2022 Guest Speakers
Chapter Guest Speaker September 24th:
Forensic Expert Ashley Luther
Ashley Luther is Forensic Biologist and supervisor for the Indiana State Police Laboratory in Indianapolis. She conducts casework in serology, DNA, and bloodstain pattern interpretation. She has been with the ISP laboratory for 14 years and was a casework analyst for the Utah State Crime Laboratory for two years prior to hiring on in Indiana. While in Utah, she was also a member of the Crime Scene Response Team. She has testified more than 40 times throughout the state and has completed more than 1,000 cases. She has presented at several conferences and trainings across the country and is the current training coordinator for the Indiana State Police Laboratory. In 2020, she was selected as the Forensic Scientist of the Year for the Indiana State Police. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Loyola Marymount University and is currently pursuing her Masters in Forensic Biology from the University of the Southwest. When she’s not working, she loves to spend time with her husband, three kids, three dogs, 2 cats, and her Swiss foreign exchange student.
View this event on YouTube.
2022 Past Events
Chapter Guest Speaker August 27th:
Author Terry Odell
How I Became A Writer By Mistake—Or What Happened When I Ran Out Of Room For Needlepoint Projects
Join Award-Winning author Terry Odell as she talks about her unconventional path to publication and what she’s learned along the way.
Topics will include:
Author Terry Odell
How I Became A Writer By Mistake—Or What Happened When I Ran Out Of Room For Needlepoint Projects
Join Award-Winning author Terry Odell as she talks about her unconventional path to publication and what she’s learned along the way.
Topics will include:
- Becoming an indie author
- Her approach to social media
- Her writing process
C. Hope & Gary W Clark
Writing Murder Right -- and Getting Paid for It
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View these speakers on YouTube.
A Conversation with mystery writer C. Hope Clark and her husband, retired investigator Gary Clark. Hope and Gary will present a multi-faceted program. Hope is a mystery author who also publishes the Funds for Writers newsletter and website. Gary is a retired federal and state law enforcement agent. They will cover: Gary's tips on law enforcement How Hope and Gary work together to get the law enforcement aspects in novels correct Hope's Funds for Writers blog and tips she has for aspiring writers on getting published and getting paid C. Hope Clark loves writing, reading, watching, studying the mystery genre. She's published 15 mysteries with two more in progress, one to be released late Fall 2022. Several of her stories have won awards from a finalist in the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense to a twice winner of the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award. Her most popular series is The Edisto Island Mysteries set on the very real Edisto Beach in South Carolina. She is also founder of FundsforWriters.com. The site has been recognized by Writer's Digest Magazine for its 101 Best Websites for Writers for the past 21 years, and the accompanying newsletter reaches 25,000 readers. Gary Clark is a 30-year veteran of law enforcement. He has served in multiple capacities endorsing the law. He has been a revenue agent for Georgia Alcohol, Tobacco and Tax, a US Customs Border Patrol agent, a federal criminal investigator with the Inspector Generals of both the US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Post-retirement, he did background investigations for federal agencies, operated as a private investigator, and even served as an investigator for a defense attorney, what he calls going over to the dark side. He serves as technical advisor to Hope for all her novels. After all, they met on an actual investigation, and their compatibility and love for crime solving continues years later through Hope's tales. |
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Chapter Guest Speaker June 25th:
A Panel of Editors LeeAnna Groves is a freelance editor. Her passion for helping writers began with her job in the 1980s as a tutor at Ball State University’s Writing Center. Later, she earned a master’s in Language Education from Indiana University. After teaching elementary and English as a New Language for several years, LeeAnna retired early and pivoted to a freelance lifestyle, including gigs as an English language trainer for an international relocation company and an instructor at a local learning center. She collaborates with writers to hone their craft and has edited several books and short stories for Sisters in Crime members. She and her husband live in Noblesville, with their two grown children nearby in Indianapolis. |
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Nora Gaskin is the author of a nonfiction book, Time of Death: The True Tale of a Quest for Justice in 1960s Chapel Hill, a mystery novel, based on a true crime, Until Proven: A Mystery in 2 Parts, and a suspense novel, The Worst Thing.
As the founder, editor, and publisher of Lystra Books (an eclectic and growing publisher, based in Chapel Hill, NC), Gaskin has stewarded more than thirty books into publication. She edited Carolina Crimes: 21 Tales of Need, Greed, and Dirty Deeds, Triangle SinC’s second anthology of stories set in North Carolina and South Carolina, with an introduction by Jeffery Deaver, published in 2017 by Down & Out Books. Nora has a bachelor’s degree in English with Honors in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a masters degree in English from the University of Washington. She had a twenty-four-year career as a successful investment advisor and financial planner, then returned to her love of storytelling. She has participated in decades of writing classes and workshops. She is a lifelong resident of Chapel Hill, Durham, and Chatham County, North Carolina. She loves the Piedmont landscape with its hills, woods, and curves that keep viewers from seeing what’s ahead. It’s the perfect place for a mystery/suspense writer to live. |
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Stephanie Koutek has more than twenty years of experience as an editor. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English from Indiana University Bloomington, where she completed an editorial internship at the Journal of Women’s History. Her areas of expertise include how-to books, job search and career reference information, and pharmaceutical marketing materials. Her first editing job involved reviewing her mom’s contributions to the mystery zine DAPA-EM.
