2023 Guest Speakers
November 2023 Speaker
Leslie Budewitz
Building Characters
Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the
Northwest in two lighthearted mystery series: the Spice Shop Mysteries, set in
Seattle, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in northwest Montana.
Her books focus on strong women who share her passions, and have a talent
for finding trouble!
As Alicia Beckman, she also writes moody suspense.
Leslie is a three-time Agatha Award winner: 2011 Best Nonfiction for her
guide for writers, Books, Crooks & Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law & Courtroom Procedure; 2013 Best First Novel for Death al Dente (making her the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction); and 2018 Best Short Story (in a tie) for “All God’s Sparrows,” her first historical fiction. Her work has also won or been nominated for Spur,
Derringer, Anthony, and Macavity awards.
A Montana native, Leslie graduated from Seattle University and Notre Dame Law School. After practicing in Seattle for several years—and shopping and eating her way through the Pike Place Market regularly—she returned to Montana, where she practiced civil litigation and employment law, with an unhealthy dose of criminal law. Killing people —on the page—is more fun.
Leslie recently finished four years on the national board of Mystery Writers of America. She served as president of Sisters in Crime in 2015-16, and is a founding member of the Guppies, the SinC chapter for new and unpublished writers. She is also a member of the Authors of the Flathead and Montana Women Writers.
Leslie loves to cook, eat, hike, travel, garden, and paint—not necessarily in that order. She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, Don Beans, a singer-songwriter and doctor of natural medicine, and their gray tuxedo, officially named Squirt but affectionately called Mr. Kitten.
Sign up at Eventbrite.
Building Characters
Leslie Budewitz blends her passion for food, great mysteries, and the
Northwest in two lighthearted mystery series: the Spice Shop Mysteries, set in
Seattle, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in northwest Montana.
Her books focus on strong women who share her passions, and have a talent
for finding trouble!
As Alicia Beckman, she also writes moody suspense.
Leslie is a three-time Agatha Award winner: 2011 Best Nonfiction for her
guide for writers, Books, Crooks & Counselors: How to Write Accurately About Criminal Law & Courtroom Procedure; 2013 Best First Novel for Death al Dente (making her the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction); and 2018 Best Short Story (in a tie) for “All God’s Sparrows,” her first historical fiction. Her work has also won or been nominated for Spur,
Derringer, Anthony, and Macavity awards.
A Montana native, Leslie graduated from Seattle University and Notre Dame Law School. After practicing in Seattle for several years—and shopping and eating her way through the Pike Place Market regularly—she returned to Montana, where she practiced civil litigation and employment law, with an unhealthy dose of criminal law. Killing people —on the page—is more fun.
Leslie recently finished four years on the national board of Mystery Writers of America. She served as president of Sisters in Crime in 2015-16, and is a founding member of the Guppies, the SinC chapter for new and unpublished writers. She is also a member of the Authors of the Flathead and Montana Women Writers.
Leslie loves to cook, eat, hike, travel, garden, and paint—not necessarily in that order. She lives in northwest Montana with her husband, Don Beans, a singer-songwriter and doctor of natural medicine, and their gray tuxedo, officially named Squirt but affectionately called Mr. Kitten.
Sign up at Eventbrite.
See Speed City Sisters in Crime's Youtube Channel for more past guest speakers
2023 Past Speakers
Lori Rader-Day, Lincoln Square, Chicago, 2021. Photos by Justin Barbin Photography
Lori Rader-Day
Liars and Thieves, and These are the Good Guys: How to Create Conflict-Driven Characters People Still Want to Read
Online Zoom meeting and in-person at Carmel-Clay Public Library (425 East Main Street, Carmel, IN) Saturday, October 28th at Noon.
Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar® Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She lives in Chicago, where she is co-chair of the mystery readers’ festival Midwest Mystery Conference (fka Murder and Mayhem in Chicago) and served as 2019-2020 national president of Sisters in Crime. She teaches creative writing for Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies.
Sign up for the online event at Eventbrite.
Liars and Thieves, and These are the Good Guys: How to Create Conflict-Driven Characters People Still Want to Read
Online Zoom meeting and in-person at Carmel-Clay Public Library (425 East Main Street, Carmel, IN) Saturday, October 28th at Noon.
Lori Rader-Day is the Edgar® Award-nominated and Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark award-winning author of The Death of Us, Death at Greenway, The Lucky One, Under a Dark Sky, The Day I Died, Little Pretty Things, and The Black Hour. She lives in Chicago, where she is co-chair of the mystery readers’ festival Midwest Mystery Conference (fka Murder and Mayhem in Chicago) and served as 2019-2020 national president of Sisters in Crime. She teaches creative writing for Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies.
Sign up for the online event at Eventbrite.
Deb Lambert -- Director, Collection Management
Indianapolis Public Library
Ms Lambert will be speaking about the challenges facing librarians across the country from political attacks and efforts at censorship of books in library collections. She will also talk about how libraries select books for their collections and what authors can do to encourage libraries to select their books.
