2020 Monthly Speakers Program
Saturday November 28 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting 12:00 noon - Speaker Les Roberts Getting Away with Murder |
Renowned, prolific mystery and suspense author LES ROBERTS will be our special guest speaker in November, coming to us from his living room in Cleveland, Ohio. His program topic will be “Getting Away with Murder,” a subject all mystery authors are interested in perfecting. Joining LES will be our own renowned member, RUSS EBERHART, who will facilitate the program and tell stories about his special friendship with Les.
LES is the author of 6 mystery novels in the Saxon series set in Los Angeles and 19 featuring Cleveland detective Milan Jacovich, 6 other books of fiction, and his autobiography. Les came to mystery writing after a 24-year career in Hollywood, where he was the first producer and head writer of the Hollywood Squares and wrote for the the Lucy Show, the Andy Griffith Show, the Jackie Gleason Show, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E., among others. He has been a professional actor, a singer, a jazz musician, and a teacher. Past president of both the Private Eye Writers of America and the American Crime Writer's League, Les received the Cleveland Arts Prize in 2002 and the Sherwood Anderson Literary Award in 2003. His first Saxon novel, “An Infinite Number of Monkeys,” won the very first “First Private Eye Novel Contest.” A native of Chicago, he has lived in Northeast Ohio since 1990. |
Saturday October 24 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting 12:00 noon - Speaker Nina Sadowsky Cliff Hangers, Twists and Pacing |
A New York City native, Nina R. Sadowsky is an entertainment lawyer who has worked as a film and television producer and writer for most of her career.
Her debut thriller, Just Fall, was published by Ballantine in March 2016. Her second novel, The Burial Society, was published in 2018, and is the first of a series, with The Empty Bed released January 28th, 2020. Her fourth novel Convince Me, will be out in August 2020. Her books have been translated into German, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese, Turkish and Serbian. Both published novels are in development for television. She has written numerous original screenplays and adaptations and done rewrites for such companies as The Walt Disney Company, Working Title Films, and Lifetime Television. Sadowsky also wrote, directed and produced the short film, “The First Year’s A Bitch,” a darkly funny take on the first year of marriage, starring Christine Taylor and John Livingston, which was featured in numerous film festivals, and which won the award for best editing at the New York Short Film Festival. Sadowsky is a member of International Thrillers Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, the Humanitas’ Prize’s Woolfpack, (an organization of women writers, directors, producers and showrunners) and Creative Future’s Leadership Committee. She also serves as Director of Educational outreach for The Humanitas Prize and co-leads the Woolfpack sponsored screenwriting lab at Hedgebrook. Nina Sadowsky is author of Convince Me, The Empty Bed, The Burial Society, and Just Fall Read more about Nina at: www.ninasadowsky.com |
Saturday September 26 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting 12:00 noon - Speaker Jaden Terrell Story-Weaving and Takeaways Some authors, like Secretariat, shoot out of the gate and rocket past the finish line without breaking a sweat. Others, like Hidalgo, must overcome challenges, obstacles, and missteps on their road to success. In "Story-Weaving and Takeaways," Jaden Terrell will discuss staying the course, honing the craft, and building a life as a writer.
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Jaden Terrell is a Shamus Award finalist and the internationally published author of the Nashville-based Jared McKean private detective series. At the other end of the spectrum is Trouble Most Faire, a cozy black cat detective romantic mystery set at a Renaissance Faire . Terrell’s short stories have appeared in several anthologies, and she is a contributor to International Thriller Writers’ Big Thrill magazine and Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of exercises published by Tarcher/Penguin for writers of crime fiction. She is the recipient of the Killer Nashville Builder Award, as well as the Magnolia Award and the Silver Quill Award for service to the Southeast Mystery Writers of America. Terrell offers live and online workshops, coaching, and courses for writers.
Website: http://www.jadenterrell.com |
Saturday August 22 Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting 12:00 noon - Speaker Julie Young Author of The Burger Chef Murders in Indiana |
Julie will be the Sisters’ featured presenter for the August 22nd meeting. Her program will focus on her research, discovery, and writing for the production of her true crime book on the still-unsolved, 1978 murders at the Burger Chef fast-food restaurant at 5725 Crawfordsville Road, Speedway.
About the author: http://www.julieyoungfreelance.com |
Saturday July 25 Online Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting 12:00 noon - Speaker Dan Wakefield Indianapolis’ own Dan Wakefield—novelist, journalist and screenwriter—joins us at noon, July 25 as our speaker. Dan’s presentation is titled “My Hollywood Madness,” and he will talk about some of his experiences during his years as a Hollywood screenwriter and TV series writer and story editor.
