Welcome to Speed City Sisters in Crime

Speed City Sisters in Crime is the Indiana chapter of the world-wide mystery/crime writers' association Sisters in Crime. The Speed City chapter was founded in 2005. Find out more about Speed City Sisters in Crime.

Upcoming in 2021

Saturday June 26 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting
12:00 noon -  Speaker 
Debra Des Vignes
Founder of Indiana Prison Writers Workshop
The Indiana Prison Writers Workshop is a program intended to help incarcerated people learn to express themselves honestly and creatively through essays, stories, and poetry. Founder Debra Des Vignes will talk about the evolution of the inception of the program, its ins and outs, and its future.
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​Register for this online event on Eventbrite at this link.
As a former TV news reporter, Debra Des Vignes got her start at ABC-7 in Los Angeles, California, and then embarked on a decade-long career as a journalist. She was embedded with law enforcement covering crime and courts in various TV markets, including KPVI in Pocatello, Idaho, and NBC-13 in Birmingham, Alabama.

She is the author of two books, Sunday Sweet Sunday and The Green Balloon. Additionally, her work has appeared  in Reflections: A Journal of Community Engaged and Writing Rhetoric, The Manifest Station, and Black Horse Review.

http://inprisonwritersworkshop.org/about-the-founder/

Friday July 2nd
Write-In with Speed City Sisters in Crime

Register for this online event on Eventbrite at this link

Join Sisters in Crime (and brothers) and make some progress on your latest writing project the first Friday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Speed City Sisters in Crime is hosting monthly write-ins to connect on Zoom and spend time writing together.
Saturday July 24 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting
12:00 noon -  Speakers 
Derby Rotten Scoundrels! on A Retreat to Move Forward
Jeanette C. Pope, Elaine Munsch and Lynn Slaughter from our sister organization - Louisville's Derby Rotten Scoundrels - will talk about their writing, their organization, and how a retreat has helped them move forward.

Register for this online event on Eventbrite at this link
Jeanette C. Pope Jeanette C. Pope
​Jeanette C. Pope was born and raised in the Westend of Louisville, Kentucky. She received two Master's Degrees in Special Education with an emphasis on Learning and Behavior Disorders from the University of Louisville. She has taught elementary education for twenty-seven years and some middle school tutoring in the summer. Her first experience with the public interacting with her writing was when she won a playwriting contest sponsored by Jefferson Community College. Not only did she win the contest, the play, It’s in the Bag, was produced by the drama department of the school. In 2017 her first book, Double Triangles – a mystery, romance- thriller-  was published. The sequel, Desperate Angles, will be released in July of this year. Although a young-adult book is in the works, the most exciting time in her writing adventures was working with The Derby Rotten Scoundrel on the play, Iced at the Easy, based on her idea.
Jeanette is married, has two successful children and two amazing granddaughters. 
Elaine MunschElaine Munsch
Elaine Munsch, a native of Cleveland, OH, has divided her adult life between Ohio and Kentucky. She graduated from Nazareth College of Kentucky located outside of Bardstown and not far from her maternal grandfather’s home in Balltown, KY. She attended The Ohio State University doing work for a Masters in English Literature. In 1972, she embarked on her life-long passion, that of bookselling. In 1995 she moved from Cleveland to Louisville to open the first Barnes & Noble in Kentucky. She set up a mystery reading group, taught classes in the mystery genre for the Veritas Society and joined the local chapter of Sisters in Crime.

With Susan Bell, she co-edited Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, an anthology of bourbon related stories.

​Partially retired now, she writes the Dash Hammond series set on the shores of Lake Erie. 
Lynn SlaughterLynn Slaughter
​Lynn Slaughter joined Sisters in Crime and her local chapter, Derby Rotten Scoundrels, shortly after completing her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in 2016. She turned to writing young adult romantic mysteries following a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator. She’s the author of It Should Have Been You, a Silver Falchion finalist; While I Danced, an EPIC finalist; and the newly released Leisha’s Song. Her short story, “Missed Cue,” appears in Malice Domestic’s 2020 anthology, Murder Most Theatrical. The mother of two grown sons and besotted grandmother of five, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky where she is at work on her next novel.

Friday August 6th
Write-In with Speed City Sisters in Crime

Register for this online event on Eventbrite at this link

Join Sisters in Crime (and brothers) and make some progress on your latest writing project the first Friday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Speed City Sisters in Crime is hosting monthly write-ins to connect on Zoom and spend time writing together.
Saturday August 28 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting
12:00 noon -  Speaker
Author Keith Roysdon
Writing What You Know - Good Advice?
​Register for this online event on Eventbrite at this link
"Write what you know" is certainly advice, but is it good advice or bad advice? Keith Roysdon talks about living in Muncie, Indiana, one of the most-examined small cities in the country thanks to sociological studies and pop culture. But Roysdon is among the few who have written about the city's dark side and talks about how it has shaped him as a writer, in fiction and non-fiction.
Keith Roysdon is a lifelong writer who thought about being a lawyer but who got waylaid by working in newspapers for 40 years. He is the co-author of three true crime books published by Arcadia/History Press. The newest is The Westside Park Murders: Muncie's Most Notorious Cold Case published in early 2021. Since taking early retirement in 2019, he's written two novels that he's querying and is outlining a third. He writes pop culture essays for CrimeReads and has a growing public relations practice.

Friday September 3rd
Write-In with Speed City Sisters in Crime

Register for this online event on Eventbrite at this link

Join Sisters in Crime (and brothers) and make some progress on your latest writing project the first Friday of each month at 6:30 p.m. Speed City Sisters in Crime is hosting monthly write-ins to connect on Zoom and spend time writing together.