Passionate about building equitable and relevant collections, Deb Lambert uses data and trend analysis, ongoing education, open communication with her team, and communication at all levels to build and sustain relevant physical and electronic resource collections. An outspoken advocate for libraries, she actively works with vendors to develop awareness and tools for library needs. As Director of Collection Management at IndyPL, she encourages her team to utilize data analysis and technology to streamline processes, collaborate efficiently, and communicate effectively with the staff, public, and community partners of a large library system.
Her experience includes extensive automation, administration, supervisory, circulation and collection management experience in academic, special and public libraries, including large multi-branch systems. Her specialties include: Diversity and Equity in library collections, Library Automation (ILS, RFID, EDI, AMH), E-books in libraries, Collection Management, Acquisitions, Cataloging, System Administration, Vendor Relations, Electronic Resources, Process Evaluation and Improvement, Team Development, Project Management, Budgeting, Strategic Planning, Policy Development, Education/Training.
Passionate about building equitable and relevant collections, Deb Lambert uses data and trend analysis, ongoing education, open communication with her team, and communication at all levels to build and sustain relevant physical and electronic resource collections. An outspoken advocate for libraries, she actively works with vendors to develop awareness and tools for library needs. As Director of Collection Management at IndyPL, she encourages her team to utilize data analysis and technology to streamline processes, collaborate efficiently, and communicate effectively with the staff, public, and community partners of a large library system.
Her experience includes extensive automation, administration, supervisory, circulation and collection management experience in academic, special and public libraries, including large multi-branch systems. Her specialties include: Diversity and Equity in library collections, Library Automation (ILS, RFID, EDI, AMH), E-books in libraries, Collection Management, Acquisitions, Cataloging, System Administration, Vendor Relations, Electronic Resources, Process Evaluation and Improvement, Team Development, Project Management, Budgeting, Strategic Planning, Policy Development, Education/Training.
August 2023 Speaker
IMPD Sgt Lance Dardeen
Language and Body Language: How Police Really Deal with Crisis Situations
Online Zoom meeting and in-person at Irvington Public Library (5625 E Washington St, Indianapolis, IN) Saturday, June 24th 2023 at Noon.
Sergeant Lance Dardeen joined the IMPD in 2009. He graduated with a Public Relations degree from the University of Southern Indiana in 2002 and with a Master’s degree in Justice Administration from Faulkner University in 2016. Dardeen served as a North District Patrol Officer from 2010-2016 where he also served as a Field Training Officer and taught his fellow officers in numerous trainings as a “Train the Trainer”.
Through the years, Lance developed a passion for community policing and in the spring of 2016, he accepted the position of Behavioral Health Detective under the umbrella of the Community Engagement Office where he
assisted citizens with mental illnesses in receiving the appropriate services they need. After earning a promotion in 2018, Sergeant Dardeen now serves at the direct supervisor for the BHU and M-CAT units and serves at the CIT Coordinator for the IMPD.
Sergeant Dardeen serves the community and the department in a variety of ways. He is a Fair and Impartial Policing Instructor, CIT for Adult and CIT for Youth Instructor, a state certified instructor, an IMPD Mentor, a member of the BRG, a Field Training Officer, Mental Health First Aid instructor, and became an E.M.T in 2014. Lance graduated from the IMPD Leadership Academy in 2014 and is the current President of the IMPD Leadership Academy Alumni Association.
July 2023 Panel -- AI: Promise and Peril
Artificial intelligence, once the stuff of fantasy and science fiction, is now a reality and the technology is advancing so rapidly that what you thought you know yesterday will change by tomorrow. Join the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime at noon (EDT) on Zoom or in person on Saturday, July 29, for a timely discussion of artificial intelligence – AI: Promise and Peril. The question isn’t if but how AI will change the work of writers and graphic artists. Is AI an evolutionary leap in technology comparable to the internet? Or will it render the work of creators obsolete?
Join our discussion with our expert panel moderated by Speed City Sisters in Crime member Janet Williams.
Panelists include:
Join our discussion with our expert panel moderated by Speed City Sisters in Crime member Janet Williams.
Panelists include:
Russ Eberhart is an artificial intelligence and cybersecurity consultant. He is Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, Indianapolis. He is author or co-author of four books in the artificial intelligence field, including the award-winning book Swarm Intelligence co-authored with Jim Kennedy. He is the inventor or co-inventor for seven U.S. patents, and author or co-author of more than one hundred refereed journal articles and conference presentations. Russ, who writes under the pen name Ross Carley, has been selected to make a special presentation on that topic at the 2023 Killer Nashville Conference in August. He and Francie split their time between Indiana and Florida. www.RossCarleyBooks.com, Instagram @RossCarleyAuthor
Reece Hirsch is the author of six thrillers that draw upon his background as a privacy attorney. His first book, The Insider, was a finalist for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. His most recent books, Black Nowhere and Dark Tomorrow, feature FBI cybercrime investigator Lisa Tanchik. Former Department of Justice cybercrime prosecutor Chris Bruen is the protagonist of The Adversary, Intrusion, and Surveillance. Reece is a partner in the San Francisco office of an international law firm and co-chair of its privacy and cybersecurity practice. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation (www.VADFoundation.org). He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and an ewok-like Brussels Griffon. His website is www.reecehirsch.com.
