Criminal

Tendencies

Upcoming Meetings

June 4
July 9
September 10 (no August meeting)

President’s Message

I’m coming to you exhausted, but professionally refreshed, from the Trifecta of the mystery world, Edgar Week in New York City, Malice Domestic in D.C. and the Festival of Mystery in Oakmont, PA. It was great to see so many Sisters in Crime during my travels, particularly at the SinC breakfast on Saturday morning at Malice.

Thanks to all the Sisters and Misters who staffed the Sisters in Crime table in the dealers’ room at Malice Domestic. As in previous years, we partnered with the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America to reserve the table. A major success – if the number of boxes of donated children's books I saw is any indication – was the book drive for KLAM (Kids Love a Mystery) organized by Chris Freeburn, which will put a mystery book in the hands of every child (and every parent) in her West Virginia school district, and then some!

Mark your calendars now for the SinC Luncheon at Bouchercon on Friday, September 2, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. The Chicago Chapter has put together a wonderful event for Sisters in Crime at the Hancock Building. Reservations are needed. Check www.sistersincrime.org for details.

And speaking of the Chicago Chapter, the Chesapeake Chapter, following their good example, has agreed to host a Sisters in Crime booth at BEA (Book Expo America) when it comes to D.C. from May 19 - 21, 2006. Members from all across the country will be meeting publishers, booksellers, librarians and other industry professionals while signing books in the SinC booth. Stay tuned for details.

See you at the next meeting!

Marcia Talley
President
marcia@marciatalley.com

Two Chapter Members Win Agathas!

Viets offers short story tips

April 30th was tea time for two chapter members. Elaine Viets and Jack French each won an Agatha award – a teapot – at the Malice Domestic conference banquet. Elaine won for “Wedding Knife” in the short story category, and Jack won in the non-fiction group for his book, Private Eye-Lashes, Radio’s Lady Detectives. Jack was unavailable for an extended interview, but Elaine graciously found some time.

Elaine’s Agatha was her first fiction award, coming after eight nominations over the years for an Anthony, Barry, Macavity, Lefty and four Agatha awards. “You have saved me from being the Susan Lucci” of the mystery awards scene, she said in accepting her teapot. Her winning story, “Wedding Knife,” involved a protagonist bridesmaid upset over the horrible dress she had to wear. It appeared in Chesapeake Crimes.

“I think women really like ‘Wedding Knife’ so much because we all at some point had to wear a really ugly bridesmaid dress. I really did wear that pink and lace number” described in the story, Elaine said. “Everyone in the wedding was really short and cute. I’m 6 feet tall. I looked like I was in drag in that outfit.”

Elaine has been writing mysteries for about a decade and now is in the middle of her second series, this one involving an on-the-run woman who makes her living in dead-end jobs in south Florida. The latest book in that series, Just Murdered, revolves around work in a bridal salon.

To ensure the authenticity of the books in this series, Elaine works the jobs she writes about. Later this month, she’ll start training as a maid at a Holiday Inn express. “I’m hoping people will leave large amounts of jewelry behind,” Elaine said. “But I think it’s probably just going to be hair in the sink.”

Elaine has written a few short stories besides “Wedding Knife,” including “Red Meat” and “Sex and Bingo,” both of which were nominated last year for the Agatha. She also has a novella called “Killer Blonde” in the Drop-Dead Blonde anthology, which came out earlier this year.

“I really enjoy writing short stories because they give me a chance to write in a different voice,” she said. “My novels are about sympathetic characters. But most of my short stories are written from the point of view of a guilty person. The short story allows me to bring out my inner murderer.”

Elaine honed her skill of writing short back in the 1970s, when she became a newspaper reporter at the St. Louis Dispatch. She eventually began writing a column for them, and her editor required 650 words “come hell or high water.”

Her newspaper job eventually led to work in television, and in the mid 1990s, Elaine won a local Emmy award for feature writing. She’s placed her Agatha on a shelf in her office next to the Emmy.

“They look very nice together,” she said. To ensure they stay that way, Elaine has used museum wax to secure the teapot to the shelf. “I have a very klutzy cat who likes to do flying leaps,” she said. “This way, you can remove the award from the shelf, but it will stay in place if he hits it.”

Elaine encourages other writers to try the short story format. “The short story gives you a kind of freedom you can’t get in a novel,” she said. “You can try a scenario or point of view you’ve never tried before.”

