What a wonderful year 2018 has been. We welcomed many new members, rising to a final tally of more than 35 members, with a mailing list of friends significantly longer than this. As we look forward to a terrific new year in 2019, we reflect back on all of our events from this past year.
Do you remember all that we did?
In January, James W. Ziskin joined our group as a member and led us with a wonderful reading and discussion. We were only sorry to see Jim move east later in the year.
Beth Jusino‘s Perfect Your Pitch presentation in February was both practical and fun.
Our March author panel with Dana Delamar on romantic suspense, Curt Colbert on PIs, Boyd Morrison on thrillers, and Mary Daheim on cozies, provided much laughter and showed the diversity of the crime fiction genre.
Candace Robb, another new member of our group, brought her Mean Streets of Medieval York: the Historical Mystery as Cultural Lens to our table in April
In May we had Thomas & Mercer (Amazon imprint, Mystery & Crime Fiction) representative Grace Doyle, who had a lot to tell us about publishing right here in our neighborhood but with the Amazon reach.
Curt Colbert read every one of the more than twenty first-pages submitted to our June workshop, and Jennifer McCord, Executive Editor of Coffeetown Enterprises in Seattle, and Karen Brown, a freelance book editor from Bellingham, provided a steady commentary and a lot of encouragement to the writers.
After our summer hiatus, Renee Patrick, an amazing married couple writing terrific mysteries together, shared about their process in September.
We brought a new twist to our annual October Flash Fiction Night, asking folks to write in the style of their favorite mystery writer – and let those present guess who it is. We had a great sampling of writing representing a diverse group of favorite famous authors.
And in our final meeting of the year in November, Dana Delamar demystified Goodreads for Authors.
Over the summer we had a potluck at the beach, and in December we had a fun holiday party with a mystery book exchange. These special events, and others such as meals with author-presenters, are benefits of membership. If you are not yet a member and would like to join, or if you wish to rejoin or renew, please visit our membership information page or contact our treasurer Waverly Fitzgerald.
Amendment: not only did we have all these wonderful events, we also presented a mystery writing panel at Write on the Sound, and we had tables at Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference and Emerald City Romance Writers conference (because crossover, you know), all of which gave us some good visibility as brought in new members. Thanks for all the memories!
Second Amendment, not involving the right to bear arms (though some of our characters may abuse that right): we were fortunate to send several of our author members to present a check from National to Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo. Watch for other such events in which we serve or partner with our parent organization.