Dan began his writing career as a columnist for his high school newspaper, The Shortridge Daily Echo, and a sports correspondent for The Indianapolis Star. After graduating from Columbia College in 1955, he wrote for numerous national magazines, among them The Nation, Harpers, and The Atlantic Monthly, and published his first book, “Island in the City: The World of Spanish Harlem.” Many more—listed below—followed. Dan’s best-selling novels, “Starting Over” and “Going All the Way,” were produced as feature films, and his memoir, “New York in the Fifties,” was produced as a documentary. He also was the creator of the NBC prime time TV series, “James at 15.” He is the recipient of a Neiman Fellowship in Journalism, the Bernard DeVoto Fellowship to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, a Rockefeller Grant for Creative Writing, and a National Endowment for the Arts award. He has taught in the writing programs at Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Emerson College, The Iowa Writers Workshop, and the Indiana Writers Center. Dan has requested that program attendees submit questions about his writing and related ventures in advance by sending them to our program director (Janis Thornton) at [email protected] prior to his program starting at noon, Saturday, July 25. Please join us that day and help welcome Dan Wakefield, an Indiana treasure! |
Non-Fiction Books by Dan Wakefield
Island in the City (Houghton Mifflin, 1959) Revolt in the South (Grove Press, 1962) The Addict: An Anthology (Fawcett, 1963) Between The Lines (New American Library, 1965) Supernation at Peace and War (Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1968) All Her Children: The Making of a Soap Opera (Doubleday, 1975) Returning: A Spiritual Journey (Doubleday, 1988) New York in the Fifties (Houghton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence, 1992) Expect a Miracle (Harper Collins, 1995) Creating from the Spirit (Ballantine, 1996) How Do We Know When It’s God ? (Little, Brown, 1999) And Dan’s Novels Going All The Way (Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1970) Starting Over (Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1973) Home Free (Delacorto/Seymour Lawrence, 1977) Under The Apple Tree (Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence, 1982) Selling Out (Little, Brown, 1985) |
June 27 Online Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting online via Zoom 12:00 noon - Speaker K.B. Laugheed online via Zoom Self Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing Join Hoosier author K.B. Laugheed on Zoom on June 27 as she meets with members of the Indiana chapter of Sisters in Crime to discuss the arduous world of book publishing. Laugheed will discuss her personal experiences with self-publishing versus having a book published by Penguin, the world's largest book publisher. Each publishing option offers various pros and cons all authors should be aware of before signing on the dotted line. Laugheed will also discuss the research she had to do in order to write her historical novels, explaining how fact and fiction intersect in her stories. BIO K.B. Laugheed was born and raised near the site of the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe. She received an MA in English from the University of Dayton, with a concentration in Native American literature. She taught writing at Ivy Tech College for twelve years and worked as a writer/editor at a small-town newspaper for twenty-three years. Through both careers, she worked as a freelance writer, publishing numerous articles in national periodicals, and she also wrote and directed a series of plays for community theater. She published her debut novel, The Spirit Keeper, in 2013 (Plume), and the sequel, The Gift of the Seer, in 2019. Laugheed is an organic gardener, a master naturalist, and an ardent spokesperson for the planet Earth. She belongs to far too many cats. Online Store: https://kblaugheed.square.site/ Website : http://www.kblaugheed.com/ Twitter: @klaugheed Facebook: K.B. Laugheed |
Book Descriptions:
The Spirit Keeper is the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who was rescued from a frontier massacre by strange Indians in 1747 eastern Pennsylvania only to find herself chosen as the "Spirit Keeper" of a dying Indian Seer. The Gift of the Seer is the story of Indian captive Katie O'Toole, who must pretend to be the "Spirit Keeper" of a dead Indian Seer in order to preserve his people from annihilation. This is the conclusion of the saga begun in The Spirit Keeper (Plume 2013). |
May 23 Online Meeting
11:00 a.m. business meeting online via Zoom 12:00 noon - Speaker Ray Boomhower online via Zoom “A Voice for the Underdog” By Ray Boomhower Biographer-historian Ray Boomhower will focus his presentation on American journalist and true crime writer John Bartlow Martin (1915-1987) and the relationship that developed between Martin and Nathan Leopold (of the famed Leopold and Lobe murder case of 1924), whose life story Martin wrote for a lengthy article published by the Saturday Evening Post in 1955. Boomhower will also share some of his research methods for his biography on Martin. |
Ray Boomhower has worked for the Indiana Historical Society since 1987 and is senior editor of the Indiana Historical Society Press and editor of Traces Magazine.