1. Count your characters. “I give short story clinics. Often where people get into trouble, they have too many major characters. Four should be the max. Any more and you may have a novel. It’s like cramming people in a small room. They have to have the space to move around.”
2. Strive for believability. “Short stories really are much harder to write than novels because you have to do so much in a short space. You need a believable character and a believable situation, but you only have five to ten thousand words to do it.”
3. Make your ending satisfying. “When I read a lot of short stories, what bothers me is I get to the end and go, ‘huh?’ The ending feels tacked on. So I try to give my stories an ending that grows out of the characters or the situation.”

Coincidences Do Happen

In 1964, Jack French moved into a new neighborhood in the St. Louis suburbs and asked around for a babysitter recommendation. “My next door neighbor said that Little Elaine Viets was the best babysitter in the neighborhood,” he said. “You could imagine my surprise the first time I saw her. She came out 5’11”. Little Elaine Viets was taller than me!”

Turns out that Elaine was called Little Elaine because her mom, also named Elaine, was known as Big Elaine. “It was ironic,” Little Elaine said at the recent Malice Domestic conference, “because my Mom was much shorter than me.”

Elaine babysat for Jack’s three children for a year and a half. They then exchanged cards for a few years before losing touch.

“Last year I got invited to be an expert witness on a panel at Malice,” Jack said.
When he picked up the program and saw her name, he thought, “Could that be my babysitter from forty years ago. It was quite overwhelming.”

Elaine had similar feelings. “When I saw Jack after 40 years, I was stunned.”

More stunning, perhaps, is the fact that a year later, the father and his former babysitter would both win Agathas on the same night.

“Jack was a dashing figure” back then, Viets said. “He was this big FBI agent. Neither of us was interested in writing at the time. It was very strange that our paths would cross in this way.”

New Location Maven Sought

If you’re outgoing, enjoy organizing events and can spare a few hours a month, you may be just the person the Chessie Chapter is looking for!

The Board is seeking a new location maven to take over for Rochelle Weidner, who is relinquishing her position due to time constraints. The person who takes over the post will arrange locations for the monthly chapter meetings, beginning with the September meeting.

“You need to find a place with a meeting room, good parking, good price, and a selection of foods that most people can eat,” Rochelle said. “So I’ve steered away from ethnic restaurants.”

The chapter has a few locations it regularly uses, including That’s Amore in Rockville and the Howard County Library. For months when the chapter returns to an old favorite, the location maven’s job takes about two to three hours, Rochelle said. “Finding a new location takes more time. Five to ten hours perhaps,” she said. “You have to call, … checking out various possible venues. You may want to drive to a locale and inspect the room. You usually have to check menus, prices and availability. The only hard thing about the job is that I like to look at the place, so I did a lot of driving. I didn’t want to rely on what they said on the phone.”

Indeed, Rochelle once had a restaurant representative say they had a private room, but when she got there, she learned the room was not private at all. “Finding a closed-off meeting room is an ideal situation,” she said.

“The job also involves selecting the food, so you need to see what the menu is,” review the prices and see if you can get group deals, she said. “The Board wants to keep lunch prices in the $15 to $18 range. It’s a hard thing to do. Prices are high in this area.”

So is this position for you? The best person for the job, Rochelle said, is someone who’s not afraid to call and talk to strangers and who can drive to look at venues. “You shouldn’t be shy at asking for things. Any event management experience is a plus.”

Those considering taking on this position should keep its benefits in mind. “The best part of the job is seeing a good meeting come together and seeing everyone happy with the place,” Rochelle said.

If you’re interested in becoming our new location maven, email chapter President Marcia Talley at marcia@marciatalley.com.

Anthology News

Publication of Chesapeake Crimes II has been pushed back, with the book now scheduled for release in late May or early June. Despite the delay, Mystery Loves Company of Baltimore sold 15 advanced copies at Malice Domestic with the promise that all 15 authors and four editors would sign each of these books before they’re shipped to the buyers. Participating authors should start practicing their signatures now.

Member News

In recognition of her book We’ll Always Have Parrots, Donna Andrews was named the co-winner of the Lefty Award at Left Coast Crime in February. The award was given for the most humorous mystery of 2004.

Donna is also embarking on a two-week book tour this month, promoting her latest book, Owls Well That Ends Well, which came out in April. She’ll appear at bookstores in California, Arizona and Colorado, before ending at the Mayhem in the Midlands Conference in Omaha, where she will be the toastmistress.

Other chapter members are scheduled to appear at Mayhem in the Midlands, including Maria Lima and Patricia Harwin.

