santa Ana, CA

                      Kathy Lynn Emerson, at the Treat Memorial Library in Livermore Falls, ME

          Barbara Fister, at Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN

                      Susan Froetschel, at the Takoma Park Neighborhood Library in Washington, DC

                      W.S. Gager at the Jackson District Library in Jackson, MI

                      Kathleen Heady at the Haverford Township Free Library in Havertown, PA

                      Lee Kelly at Barnes & Noble in Marietta, GA

                      Molly MacRae at the Jane Addams Book Shop in Champaign, IL

                      Robin Murphy at the Sharpsburg Library in Sharpsburg, MD

                      Chelle Martin, at the Sadie Pope Dowdell Public Library in South Amboy, NJ

                      Denise Osborne, at the Mid-Continent Public Library, Raytown branch, in Raytown, MO

                      Bernadette Pajer, at the Uppercase Bookshop in Snohomish, WA

                      Karen Pullen, at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC    

                      C. L. (Cheryl) Shore, at Bookmamas in Indianapolis, IN

                      Mary Stanton/Claudia Bishop, at Murder on the Beach in Delray Beach, FL

                      Lane Stone, at the Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library in Alexandria, VA

                      Susan Van Kirk, at the Warren County Public Library in Monmouth, IL

                      Kathryn R. Wall, at the Beaufort County Library, Hilton Head branch, in Hilton Head Island,

                           SC

                      Tina Whittle, at The Golden Bough in Macon, GA 

           “We know that, in their efforts to help readers find the right books at the right time, booksellers and librarians solve countless mysteries every day,” SinC member Jim Huang, the coordinator of the event and a former independent bookstore owner, said. “This is our opportunity to thank them in a tangible way—and to find out what the publishing world is like from their perspective.”

            Onsite reports are coming in throughout the day from SinC member authors working in bookstores and libraries. The information they send will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and blogs throughout the day. 

            SinC has a Facebook page for the event at www.facebook.com/SistersSolveMysteries. On Twitter, SinC is using the hashtag #sisterssolve.

            In addition, SinC's more than 3,000 members are gearing up to support the "Solving Mysteries Day" event by going into libraries and bookstores today to personally thank the booksellers and librarians they find working behind the counters and in the stacks. 

            We hope your Saturday errands today will include a stop at a bookstore or library. And, afterward, we hope that you'll let us know how the visit went.

 

                 

   

      

SinC Supports Member Book Signings at the LA Times Book Festival

Sisters in Crime author members worldwide have three days left to sign up for a spot in the Los Angeles chapter’s book-signing booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 21, and Sunday, April 22, 2012.

A grant from Sisters in Crime is enabling the chapter to invite any SinC member to participate in the renowned book festival that attracts as many as 150,000 book lovers each year.

The chapter will schedule as many as seven authors for each two-hour slot - Saturday from 10-12, 12-2, 2-4, and 4-6 and Sunday from 10-12, 12-2, and 2-4. Authors should select the time of their choice and one alternate signing time.

To take advantage of this opportunity, SinC members must contact LA chapter liaison Kathy Kingston by Tuesday, March 20. Use the online information form linked here to make sure you provide all of the necessary information. The form will be sent directly to Kathy.

To participate, members should make sure their dues are current. You can confirm your dues status on the Sisters in Crime website here.

Traditionally published authors whose books are in print, returnable and available through a distributor should include the title of their most recent book and up to four titles from their backlist. For all books, include the publisher and the ISBN number. Space limitations prevent the chapter from selling more than five titles from any author.

For traditionally published authors whose books are out of print and for self-published authors, the bookseller will sell your books on consignment with a 60/40 split. On the day of your signing, bring your books and a sheet of paper listing your name, address, email and phone number for payment purposes. On the same sheet, write the title of each book, how many copies of each book you’re bringing and the price of each copy, which should be the same price you are charging at other festival booths. Additional instructions are available on the Sisters in Crime website here.

Maps and parking fees will be emailed to participating authors when they are available.

