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
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)
Strings Attached (Apr-2011)
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)
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)
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
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
Lyon, France
APRIL 2023
April 21-23, 2023
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
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
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
Bristol, UK
Special Guests TBA
May 15-17, 2023
Lyme Regis, UK
Special Guests TBA
May 30 – June 3, 2023
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
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
Boca Raton, FL
Guest of Honor: Melinda Leigh; Special Guests: Lori Rader-Day and Rachel Howzell Hall
July 13-15, 2023
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
Pittsburgh, PA
August 12-28, 2023
Edinburgh, Scotland
August 17-20, 2023
Nashville, TN
August 30-September 3, 2023
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
Stirling, Scotland
Special Guests: TBA
September 22-24, 2023
Orlando, FL
A conference for fans of true crime
September 28-30, 2023
London, UK
Special Guests TBA
NOVEMBER 2023
November TBA, 2023
Boston, MA
Special Guest: Deborah Crombie
Keep reading and see you soon –
Karin Diskin