Monthly Meetings

​Speed City Sisters in Crime meets online via Zoom monthly on the fourth Saturday of each month from January to November. There is a critique group meeting at 10:00, followed by the regular business meeting at 11:00 and a guest speaker at 12:00. 
MORE ABOUT MONTHLY MEETINGS  >

Murder 20/20 Is here!
Read more about the anthology here!

Our most recent Anthology Murder 20/20 launched in 2019! 
​The ebook and paperback are available now for sale.
Published June 2020.
Edited by MB Dabney, Lillie Evans, and Shari Held.

Introduction by Susan Furlong
Inheritance by Andrea Smith
One Hundred Years a Widow by Janet E. Williams
Mister 20 by J. Paul Burroughs
I See What You’re Sayin’ by Ross Carley
The Ear Witness by Elizabeth Perona
One Dead Politico by D.B. Reddick
In the Deepest Darkness by Stephen Terrell
Deception at the Double D Convention by Shari Held
Arcana 20/20 by T.C. Winters
The 20/20 Club by Mary Ann Koontz
Tailor-Made for Murder by C.L. Shore
MD 20/20 by Hawthorn Mineart
Dingo Dan by B.K. Hart
Cipher by Elizabeth San Miguel
It’s All Relative by S. Ashley Couts
The Release by Ramona G. Henderson
​The Hundred-Year Time Capsule by Diana Catt
Listen to Speed City Sisters in Crime members Lillie Evans, Tony Perona, C.L. Shore and Janet E. Williams talk about our newest and seventh anthology, Murder 20/20, with Robert Kent on the Middle Grade Ninja Podcast.

Speed City SinC Author Bios

Speed City Sisters in Crime members are talented writers and published authors and playwrights. Check out their author pages for information about their books, short stories, plays and other creative works.

See a list of published books by Speed City Sisters in Crime members

Coming in late summer!
Trick or Treats: Tales of All Hallow's Eve 
Speed City Sisters in Crime's 8th Short Story Anthology

Coming in late summer, the newest short story anthology from Speed City Sisters in Crime - Trick or Treats: Tales of All Hallow's Eve.   Read more about our newest anthology.

Become a member of Speed City Sisters in Crime

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​Membership benefits include:
  • Free or reduced cost writing workshops from visiting guest authors
  • Promotional opportunities at author fairs and book signings
  • Publishing resources and education
  • Monthly meetings
  • Critique group support
  • Opportunity to submit work to chapter anthologies and other creative projects
You can become a member online or via mail 
Speed City Critique Group
Members of Speed City Sisters in Crime can join our critique group that meets the fourth Saturday of the month before our regular monthly meeting and program. As with almost everything in our lives, the COVID-19 pandemic has moved the critique group to the virtual world. The group is led by Brenda Stewart and the setup of the Zoom meeting is coordinated by Russ Eberhart. 

Find out how to submit your work, critique and attend the zoom meetings on our Critique Group page.

Recent Chapter Events

Derby Rotten Scoundrels in a Conversation with Speed City Sisters in Crime - June 12th
Members of Speed City Sisters in Crime 'visited' our sister organization from the south -  Kentucky's Derby Rotten Scoundrels - to talk about all things writing: books, short stories for anthologies and plays for production. 
MB Dabney – Panel Moderator
Diana Catt
Crystal V. Rhodes
Brenda Robertson Stewart
​Russ Eberhart, who writes as Ross Carley
Stephen Terrell
Kirklin Art Fair
June 12th
It was a fun day in Kirklin for its 7th annual art fair. Janet Williams, Brigitte Kephart and Elizabeth San Miguel staffed the Sisters in Crime book table. Janis Thornton attended with her selection of true crime and more!
​Saturday May 22 
Author William Kent Krueger
What It Means to Be a Writer
A long-time friend of the Speed City Chapter of Sisters in Crime, Kent  joined us virtually to talk about being a writer.
What is it about mysteries that readers love?
Is it true that every good story is a mystery story?
Have you ever thought about writing one?

Plainfield Guilford Township Public Library
and Speed City Sisters in Crime Authors present
Putting the Mystery in Mysteries
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Author MB Dabney moderates a panel of Speed City Sisters in Crime writers to talk about:
  • What constitutes a mystery (it's more than murder!)
  • How writers unfold the plot over the course of the story
  • What clues to leave in; what clues to leave out
Whether you’re an aspiring mystery author or a reader who wants to peek behind the curtain, you may learn a few things from this program.
​Saturday April 24
Author Susan Crandall
Adaptation: From Printed Page to Big Screen
Do you love mysteries?
Have you ever thought of writing one?
Want to get inside the heads of a few mystery writers?
The Washington Carnegie Public Library
and Speed City Sisters in Crime Authors present
Demystifying Mystery Writing
​Saturday February 27
12:00 noon -  Speakers
​Tammy Ayers and Mel Cabre
The Legend of Bigfoot
​Saturday January 23
Speaker Gary Sosniecki
Uncovering a Deadly Family Secret: The Potato Masher Murder
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Speed City Sisters in Crime is the Indiana chapter of the world-wide mystery/crime writers' association Sisters in Crime. The Speed City chapter was founded in 2005.

Members of the organization are published mystery and crime authors, writers working on mysteries and thrillers, and readers and fans of the literary genre. There are currently 40+ members who live in Indiana or the Midwest.

Speed City Sisters in Crime hosts monthly meetings with speakers on topics of interest to mystery and crime writing. Past speakers have included police officers, prosecutors, investigative reporters, forensic specialists, weapons experts, researchers, and publishing and media professionals.