Marcia Talley also will be touring this month. In mid-May she’ll speak to the mystery book club of Creatures ‘n Crooks Bookshoppe in Richmond. She’ll then join the Deadly Divas for readings and signings at bookstores and a library in North Carolina.

Come June 25, Marcia will appear at the American Library Association meeting in Chicago, where she’ll give away advanced reading copies of her latest Hannah Ives adventure, This Enemy Town, at the Harper Collins booth.

The Chessie Chapter chapter fielded two Agatha winners at the Malice Domestic conference earlier this month. Elaine Viets won for best short story and Jack French won for best nonfiction book. An article about these wins appears earlier in this newsletter.

Maria Lima’s first novel, Matters of the Blood, is in stores now. The book tells the story of family, murder and the supernatural in the Hill Country of Texas. This is the first in a three-book series.

Debbie Mack’s first novel, Identity Crisis, is scheduled for release this month. The first in the Sam McRae mystery series, the book is a hard-boiled tale of murder and identity theft.

Valerie S. Malmont has both a book and a novella scheduled for release this month. The novel, Death Bones and Stately Homes, revolves around the skeletal remains of a long-dead groom. The novella, Tori Miracle and the Turkey of Doom, will appear in the anthology A Feast of Crime. Both works are available only online at Harlequin’s e-bookstore, www.eHarlequin.com.

As announced in Publisher’s Lunch, Noreen Wald, aka Nora Charles, has signed a contract for two more books in her Kate Kennedy Senior Sleuth Series.

Another Chessie member soon will be joining the ranks of published authors. Lynda S. Hill’s short story called “Game,” about a female jockey, betrayal and a betting scam, has been accepted for publication by the literary journal PKA’s Advocate.

Carla Coupe has signed with agent Lynn Whittaker of Graybill & English, who will promote Carla’s first mystery series, beginning with Belly Up Bonzo. The book is about belly dancer Davy Fraser, who discovers her boyfriend Bonzo dead and has to shimmy her way out of a murder charge.

G.M. Malliet has been named a finalist in the mainstream category of the 2005 Daphne du Maurier Contest. Her unpublished book, Dead Perfect, involves amateur sleuth Laurie Maine, who risks all to learn who killed the world’s most famous lifestyle guru. The winners of each Daphne category, as well as the overall winner, are scheduled to be announced at the Romance Writers of America national conference in July.

A slew of chapter authors have appeared at writers conferences lately. Donna Andrews, Ellyn Byerrum, Carla Coupe, Elizabeth Foxwell, Chris Freeburn, Patricia Harwin, Maria Lima, Laura Lippman, Sujata Massey, Rosemary Stevens (aka Rosemary Martin) Marcia Talley, Elaine Viets and Noreen Wald (aka Nora Charles) all spoke on or moderated panels at Malice Domestic. (My apologies to anyone I accidentally failed to list.)

Donna Andrews and Ellyn Byerrum also served on panels at the Washington Independent Writers conference.

Maria Lima was a featured speaker at the most-recent meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Carla Coupe moderated that panel.

Noreen Wald is offering a course called “Anatomy of a Murder Mystery” via the Smithsonian’s Resident Associate Program through June. The course focuses on plotting a mystery, character development, conflict and other key parts of a good mystery. The course will end June 15 with four mystery authors sharing their deadly secrets, including Chessie members Donna Andrews, Ellen Crosby and Maria Lima. In addition to this course at the Smithsonian, Noreen also regularly runs a course on mystery writing at the Writers Center in Bethesda.

Dawn Dowdle has started a website to publicize mystery authors: www.mysteryloverscorner.com.

Member Spotlight:
Loren “Buck” Buchanan

Take a look around a typical SinC Chessie Chapter meeting, and you’ll find lots of sisters. Not too many misters. Loren “Buck” Buchanan of Silver Spring is happy to be an exception.

“I go to the meetings because they’re about crime,” Buck said. And crime is what he writes about.

Buck often finds that the meeting speakers offer information he can use both in his writing and his pursuit to be published. He began work on a murder mystery five years ago about a computer forensics specialist who trips over dead bodies while working at some D.C. specialized libraries, like the one at the National Institutes of Health.

Creating a computer-savvy protagonist was a natural for Buck. In his day job at FBI headquarters, he makes sure the FBI’s computer systems meet the security requirements imposed by various federal agencies. But unlike his protagonist, Buck has never found a dead body on the job. “The most dangerous part of my job is avoiding paper cuts,” he said.

