SPEED CITY SISTERS IN CRIME
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  • Events
    • 2023 Events
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    • 2021 Events
    • 2020 Events
    • 2019 Events >
      • 2019 Nancy Pickard Writing Workshop
      • 2019 Larry Sweazy Short Story Workshop
      • 2019 Guest Speaker L.A. Chandlar
      • Pulaski County Library Award
    • Mystery & Writing Conferences
    • Murder We Wrote Blog
  • Our Anthologies
    • Amber Waves of Graves >
      • Submission Guidelines
      • Cover Submission Guidelines
    • Trick or Treats: Tales of All Hallow's Eve
    • Murder 20/20 Anthology
    • Homicide for the Holidays
    • The Fine Art of Murder
    • Decades of Dirt
    • Hoosier Hoops and Hijinks
    • Bedlam at the Brickyard
    • Racing Can Be Murder
    • Deadbeat (Theatrical)
  • Resources
    • S.S. Van Dine - Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories
    • Father Knox's Decalogue
    • Raymond Chandler's Ten Commandments
    • Frank Gruber's 11 Point Formula for Mystery Short Stories
  • 2023 Speakers

2022 Guest Speakers


2022 Past Events

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Chapter Guest Speaker October 22nd:
Elaine Munsch:  A Brief History of Women Crime Writers
​Elaine Munsch is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, but has spent her adult life in Louisville, Kentucky.  She graduated from Nazareth College of Kentucky located outside of Bardstown and attended The Ohio State University for her graduate work. She has been a bookseller for fifty years working in both large and small, chain and independent. She opened the first Barnes & Noble in Kentucky where she set up a mystery reading group which is still active today. She also 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.

As E.M. Munsch, she writes the Dash Hammond series set on the shores of Lake Erie. The latest title, A HAUNTING AT MARIANWOOD, is set to be released at the end of October.

Watch this speaker on YouTube.

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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.

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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:
  • Becoming an indie author
  • Her approach to social media
  • Her writing process​
View this event on YouTube.


​C. Hope & Gary W Clark
Writing Murder Right -- and Getting Paid for It

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:
Author Dr. D.P. Lyle
Q&A on Forensics Issues in Your Writing

Dr. D.P. Lyle will talk about forensics—from fingerprint analysis to crime scene reconstruction — how the science works, how it helps in crime solving, and how you as a writer might use this technique in crafting your plot.​

DP Lyle, MD is the Amazon #1 Bestselling; Macavity and Benjamin Franklin Silver Award winning; and Edgar (2), Shamus, Agatha, Anthony, Scribe, USA Today Best Book Award (2), and Foreward INDIES Book of the Year nominated author of 22 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the SAMANTHA CODY, DUB WALKER, JAKE LONGLY, and CAIN/HARPER thriller series, and the ROYAL PAINS media tie-in novels. His essay on Jules Verne’s THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND appears in THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS and his short story “Even Steven” in ITW’s anthology THRILLER 3: LOVE IS MURDER. He served as Editor for the Southern California Writers Association’s short story anthology, IT’S ALL IN THE STORY as well as contributing the story “Splash.” His short stories “Bottom Line” appears in th Sherlock Holmes inspired anthology FOR THE SAKE OF THE GAME and “Tonic” can be found in the anthology NOTHING GOOD HAPPENS AFTER MIDNIGHT. 
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Author Dr. D.P. Lyle

​Chapter Guest Speaker March 26:
Author Mary Roach
A Conversation

Mary Roach is the author of the New York Times bestsellers STIFF, SPOOK, BONK, GULP, GRUNT, and PACKING FOR MARS. Her new book FUZZ: When Nature Breaks the Law, debuted in September 2021. Mary has written for National Geographic, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine, among others, and her TED talk made the TED 20 Most Watched list. She has been a guest editor for Best American Science and Nature Writing, a finalist for the Royal Society's Winton Prize, and a winner of the American Engineering Societies' journalism award, in a category for which, let's be honest, she was the sole entrant. More at MaryRoach.net
Author Mary Roach
Author Mary Roach

​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.
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​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:
Author Andrew Stoner

Sadly, Andrew Stoner became ill suddenly before our January meeting and was unable to attend. He passed away Feb. 9, 2022.

His obituary highlights his rich life and many accomplishments. 

One friend summed him up well: “he left a long trail of lives that he touched and made better along the way. His legacy will live on in his family, friends, his students and his written words.” He is remembered for his great sense of humor, commitment to “getting it right,” perseverance, loyalty and ability to relate to others and their situations. He possessed a passion for teaching, lifelong learning and an extraordinary commitment to his students and colleagues.

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​Dr. Andrew Stoner is an Indiana native living in the San Francisco area who writes on topics including true crime, politics, history, mass media and popular culture. His latest are Wanted in Indiana: Infamous Hoosier Fugitives from the History Press, and Dear Abby, I'm Gay: Newspaper Advice Columnists and Homosexuality from McFarland Publishing.

Dr. Stoner's Amazon author page lists many of his published works. 


Author Andrew Stoner
Author Andrew Stoner
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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.

Visit our YouTube Channel for recordings of our monthly speakers!

  • Home
    • About Speed City SiC
    • Code of Conduct
    • Board Members
    • Welcome from Chapter President
    • Chapter Documents
  • Contact Us
  • Membership
    • Membership Info
    • Member Author Info
    • Member Published Books
    • Critique Group
  • Monthly Meetings
    • 2025 Speakers
    • 2024 Speakers
    • 2023 Speakers
    • 2022 Speakers
    • 2021 Speakers
    • 2020 Speakers
    • 2019 Speakers
    • 2018 Speakers
  • Events
    • 2023 Events
    • 2022 Events
    • 2021 Events
    • 2020 Events
    • 2019 Events >
      • 2019 Nancy Pickard Writing Workshop
      • 2019 Larry Sweazy Short Story Workshop
      • 2019 Guest Speaker L.A. Chandlar
      • Pulaski County Library Award
    • Mystery & Writing Conferences
    • Murder We Wrote Blog
  • Our Anthologies
    • Amber Waves of Graves >
      • Submission Guidelines
      • Cover Submission Guidelines
    • Trick or Treats: Tales of All Hallow's Eve
    • Murder 20/20 Anthology
    • Homicide for the Holidays
    • The Fine Art of Murder
    • Decades of Dirt
    • Hoosier Hoops and Hijinks
    • Bedlam at the Brickyard
    • Racing Can Be Murder
    • Deadbeat (Theatrical)
  • Resources
    • S.S. Van Dine - Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories
    • Father Knox's Decalogue
    • Raymond Chandler's Ten Commandments
    • Frank Gruber's 11 Point Formula for Mystery Short Stories
  • 2023 Speakers