Guest speakerS (No meeting in July/December)
no meeting in July!!!! We
will be meeting in August.
Jeryln Marlis,
Forensic Computer Expert is our August Speaker.
September/Oct TBA
Author
Christie Craig,
our November speaker, will discuss The Balancing Act of
First Chapters.
- Why back story is
deadly and yet some may be crucial
- Finding the right
balance of characterization and plot
- Opening and
ending with hooks
- When people talk
... we listen (How the lack of dialogue can kill a
beginning.)
With over fifty
contest placements, before her recent sale of four
single title romances in a single day, Christie Craig is
getting close to mastering that all-important blend of
what makes a great first chapter. In a fun-filled
workshop, Christie will explain why the balance of
characterization and plot is crucial to first chapters.
She'll give examples of what makes a good hook and offer
tips of how the use of dialogue and tension keep a
reader turning pages.
May Meeting: Forensic Artist
Lois Gibson
Lois Gibson is recorded
in the Guinness Book of Records as The World’s Most
Successful Forensic Artist. Her sketches have helped
law enforcement bring in over 1,143 criminals. She is a
graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a
Bachelor of Fine Arts With Honors and the
FBI Academy Forensic Artist Course. She now teaches
this profession at Northwestern University. Her
recently published true-crime book Faces of Evil
which profiles some of her most fascinating cases
was co-authored with renowned writer Deanie Francis
Mills. This book is available in book stores and on
line. She was featured for the entire episode of
Relentless on the Oxygen Channel, October 23rd,
2005. She has just completed a textbook on forensic
art, published by Elsevier Academic Press that came out
December 2007. Her recent sketch of an unidentified
murdered baby girl called “Baby Grace” got her
identified as Riley Ann Sawyers for the Galveston
authorities and helped bring in her murderers. ABC’s
20/20 has begun filming this April 2008 for an
upcoming profile on Lois and her work.
Lois has been profiled in
and on:
Dateline NBC, People Magazine, The CBS Early Show, CNN,
Larry King Show, Good Morning America, Fox News,
Reader's Digest, Oprah's Magazine, O, Unsolved
Mysteries', CNN's Paula Zahn Now, Discovery Channel,
Newsweek Magazine, Houston Chronicle, London Daily
Telegraph, and many more.
Previous Speakers:
April
12th meeting featured David Ciambrone, Sc.D., FIOF and
author of the Virginia Davies Mysteries, discussing his
Poisons Handbook for Writers.
"In this
remarkable book he shares his extensive knowledge on all
things toxic in a clear
and concise format. The writer can easily choose the
poison that fits his plot needs and learn all he need s
to know about how the poison works and how it affects
the unfortunate victim. If you write crime fiction, you
need this book. It will not only supply you with a vast
range of knowledge,
it will also tickle that little part of your creative
mind that asks: What if? And that’s where the story
starts." D. P. Lyle, MD, Award-winning author of
Forensics For Dummies and Forensics and Fiction,
www.dplylemd.com
Our March
meeting was a field trip, including a discussion on
firearms and a visit to a shooting range.
Our February Meeting
featured
James Leitner, who is 'the other' candidate for
District Attorney in the current race. He is
also presently foreman of a Grand Jury
and was an assistant D.A. in the 70s and onward.
He will talk about how a crime is charged and the
process through which it gets to court, as well as take
questions, and he will also talk a little about the
current political race for D.A.
Our January meeting was a
discussion about effective promotion by the published
authors of the chapter.
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E-Marketing is an
increasingly important part of any author's
promotion plan. And…what is author branding; how
does it tie into your promotion efforts?
.jpg) Alexis
Glynn Latner
I write
speculative fiction and belong to the
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America (SFWA). I also work at the Rice
University Library in Houston, Texas and
teach creative writing through Rice
University's School of Continuing
Studies. When not
making flights of the mind - i.e.,
stories - my favorite activity is flying
sailplanes. I have a private pilot
glider rating and friends who own
wonderful power planes. So the sky
always beckons.