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Chapter Guest Speaker May 28th:
Author Amy Crider The Persistence of a Writer Amy Crider will speak on "The Persistence of a Writer," something which she knows from her personal experience. Her first novel, Disorder, was recently published after a 15-year journey. "Disorder" is a psychological thriller that follows graduate student Wendy Zemansky, who has just come off disability after starting medication for bipolar disorder. But when her roommate goes missing, Wendy plunges into an investigation that is roadblocked by everyone in her life. Amidst a swirling and uncontrollable mania, Wendy learns what it means to persevere when everyone is seemingly against you. Publishers Weekly states, "The ingenious plot will keep the reader guessing." Grand Master Sara Paretsky termed the book "Riveting." Amy grew up in Sauquoit, New York, and received her BA in Theater from Goddard College, where she also earned an MA in Education. She is a playwright whose work has been seen around the country. Last year she won the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Contest. She has degrees in Theater and Education. Amy and her husband now live in Chicago. View this speaker on YouTube. |
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Chapter Guest Speaker April 23:
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Author Dr. D.P. Lyle
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Chapter Guest Speaker March 26:
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Author Mary Roach
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Chapter Guest Speaker February 26th:
Cyber Crime Authors Panel
Folding Cybercrime into Your Fiction
Doyle Groves is a Staff Data Scientist at one of the largest providers of corporate information security. There he studies things like characterizing the evolving threat landscape, communication behavior of malware in the wild, and ongoing efficacy of their sizable detection machinery. Mr. Groves also serves two labs at Indiana University as Data Specialist and Teaching Assistant, where they apply text mining research to find signals in social media data, to further support public health and crisis management.
Steve Lodin is the Senior Director of IAM and Cyber Security Operations in Corporate Security at Sallie Mae. Mr. Lodin is focused on managing identity and access management, perimeter security, endpoint protection, application security, vulnerability management, and threat intelligence to reduce risk and ensure compliance. As an accomplished information security professional, Mr. Lodin has been published in numerous information security publications. He has been a speaker at many security conferences, and one author conference. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Purdue University where he was a member of the COAST/CERIAS program.
Judy Copek was born in Montana, raised in Colorado, educated in Texas, and lived in suburban Chicago for years and now even more years in suburban Boston where she became a Red Sox fan, a Patriots fan, and a writer. An information systems nerd for years, she’s a survivor of Dilbert-like projects and other high-tech horrors. In her writing, she likes to show technology’s humor and quirkiness along with its scary aspects. She belongs to Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and The Short Mystery Fiction Society.
Russ Eberhart writes as Ross Carley. Ross’ fifth novel, The Three-Legged Assassin, just released, introduces Lance Garrett, a Middle East veteran and computer hacker who becomes an assassin to make ends meet. It’s a different take on murder and mayhem in the world of international organized crime sex trafficking. Things are fine until he accepts a contract to kill a mob boss's daughter. What could possibly go wrong? Russ moderates the Speed City Chapter critique group. He is a Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at IUPUI and a consultant in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Janet Williams, moderator the cybercrime panel, is an award-winning journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis in a career that has lasted for more than four decades. She has also worked in corporate communications and retired at the end of 2020 as executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website staffed by Franklin College journalism students. Most recently Janet serves as president of Speed City Sisters in Crime, writes about legislative redistricting for IndianaCitizen.org, a nonprofit news website, teaches a journalism class at Franklin College and serves on the board of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation.
Steve Lodin is the Senior Director of IAM and Cyber Security Operations in Corporate Security at Sallie Mae. Mr. Lodin is focused on managing identity and access management, perimeter security, endpoint protection, application security, vulnerability management, and threat intelligence to reduce risk and ensure compliance. As an accomplished information security professional, Mr. Lodin has been published in numerous information security publications. He has been a speaker at many security conferences, and one author conference. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Purdue University where he was a member of the COAST/CERIAS program.
Judy Copek was born in Montana, raised in Colorado, educated in Texas, and lived in suburban Chicago for years and now even more years in suburban Boston where she became a Red Sox fan, a Patriots fan, and a writer. An information systems nerd for years, she’s a survivor of Dilbert-like projects and other high-tech horrors. In her writing, she likes to show technology’s humor and quirkiness along with its scary aspects. She belongs to Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and The Short Mystery Fiction Society.
Russ Eberhart writes as Ross Carley. Ross’ fifth novel, The Three-Legged Assassin, just released, introduces Lance Garrett, a Middle East veteran and computer hacker who becomes an assassin to make ends meet. It’s a different take on murder and mayhem in the world of international organized crime sex trafficking. Things are fine until he accepts a contract to kill a mob boss's daughter. What could possibly go wrong? Russ moderates the Speed City Chapter critique group. He is a Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering at IUPUI and a consultant in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Janet Williams, moderator the cybercrime panel, is an award-winning journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor for newspapers in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis in a career that has lasted for more than four decades. She has also worked in corporate communications and retired at the end of 2020 as executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website staffed by Franklin College journalism students. Most recently Janet serves as president of Speed City Sisters in Crime, writes about legislative redistricting for IndianaCitizen.org, a nonprofit news website, teaches a journalism class at Franklin College and serves on the board of the Indianapolis Press Club Foundation.
Chapter Guest Speaker January 22nd:
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Author Andrew Stoner
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