Cozy News: March

Cozy News: March

Happy birthday all of you Pisces members. Also, happy St. Patrick’s Day! May we all find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! 

Last month we had the team of Kathy, Nancy, and Kate as well as Georgina win the contest for the meeting. We used the icon dice and the participants had to make sentences out of the icons that connected to the novel. It was great fun and caused a lot of laughter. I’ve been slow getting out the prizes (blame it on my new medicine regimen) but they’re on the way. 

This month we’re reading Vinyl Resting Place by Olivia Blacke. We meet on the 26th at 2:00 pm Pacific (Don’t forget – we change our clocks this weekend and lose an hour Saturday into Sunday). Olivia Blacke is the author of Killer Content, a Brooklyn cozy that we reviewed last year. We’ll be playing a Bingo game for this month. Watch for your card. It will be on the Zoom information the Thursday before the meeting as well as a reminder on Sunday the 26th 

Next month we have the author Misty Simon coming to speak with us. I am very excited to hear what she has to say. Misty is quite funny and very clever. She’s written over fifty novels for a wide variety of series including the series under the name Gabby Allan. Pick any of her novels to read and get ready to pepper her with questions about her inspiration, how she gets her plots, whether she plans her novels ahead of time before writing and so on. Our meeting is on the 23rd at @2:00 pm Pacific.  A list of many of her books is below: 

FULL SERIES LIST IN ORDER 

Adventures in Ghostsitting 

1 - Desperately Seeking Salvage (Oct-2016) 
2 - Don't Dream It's Rover (May-2017) 
3 - Every Death You Take (Jul-2017) 
4 - Having a Ball! (Feb-2018) 
5 - I Wear My Ghost Goggles at Night (Oct-2019) 
6 - Ghosts Just Want to Have Fun (Sep-2020) 

Bandmates 

Strings Attached (Apr-2011)  

Ink 

1 - Wicked Ink (Jun-2014) 
2 - Protective Ink (Oct-2014) 
 
An Ivy Morris Mystery 

1 - Poison Ivy (May-2005) 
2 - The Wrong Drawers (May-2006) 
3 - Something Old Something Dead (May-2007) 
4 - Frame and Fortune (Jul-2008) 
5 - For Love and Cheesecake (Jun-2009) 
6 - Hoedown Showdown (Mar-2017) 

Kissinger Kisses 

1 - What's Life Without the Sprinkles? (Feb-2013) 
2 - Making Room at the Inn (Mar-2014) 
3 - Go Ahead, Make My Bouquet (May-2015) 
4 - Christmas in Kissinger (Nov-2016) 
5 - Hoedown Showdown (Mar-2017) 

A Tallie Graver Mystery 

1 - Cremains of the Day (Nov-2017) 
2 - Grounds for Remorse (May-2018) 
3 - Deceased and Desist (Nov-2018) 
4 - Carpet Diem (Sep-2019) 
5 - Varnished without a Trace (Oct-2020) 

A Whit and Whiskers Mystery (Gabby Allan) 

1 - Much Ado about Nauticaling (Aug-2021) 
2 - Something Fishy This Way Comes (Aug-2022) 
3 - All That Glitters Isn't Old (Jul-2023) 

The
Tallie Graver and Whit and Whiskers Mysteries are cozies. Misty, as you can see, has also written paranormal fantasies, romance novels, and some urban fantasies. Choose any of them so that you can get a feel for the author’s work; however, if you’re sticking to cozies, the last two series are your best bet. If you haven’t signed up yet for April, please do. We have a few spaces left open. 

We also have some cozy and crime adjacent conferences coming up. I’m going to the one in June and the one in August. Both are in California so how could I resist? Do join me there. Since we have members from all over North America and some from Europe, I’m listing all of the conferences that have sent me publicity. You might be close to one or vacation near one. Let us know. 

