April 2020 Member News

With so many author events cancelled, this month we are including a peek at what some of our members are working on from the privacy (and safety) of their homes. Stay well, everyone, and keep writing! As always, please send your news to us by the 20th of the month and/or post to our Facebook group page. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sandra Bickler-Terhune reports that the class she co-teaches with her husband Steve at The Barn on Bainbridge Island has been postponed due to The Barn’s closure until Apr 30. The retired police detectives’ “Partners in Crime: Police Culture, Characters, and Anecdotes” was scheduled for Sat, Mar 28, 1–5 pm. Please refer to The Barn’s website for future re-scheduling.

Alice K. Boatwright and Elena Hartwell Taylor both attended the recent SinC live webinar with Dr. D.P. Lyle on FORENSIC SCIENCE: What Writers Need to Know. This informative free webinar was one of a series offered to SinC national members. You can access 18 archived webinars on the SinC website, including this one. Check them out!

Curt Colbert has been busy reading proofs for the first three Jake Rossiter mysteries, which are being re-released by Epicenter Press. They are RAT CITY, SAYONARAVILLE, and QUEER CITY. He is also working on #4, NOWHERE TOWN. All are set in Seattle during the 1940s and 50s.

Ramona Gault interviewed Choctaw Nation author Ron Querry about his book THE DEATH OF BERNADETTE LEFTHAND as part of her blog on New Mexican writers. This award-winning book was republished in a 25th anniversary edition by Cinco Puntos Press and has been translated into several languages, including Bulgarian!  

Robert Herold’s first mystery, THE EIDOLA PROJECT, is a semi-finalist for best paranormal book in the 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards. Winners will be announced on Labor Day weekend, since the Chanticleer Writers Conference – usually held in the spring – has been postponed.

Larry Keeton has been elected Vice President of the Mystery Writers of America Northwest Chapter for 2020. Michael Munro will also serve MWA-NW as an at-large board member.

Susan McCormick has signed a contract with Wild Rose Press for book two of her cozy mystery series, which is tentatively titled, THE FOG LADIES: FAMILY MATTERS. She has also recently met in person with a book club in New York City and, on Facetime, with a book club in Virginia. Both events focused on her first book, THE FOG LADIES, which was nominated for a 2019 Book of the Year award by Long and Short Reviews.

Erica Miner is hard at work editing her third opera mystery, which is the sequel to DEATH BY OPERA. The title is under wraps for now, but work is progressing well.

Lisa Preston was scheduled to be a panelist and moderator at the Tucson Festival of Books on Mar 14–15. This popular event normally draws up to 100,000 participants. . . and had to cancelled due to COVID-19. Lisa was planning to sign her latest mystery, DEAD BLOW, the second in her horseshoer mystery series.

Candace Robb has signed a contract with Severn House to write two additional Owen Archer novels beyond this year’s A CHOIR OF CROWS (#12 in the series).

Sarah Niebuhr Rubin’s short story, “Living Kaddish,” will appear in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Tiferet Journal. She recently participated in an event at the Neverending Bookshop in Edmonds with The Edmonds Writing Sisters, who gave readings from their anthology WRITING IN PLACE: Poetry and Prose from the Pacific Northwest. Sarah read the work contributed by her late mother, Julia Niebuhr Eulenberg.

Charlotte Stuart‘s SURVIVAL CAN BE DEADLY is a finalist in the 2019 Indies awards for mysteries.  She recently published an article on “Getting Serious About Humor” in the March 2020 issue of InSinC Quarterly. It covers her research and analysis of the different types of humorous mysteries, ranging from kooky to dark. Her presentations on this same subject, scheduled at libraries on Whidbey Island this month, have been postponed.

Elena Hartwell Taylor was one of the hundreds of authors and fans who gathered for Left Coast Crime in San Diego, CA this month – only to have San Diego County close the conference down at the end of the first day, due to COVID-19. Elena has written about her experience in “We are living in strange times: A Writer’s Life. Her April 24 event at Browser’s Books in Olympia at 5:30 pm has not yet been cancelled. Stay tuned! However, Third Place Books/Lake Forest Park has rescheduled the book launch for ALL WE BURIED (available April 7) to June 20th at 6 pm.