Librarians and Booksellers Solve Mysteries Every Day

Sisters in Crime board member Jim Huang reports that there’s been a great deal of author member interest in SinC’s first “Booksellers and Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day” celebration scheduled for Saturday, April 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., local time.

The festivities went global rapidly. The first offer of participation came from a SinC member in Hawaii. Not long afterward, a member planning to be in Paris on April 21 offered to find a spot at a bookstore or library in the City of Light.

Earlier this week, SinC members received an email message from Jim announcing that Sisters in Crime will celebrate 25 years of working with librarians and booksellers in support of women writing crime fiction with a special one-day in-store, in-library event. To participate in the “Solving Mysteries Every Day” celebration on April 21, SinC authors will shadow a librarian or bookseller for six hours to learn exactly how they solve mysteries daily. As a volunteer in the stacks, on the floor and behind the scenes, the members will do whatever a manager asks of the regular staff—shelving, bagging, sweeping, assisting patrons, pulling holds, making recommendations, taking out the trash, checking in returned books, etc.

To spread the word about the way booksellers and librarians serve their communities and assist readers, the participating members will be tweeting and posting messages to blogs and to Facebook about their experiences—before, during (especially) and after the event. This is SinC’s chance to shine a bit of a spotlight on these hardworking—and often unsung—heroes and heroines of our communities.

The goal is to cover as many locations as possible, with one SinC member author at each location.

The participation process was outlined in the email sent to members this week. Specific questions about the process should be directed to Jim Huang at jim[at]themysterycompany.com.

Sisters in Crime has set up an event-specific website at www.sisterssolvemysteries.com, featuring additional program details. The site is sparse at the moment, but will be built up with answers to questions that come our way. We’re also setting up a Facebook event page, a Twitter hashtag and other forms of virtual and social media to spread the word about the event.

The celebration begins at 10:00 a.m. on April 21.

Librarians solve mysteries every day.

Booksellers solve mysteries every day.

Let’s thank them for their efforts!

So, tell us, where will you be on April 21?

Inside inSinC: March 2012

Have you spent some time yet with your March edition of inSinC, the Sisters in Crime Quarterly?

As you no doubt already know, inSinC, edited by Molly Weston, provides a treasure trove of feature articles, columns from industry experts and useful news for SinC member writers and readers. But did you know that Molly is a recipient of a 2012 Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America? Here at Sisters in Crime, we are very proud of her accomplishments in the field of crime fiction—and we are very glad to have Molly at the helm of the inSinC Quarterly.

The March 2012 issue of inSinC features an in-depth look at the new world of publishing, courtesy of Marcia Talley and Barbara Fister, who report on Sisters in Crime’s third annual “SinC Into Great Writing” workshop. In addition to details on the information-packed day-long session, Marcia and Barbara provide links to SinC’s first-ever professional development video series, featuring free online access to more than two hours of video taped during the workshop’s presentations.

SinC board member Jim Huang launches news of Sisters in Crime’s first-ever “Booksellers Solve Mysteries Every Day, Librarians Solve Mysteries Every Day” event with an article on the celebration. Find out what he's got planned for Saturday, April 21, in libraries and bookstores nationwide.

“Promote or Perish” by Dorothy Francis provides a roadmap to an unexpected promotional opportunity for writers in art-loving communities nationwide. “SinC Loves Libraries” by Debra H. Goldstein shares the story of a magical day with Carolyn Hart and Eve Sandstrom (JoAnna Carl) at the Lawton, Okla. Library, the recipient of a $1,000 SinC We Love Libraries! grant for book purchases.

SinC Library Liaison Mary Boone offers information on author opportunities at the American Library Association annual conference in Anaheim, Calif., June 25 – 28, 2012. And SinC Review Monitoring Coordinator Barbara Fister provides an update on SinC’s review monitoring project, complete with a call for volunteer monitors.

The regular inSinC columns include Sisters in Crime president Frankie Bailey’s report on recent and upcoming SinC initiatives (including SinC Into Great Writing IV with presenter Nancy Pickard and plans related to The Writers’ Police Academy 2012), SinC administrator Beth Wasson’s update on an array of important SinC technology initiatives and meeting opportunities, “Law & Fiction: Getting Facts Straight” by attorney Leslie Budewitz and “Priming Your Brainstorm” by forensic psychology and criminal justice professor Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D.