I
also write nonfiction. My articles on
academic and technical as well as
aviation-related topics have appeared in
international, national, and regional
print and online magazines. I edit and
do some business-related and public
relations writing too. I have an
MA in Systematic Theology from the
Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
California. At the GTU, I affiliated
with the Center for Theology and the
Natural Sciences. There I was able to
explore the relationship between
religion and science before I started
writing science fiction. My science
fiction and fantasy tends to have
theological or spiritual angles.
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 March speaker was publisher, Linda
Houle, from LL Dreamspell. She talked about how to submit to
publishers and their goals for the company.
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 Shelia Dansby
Harvey, our January guest speaker,
describes herself as a lawyer by day and a writer by
early morning. Shelia has always enjoyed writing both
fiction and non-fiction, and with her husband, Henry,
published Black Tie, a black
lifestyles magazine. Shelia became a novelist by
chance. “I began writing a short story, just for me, and
it got longer and longer,” she says. The end result was
a manuscript which Shelia literally threw into a closet
where it stayed for two years. A colleague urged her to
polish her novel and submit it for publication. After a
dozen or so rejection slips, Shelia decided to
self-publish her book, titled, Illegal
Affairs. Kensington Books purchased the rights to
Illegal Affairs and republished it in
January 2005. In April 2006 Kensington published Bad
Girls Finish First, the sequel to Illegal
Affairs. The final book in the trilogy, which
features bad girl Raven Holloway, will be published in
late 2006. Shelia describes the novels as an
entertaining mixture of mystery and spicy romance.
Judge
Rory Olsen spoke at the October meeting, sharing his
insights into will probate and mental commitments .
Fascinating stuff! To learn more about the Judge or to buy
his novel, visit his
website!
Paul ine Baird Jones
- Getting the Wood Out - Creating Characters
Pauline Baird Jones is the
award-winning author of seven novels of suspense, romantic
suspense and comedy-mystery. She's also written two
non-fiction books, Adapting Your Novel for Film and
Made-up Mayhem. Her latest novel, Out of
Time is an action-adventure romance set in World War II.
Originally from Wyoming, she and her family moved from New
Orleans to Texas before Katrina.
 Gayle
Wigglesworth
Gayle has always been torn
between her skills at organization and management and her
creative needs. As a young woman she bravely moved to San
Francisco on what she considered her life’s adventure. And
while she built a career in the banking industry, eventually
rising to the level of a Senior Vice President, she
continued to develop her artistic skills.
She became an accomplished potter producing unique pottery,
both on the wheel and by hand. This of course,
delights her friends and family who are often the recipient
of these pieces. And her art provides her with unique
serving pieces to highlight the food she serves. Gayle is a
wonderful cook, having learned as a young girl when the
social life of her family revolved around their meals.
Gayle has continued to develop her writing skills and is now
an active member in Sisters in Crime and Mystery
Writers of America groups. Her mystery, Tea is for Terror
placed second in Mayhaven Awards for Fiction (2002) and was
published by Koenisha Publications in 2004. The sequel to
that book, Washington Weirdos placed third in the
2004 Mayhaven Awards for Fiction and published in November
2005. The third mystery in the series, Intrigue in
Italics will be published in 2006. Gayle is currently
working on the fourth Claire Gulliver Mystery, Cruisin’
for a Bruisin’. |
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 Lois
Gibson is recorded in The Guinness Book of World Records as
"The World's Most Successful Forensic Artist." Her sketches
have helped law enforcement bring in over 1,062 criminals.
She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors and the FBI Academy
Forensic Artist Course. She now teaches this profession at
Northwestern University. Her near-death experience as the
victim of a serial rapist/killer fuels her passion for
catching criminals. She has received numerous awards for
stopping violent offenders and getting justice for innocent
victims. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and
two > children. Her book, Faces of Evil was co-authored with
renowned writer Deanie Francis Mills. In her spare time,
Lois loves to do watercolors of > scenery and portraits of
her family.
Lois has been profiled in and on: Reader's Digest,People
Magazine, Oprah's Magazine, O,Dateline, NBC, The CBS Early
Show, Unsolved Mysteries,CNN's Paula Zahn Now,Wichita Eagle,
Discovery Channel, Houston, Chronicle, London Daily
Telegram, And many more...
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