If danger should come in real life, Buck is more prepared than many. He’s attended a disaster response training course offered by Metro, a one-day course on weapons of mass destruction run by the Department of Homeland Security, and a training course offered by the Montgomery County Emergency Response Team (CERT).

“In a major disaster, [I’m] qualified to go in and volunteer and help,” Buck said. “They don’t want just anybody going into a disaster area.”

In addition to learning how to put out small fires, do CPR, and other similar tasks at monthly CERT training meetings, Buck learns the process and terminology of groups like the Red Cross that would turn out in a disaster. “There’s a whole command structure that’s important to know,” he said. He and the other trained volunteers “are able to do the minor medical stuff at a disaster, leaving the qualified people available for bigger jobs.”

Buck also has learned skills to use in natural disasters. “If a tornado came through our neighborhood, I would observe the damage and call it into 911. I’d do the initial triage” while waiting for the authorities to arrive.

But of all the skills Buck’s learned, perhaps the most useful one stemmed from the Department of Homeland Security training

“I’m now qualified to recognize a weapon of mass destruction,” Buck said, “and run away from it.”

Hopefully all this training will come in handy as Buck continues to pursue his writing career. In the meanwhile, he enjoys reading books about humorous female sleuths, such as those by Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton and Joan Hess.

Local Mystery Events

The Mid-Atlantic chapter of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) has two interesting events planned for this summer. On June 14, Washington Post editor and former Miami Herald reporter Jeff Leen will talk about researching and covering the Miami drug world. The event will be held at the chapter’s usual meeting place in D.C.: Embassy Suites at Chevy Chase Pavilion, 4300 Military Road, NW.

And on July 23, the local MWA chapter will be going on the road, hosting a Great Gatsby garden party in Potomac, Maryland. Participants will first gather at the graves of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Rockville (near the Rockville metro station). Transportation then will be provided to Patrick Hyde’s Potomac home, where 1920s music will fill the air and croquet will fill the lawn. You may remember Patrick from one of our chapter meetings earlier this year, at which he spoke about criminal defense work.

For more information about either of these MWA events, email Bonner Menking at meetings@mwa-ma.org.

Next Chessie Chapter Meeting

Join us at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4 at the Howard County, Maryland library to hear fellow chapter members read from their works. That’s right. For the first time, we’ll be opening the floor to both published and unpublished chapter members so they can share their fiction or non-fiction mystery work. Participation will be limited to the first 10 who sign up, with sign-up beginning at the library at 12:15 p.m. the day of the meeting. Each reader should be prepared to read between five and seven minutes, maximum.

The Howard County library is located at 10375 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia. Directions are available on the Internet at: http://www.howa.lib.md.us/locations/central.cfm.

Send reservations to:
Sandy Balintfy
3333 University Blvd. W #212
Kensington, MD
20895-1833

Please mail your reservation and check in time for it to be received by
Wednesday, June 1st. No refunds after that date. In a pinch, you can leave Sandy a message that you plan to attend and pay at the door by calling 301-949-6446.

Should you read at the meeting?

The thought of reading your work in front of an audience may make you want to smash your computer to bits. But public readings are one important way to introduce yourself to potential readers and get them exciting about your work.

“The first time I read in public, it freaked me out,” Maria Lima said. “But you’ve got to get used to public speaking, and you’ve got to get used to pimping yourself” if you want to sell a lot of books.

The enormous number of choices book buyers have makes it so important to try to connect with potential readers, she said. “The excitement and enthusiasm you have spreads to your audience.”

For those a bit more anxious than eager to read before an audience, some published chapter members offer tips to having a successful reading:

Practice, practice, practice. “If you’ll be reading standing up, practice while standing up,” Ellen Byerrum said. And make sure you’re practicing aloud.

Give yourself visual cues. Consider highlighting portions of your work to help you keep your place, Ellen said. “You may also want to note where you want to emphasize or pause.”

Avoid heavy breathing. “Right before you start, blow all your breath out,” Ellen said. “Then you’ll be able to take a deep breath and start with a deep breath.” Doing so also forces you to calm down, she said.

Don’t let the fear get you down. “If you don’t know how to do it, and you’re scared to do it, pretend you like it and then just do it,” Maria said. “In ten minutes it’ll be over, and it will get easier over time.”

Practice some more. “Be yourself, be prepared, and know your material. That should make you comfortable,” Noreen Wald said. “And if all else fails, have a martini.”

Next Newsletter

Please send news by August 14, 2005 to Barb Goffman at chessienews@chessiechapter.org or by snail mail to 4903 Edgemoor Ln. Apt. 604
Bethesda, MD 20814.