In addition, the latest inSinC provides other news you can use, including “Chapter Highlights,” news of special events that may just offer some ideas for your own chapter activities; “Conferences and Happenings,” an updated event calendar; “The Docket,” offering the latest publishing news from your Sisters; and “Writing Contests,” a look at award-winning opportunities.

Let us know what you think about the latest edition of inSinC. We'd love to hear from you!

SinC at Public Libraries Conference in Philly

Sisters in Crime invites author members attending the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference in March in Philadelphia – and author members living near the Philly area – to volunteer to spend some time at the SinC booth in the convention center to meet and greet visiting librarians.

Author volunteers are needed at the Sisters in Crime booth Wednesday through Friday, March 14 through 16, to help spread the word that SinC works with libraries to connect readers and writers. Authors working at the booth may sign and give away copies of their books. SinC will register all booth workers for the conference.

Members unable to attend the conference are welcome to send a signed book to be given away during daily raffles at the SinC booth. The librarian raffle winners generally put these books in circulation in their libraries’ collections.

We hope to see you in Philadelphia! This is a great opportunity to bring your work to the attention of librarians who put mysteries into the hands of readers every day.

For details, contact Sisters in Crime Library Liaison Mary Booth at boonema[at]oplin.org. Please use “SinC PLA Philadelphia” on the subject line.

New SinC Membership Options

by Elaine Will Sparber & Beth Groundwater

What gets you eight editions of inSinC, 24 editions of SinC Links, 24 editions of e-Book SinC Links, and two SinC Summit Reports? The new two-year membership option offered by SinC! Make all of those unlimited, add a spiffy lapel pin, and you’ve got the benefits of a lifetime membership.

Of course, both options, like the one-year membership, also offer a cornucopia of local chapters, a couple of online chapters, discounts to a variety of SinC events around the country, access to our book club database and networking and mentoring with fellow members, including an email discussion list.

The two new categories were unveiled this month for the 2012 membership year. Dues for the two-year option are $80/$70, professional and active respectively; the lifetime, $400/$350. One-year dues are unchanged.

With these choices, how do you decide which is right for you? Author Beth Groundwater, inSinC editor Molly Weston and aspiring fiction author Elaine Will Sparber sat down recently to figure that out.

Elaine Will Sparber (pictured at left): One thing to consider is how long you’ve already belonged to SinC. When did you first join? Where were you in your life?

Molly Weston: I first joined SinC nearly 20 years ago. I was then, as now, a voracious mystery reader and reviewer.

Beth Groundwater: I joined SinC in 2003, the local Rocky Mountain Chapter in 2004 (it disbanded at the end of 2009), and the Guppies online chapter in 2004. In 2003, I was an aspiring author with some unpublished short stories I was submitting to magazines, a practice novel-length manuscript that would never be published and one of many manuscript iterations for A Real Basket Case that I was starting to shop around.

EWS: I joined SinC in 2004. I was a writer and editor specializing in nonfiction, but my first love was always fiction and I hoped SinC would help me move in that direction. I also joined the New York/Tri-State Chapter and the Guppies. It took a while, but I learned to craft a novel-length piece of mystery fiction. Through SinC, I learned how to revise, pitch, promote and just generally slap my manuscript into shape and shove it out my door. How has your membership benefited you?

MW: Learning about what was going on in the mystery community—mystery conferences, Books in Print, and member contact information—was critical before the Internet. Networking among members has given me many opportunities to bring authors to my area.

Beth Groundwater (pictured at left): I’ve made personal contacts with many types of people who have helped me in my career: writers, readers, bloggers, librarians, bookstore owners, agents, editors, etc. Fellow Guppies helped me research agents and hone my query letter—through a Guppy contact I found my first agent. Local chapter meetings and workshops offered more help such as police, coroner and pi investigative techniques; how to plot, to develop characters, to promote and much more.