MARCH 2023 

March 16-19, 2023 

Left Coast Crime 

Tucson, AZ 

Special Guests:  JA Jance, Glen Erik Hamilton, Sujata Massey, Dru Ann Love, Ellen Byron 

March 23-26, 2023 

Virginia Festival of the Book’s Crime Wave 

Charlottesville, VA 

Special Guests TBA 

March 31-April 2, 2023 

Quais Polar 

Lyon, France 

 

APRIL 2023 

April 21-23, 2023 

Gŵyl CRIME CYMRU Festival 

Aberystwyth, Wales 

Special Guests:  TBA 

April 22-23, 2023 

Los Angeles Times Festival of the Book 

Los Angeles, CA 

Special Guests TBA 

April 28-30, 2023 

Malice Domestic 

Bethesda, MD 

Special Guests:  Hank Phillippi Ryan, Vaseem Khan, Abir Mukherjee, Ann Cleeves, Tonya Spratt-Williams, Barb Goffman, Luci Zahray 

April 30-May 4, 2023 

CrimeCruise  

Sailing from Orlando, FL 

CrimeCruise takes the best of CrimeCon—world-class speakers, workshops, and fun—and pairs it with a more relaxing schedule. 

MAY 2023 

May 11-14, 2023 

Crimefest 

Bristol, UK 

Special Guests TBA  

May 15-17, 2023 

Lyme Crime 

Lyme Regis, UK 

Special Guests TBA 

May 30 – June 3, 2023 

Thrillerfest 

New York, NY 

Special Guests:  ThrillerMasters Charlaine Harris and Walter Mosley, 2023 Spotlight Guest Jack Carr, and 2023 Spotlight Guest Oyinkan Braithwaite; 2023 Silver Bullet Award, Michael Connelly; 2023 ThrillerFan John Berylson 

 

JUNE 2023 

June 2-4, 2023 

Motive Crime and Mystery Festival 

Toronto, Canada 

Special Guests:  TBA 

June 8-11, 2023 

Writers Police Academy 

Green Bay, WI 

Special Guests:   TBA 

June 10-12, 2023 

California Crime Writers Conference 

Culver City, CA 

Special Guests include: Deborah Crombie, Gary Phillips, Naomi Hirahara, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Nancy Cole Silverman. 

JULY 2023 

July 6-9, 2023 

Sleuthfest 

Boca Raton, FL 

Guest of Honor: Melinda Leigh; Special Guests: Lori Rader-Day and Rachel Howzell Hall 

July 13-15, 2023 

Nancy Drew Sleuths 

Cooperstown, NY 

July 13-16, 2023 

Public Safety Writers Conference 

Las Vegas, NV 

July 20-23, 2023 

Theakson Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 

Harrogate, UK 

Special Guests TBA 

 

AUGUST 2023 

August 3-6, 2023 

Pulpfest 

Pittsburgh, PA 

August 12-28, 2023 

Edinburgh Book Festival 

Edinburgh, Scotland 

August 17-20, 2023 

Killer Nashville 

Nashville, TN  

August 30-September 3, 2023 

Bouchercon 

San Diego, CA 

Special Guests: David Baldacci, Ann Cleeves, Jacqueline Winspear, Dru Ann Love, Naomi Hirahara, C.J. Box, Kate Carlisle 

SEPTEMBER 2023 

September 8-10, 2023 

Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity 

Columbia, MD 

Special Guests:  Jeffery Deaver, Nancy Holder, Christopher Chambers, Jackie Sherbow, John Copenhaver 

September 15-17, 2023 

Bloody Scotland 

Stirling, Scotland 

Special Guests:  TBA 

September 22-24, 2023 

CrimeCon 

Orlando, FL 

A conference for fans of true crime 

September 28-30, 2023 

Capital Crime 

London, UK 

Special Guests TBA 

NOVEMBER 2023 

November TBA, 2023 

New England Crime Bake 

Boston, MA 

Special Guest:  Deborah Crombie 

 

Keep reading and see you soon – 

Karin Diskin 

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.