A native of Mishawaka, Indiana, he graduated from Indiana University in 1982 with degrees in journalism and political science. He received his master’s degree in U.S. history from Indiana University, Indianapolis, in 1995. Before joining the Society staff, he worked in public relations for the Indiana State Museum and as a reporter for two Indiana daily newspapers — The Rensselaer Republican and The Anderson Herald. Along with numerous articles for Traces, the Indiana Magazine of History, and other history periodicals, Ray is the author of 16 books, so far, including: Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary, Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut, The Soldier’s Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle, Indiana Originals: Hoosier Heroes & Heroines, and John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog. Visit Boomhower’s blog: http://rayboomhower.blogspot.com/ Visit his Amazon author page: https://tinyurl.com/y8zkssnx Buy his newest book, To Be Hoosiers: Historic Stories of Characters and Fortitude: https://tinyurl.com/yd79mmqq ![]() John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog
Martin was a freelance writer from the '30s through the '70s. A lot of his early work involved true crime stories. Later in his career, he was a speech writer for politicians like Adlai Stevenson and Lyndon Johnson. |
February 2020 Meeting
Saturday, February 22, 2020 Meeting at 11:30am at Carmel Public Library 55 4th Ave SE, Carmel, IN 46032 Featured Speaker 12:30-1:30 pm Stories of an FBI Profiler and Hostage Negotiator By Retired FBI Agent Steve McVey |
We will welcome long-time FBI profiler and hostage negotiator Steve McVey as our speaker when we meet Saturday, February 22 at the Carmel Public Library. Steve will talk about techniques he applied when profiling serial rapists and dangerous killers. Steve was the only FBI profiler serving Indiana 1982-1988.
Steve McVey was just 17 when he went to work for the FBI in May of 1956 as a supply and mail clerk. After graduating from the University of Indianapolis in 1962 with a B.A. in history, he was accepted into the FBI’s Agents School. Eleven days before his 24th birthday, he became an FBI Special Agent. After he mastered the Russian language, he was assigned to work Russian counterespionage in New York City. Five years later, he switched to the bank robbery squad and became an instructor. In 1972, he returned to Indiana and became part of the federal criminal and vice squad. He became a hostage negotiator and authority on abnormal psychology and sex crimes, which led him to become a psychological profiler of serial killers and rapists. He retired from the FBI in 1988. Later that year, he joined Purdue’s School of Technology and taught organizational leadership until he retired in 2001. He co-authored “Managing Violence in the Workplace” in 1996 and “Kids Killing Kids: Managing Gang Violence in Schools” in 1999. More recently, he wrote “The Science and Religion of What We Call God.” |
January 2020 Meeting at Indy Reads Books
Saturday, January 25, 2020 Meeting at 11:30am at Indy Reads Books 911 Massachusetts Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202 Featured Speaker 12:30-1:30 pm BILL SULLIVAN Author of the new “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are” |
Ever wonder what drives people to criminal behavior? The answers may surprise you. In this eye-opening session, author Bill Sullivan will discuss the hidden forces that influence our behavior, including our dark side.
Almost everything we think we know about ourselves is wrong. Philosophers and theologians have grappled with the mystery of human behavior for centuries—but now, science is revealing startling new insights into what makes us tick. This provocative narrative from Indiana University School of Medicine professor Bill Sullivan explores our behavior through the lens of genetics, epigenetics, microbiology, and psychology. From why we need that morning cup of coffee to our inclination for skydiving, this eye-opening book uses the latest scientific research to explain the hidden forces that drive our individual natures. A fascinating tour of the factors that shape our actions, moods, tastes, political beliefs, and more, Pleased to Meet Me unveils a surprising truth: that many of our most self-defining traits emerge from things we can’t control, including our genes, our early environment, our evolutionary past, and the microbes that dwell inside us. In these pages, you’ll learn the real reasons we struggle with infidelity, weight loss, drugs, and depression; discover the biological differences that may separate liberals and conservatives; discern the forces that shape human attraction; and comprehend your own impulse to extend a helping hand or throw a punch. These trailblazing insights are sprinkled with pop-culture references that elucidate the scientific imperatives behind them. Filled with revolutionary observations, Pleased to Meet Me takes us on a riveting journey that reveals who we are—and how we can become our best selves. Bill Sullivan, author of “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are” (National Geographic Books) is a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, where he studies genetics and infectious disease. An award-winning researcher, teacher, and science communicator, Sullivan has been featured in a wide variety of outlets, including CNN, Fox, The Doctors, New York Post, National Geographic, Discover, Scientific American, COSMOS, Science Fantastic with Dr. Michio Kaku, Doctor Radio, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @wjsullivan and learn more at www.AuthorBillSullivan.com. |