I attended the local Sheriff’s Department Citizen’s Academy with a group of Sisters. Then I branched out to mystery conferences where I met even more Sisters. I know that, without SinC, I would not be a published mystery author now and I would not have had the success that I’ve had to date.

EWS: Something else to consider when weighing dues options is where you see yourself in the next few years. I hope that in the coming year, I’ll finish one, if not both, of the fiction manuscripts I’ve been writing. In five years, I hope to see them published, and in 10 years, I hope to be publishing steadily.

BG: I will always be a mystery reader no matter what happens in my writing career. As for writing, I’ll have a book in each of two series released in 2012, two more are scheduled for 2013, and I hope to continue both series for many years. Five or 10 years down the road, who knows? I can dream of bestseller lists and other fantastic career goals, but I’ll continue to work hard on the manuscript for each book I write. I hope to never stop learning and improving, and SinC will help me in that.

MW: I suspect I’ll be reading mysteries as long as I can see—and I’m sure I’ll continue recommending those I like. I just hope that I’ll still be able to edit inSinC that long!

EWS: So, which dues option will you choose for 2012 and why?

MW: I’ll choose the lifetime or two-year option, mostly because I hate having to pay bills! I’m always looking for ways to simplify my life.

BG: I’m choosing the lifetime option because, no matter what happens with my writing career, I will always be a mystery reader. I will want to find out new-to-me mystery series and meet new-to-me mystery authors. And, as long as readers and publishers are interested in my mystery books, I expect to continue writing them. So, I plan to hang around with SinC for a long, long time.

EWS: I’ll most likely go with the two-year option. I’ve gotten so much from my SinC membership and I continue to learn things. One of these years, I’ll spring for the lifetime membership but, until I start earning money from my fiction, I’m trying to control my expenses.

BG: If you see yourself in 10 years still wanting to be a SinC member and still benefiting from that membership and you have the means to make that large commitment to the organization this year, then I suggest signing up for lifetime membership. You’ll be helping SinC build a reserve fund that will ensure the stability and strength of the organization in the future. Like the founding Sisters and past presidents, you’ll have raised your hand as someone who believes deeply in SinC and its goals and as someone who will rally ‘round the cause when needed. Plus you’ll get a snazzy pin to wear proudly, and you’ll never have to wonder again if you’ve sent in your membership!

For more information about the new dues options, see www.SistersInCrime.org.


Elaine Will Sparber, Beth Groundwater, and Molly Weston are members of the SinC Membership Committee.

New SinC Officers and Board Members

Sisters in Crime (SinC), an international organization supporting the professional development and advancement of women writing crime fiction, elected a new slate of officers and directors at its annual meeting, held in September in St. Louis, Mo.

The organization’s officers are:

• President – Frankie Y. Bailey of Albany, N.Y.
• Vice President and President-Elect – Hank Phillippi Ryan of Boston, Mass.
• Secretary – Laura DiSilverio of Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Treasurer – Kathryn Wall of Hilton Head, S.C.

The board of directors also includes three new board members:

• Chapter Liaison – Martha Reed of Pittsburgh, Pa.
• Publicity Chair – Stefanie Pintoff of New York, N.Y.
• Bookstore Liaison – Sally Brewster of Charlotte, N.C.
  

In addition, five members continue serving on the board:

• Library Liaison – Mary Boone of Bowling Green, Ohio
• Monitoring Coordinator – Barbara Fister of St. Peter, Minn
• Member-at-Large – Ellen Hart of Minneapolis, Minn.
• Member-at-Large – Val McDermid of the north of England
• Immediate Past President – Cathy Pickens of Charlotte, N.C.

Sisters in Crime is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary year. Today, the organization is made up of more than 3,000 members and 48 chapters worldwide—authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians and others who love mysteries. Sisters in Crime is online at www.sistersincrime.org.

25th Birthday Bash at Bouchercon

Sisters in Crime celebrates its 25th birthday during Bouchercon with a breakfast party at the Roberts Mayfair, a Wyndham Hotel, on Friday, Sept. 16, 2011, at 7:30 a.m.

A full plated breakfast will be served. Guests are welcome.

The cost is $25 for SinC members and $45 for nonmembers.

The Roberts Mayfair is the located near the front door of the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel.

The deadline for registrations sent by U.S. Postal Service mail is Sept. 9. The mailing address is: Sisters in Crime, P.O. Box 442124, Lawrence, KS 66044. Be sure to include an email address with your reservation to receive a receipt from SinC.

The online registration deadline is Sept. 12. Members can click here to register; nonmembers can click here to register.

The room location for the breakfast will be sent to attendees by email and will be posted on the Sisters in Crime website by Sept. 9.

Launching our Internet Chapter!

By Nan Harrington

I’m so pleased to announce that, at long last, the Internet chapter of Sisters in Crime is back!

We’ve “hung out our banner and opened our doors,” so to speak. Now we’re hoping that you’ll come in for a visit - and join us! The chapter can be found online at www.sinc-ic.org.

And, in case you’re wondering just what an Internet chapter is - and why you’d want to join, here are a few answers:

An Internet chapter is much like your local chapter, except that it exists in cyberspace and provides a common meeting place for those who live where there are no local chapters, for those who are unable to attend local chapter meetings for any reason - or simply for those who want or need a “SinC supplement” in between their monthly chapter get-togethers.

The great thing about the Internet chapter is that it is accessible at any time and from any location - from your home late at night, from your office during a break or from anywhere you travel. We’re here for you 24/7.

We provide information, links to resources, blogs, monthly writing tips and prompts, support and cyber-camaraderie.

Our “members only” site will be launched next week and will include a critique group opportunity and interviews. (We’d love to find new interviewees, by the way! Don’t hesitate to sign up!)

Any questions? Contact Nan Harrington at nan.harrington[at]gmail.com.

Come on in! We’re open for business!



Nan Harrington, President of the Internet Chapter of Sisters in Crime, is a 5th generation Texan, a retired university professor, a wanna-be crime writer (her new passion!), and an inveterate traveler. She lives in Dallas and Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Inside inSinC

This week, Sisters in Crime members received one of the organization’s leading member benefits -- the inSinC quarterly bulletin, a 20-page publication filled with practical information for Sisters in Crime members writing and reading crime fiction.

inSinC, edited by Molly Weston, provides a treasure trove of feature articles, columns from industry experts and useful news for SinC member writers and readers.

The June 2011 issue starts off with a bang with “Reviewers Unleashed,” a far-ranging conversation with Oline Cogdill (Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, Mystery Scene, Publishers Weekly, McClatchy Tribune Features and more), Hallie Ephron (The Boston Globe), Jen Forbus (Jensbookthoughts.com and Crimespree), Art Taylor (the Washington Post) and Sarah Weinman (Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, the National Post, Maclean’s, The Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post and more).

In “The FOSS Cure,” Ramona DeFelice Long provides a helpful – and therapeutic – examination of the short story form, with advice for conquering fear of the short story (FOSS).

Jan Burke turns a watchful eye toward the state of death investigation in the U.S. with “Who’s Watching Our Deaths?” Studies, problems, critical needs, what you can do – you’ll find all of the information here.

“Writer Beware” by Victoria Strauss outlines the work of the publishing industry watchdog group sponsored by the Science Fiction Writers of America that provides information and warnings about scams and schemes that threaten writers.

The photo essay, “Memories of Malice 2011,” shares some of the highlights of this year’s Malice Domestic conference. Remember, not all of what happens at Malice stays at Malice!

The regular inSinC columns include Sisters in Crime president Cathy Pickens’ report on recent and upcoming SinC initiatives, “Law & Fiction: Getting Facts Straight” by attorney Leslie Budewitz and “Illusionists and the Brain” by forensic psychology and criminal justice professor Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D.

In addition, the latest inSinC provides other news you can use, including “Chapter Highlights,” news of special events that may just offer some ideas for your own chapter activities; “Conferences and Happenings,” an updated event calendar; “The Docket” by Patricia Gulley, the latest in publishing news from your Sisters; and “Writing Contests,” a look at award-winning opportunities.

Let us know what you think about the latest edition of inSinC. We'd love to hear from you!