Doyle Groves is a Staff Data Scientist at one of the largest providers of corporate information security. There he studies the evolving threat landscape, the communication behavior of malware, and how emerging AI tools are impacting the field. Mr. Groves also serves two labs at Indiana University as Data Specialist and Consultant, where they apply text mining research to find signals in social media data to in turn support public health and crisis management. He has co-authored 12 peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics and holds six US Patents.
Brian Foote is a computer scientist whose research interests include object-oriented programming, design, reuse, languages, frameworks, software architecture, patterns, reflection, metalevel architecture, and software evolution, for starters.
John F. Allen is an author/writer and visual artist who was born and resides in Indianapolis, IN. He is a founding and active member of the Speculative Fiction Guild, and a faculty member of the Indiana Writers Center. John studied Liberal Arts at IUPUI with a focus in Creative Writing and Art, received an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force and is a current member of the American Legion. John’s debut novel, The God Killers was published in 2013, followed by a spin-off novella series titled, Codename: Knight Ranger. He also penned the novelization of respected screenwriter, Demetrius Witherspoon’s short film, Submerge: Echo 51.
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May 2023 Speaker
Brian Sweany Acquisitions Editor for Recorded Books Brian Sweany talks about Everything You Need to Know About Audiobooks An Indianapolis native, Brian Sweany currently serves as Director of Acquisitions for Recorded Books, the largest independent audiobook publisher in the world. In his 24 years with the company, Brian has acquired the audio rights to many notable mystery and crime writers, including Patricia Cornwell, Carl Hiaasen, Charlaine Harris, Craig Johnson, C.J. Box, Elizabeth Peters, Laurie R. King, Nevada Barr, Lawrence Block, and Ace Atkins. Brian’s debut novel, BUY THE TICKET, TAKE THE RIDE, was published by Rare Bird Books in 2016. |
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April 2023 Speaker
L.C. Hayden Show, Don’t Tell Saturday, April 22 2023 at Noon Online and In-Person at the Beech Grove Public Library (1102 Main St, Beech Grove, IN) You’ve heard it before: show, don’t tell. But what does that mean? How can you tell if you’re telling instead of showing? Is it ever wise to tell instead of show? Award-winning author L. C. Hayden will address all of those points and more. When you finish this workshop, your writing will go up several notches. Watch Event on YouTube. |
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March 2023 Speaker
Barbara Shoup Revision: The Delicious Part Saturday, March 25 2023 at Noon Online and In-Person at the Nora Public Library (8625 Guilford Ave, Indianapolis, IN) Barbara Shoup is the author of eight novels for adults and young adults, most recently An American Tune and Looking for Jack Kerouac, and two books about writing, A Commotion in Your Heart: Notes about Writing and Life and Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process. Fellowship. Her creative nonfiction has been recently published in Atticus, Ocotillo Review, and Another Chicago Magazine. She is the Writer-in-Residence at the Indiana Writers Center and a faculty member at Art Workshop International. Watch event on YouTube. |
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Rick’s first book, Tortured Justice: Guantanamo Bay has recently been published. He has completed a second, Tortured Justice: South Carolina, and is working on a third, Tortured Justice: Ohio
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February 2023 Speaker
Richard Kammen Defense Attorney Richard Kammen speaks about Telling the Truth Through Fiction During his career Richard Kammen was a criminal defense lawyer with his office in Indianapolis, Indiana. He graduated from Ripon College cum laude in 1968 and New York University School of Law in 1971. Admitted to the Bar in 1971, he began his practice after service in the United States Army. Rick has represented clients charged with offenses ranging in seriousness from felony drunk driving to Racketeering and Capital Murder. Rick has defended over two hundred homicide cases including approximately forty death penalty cases in both State and Federal courts. No client that Mr. Kammen has represented at trial has been sentenced to death. He was lead counsel on the defense team that represented David Camm who was exonerated and freed by acquittal, after being imprisoned for thirteen years, and two prior convictions of killing his wife and two children. Until October of 2017, Mr. Kammen served as “Learned Counsel” in United States v. Abdul Rahim Al-Nashiri who is charged before a Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. Al-Nashiri is alleged to have been a central figure in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 in Aden, Yemen. This is likely to be the first capital military commission. Mr. Kammen and other Civilian counsel withdrew from the case after the Commission refused to address possible intrusions into the attorney client relationship. A frequent speaker and lecturer on criminal defense issues, Mr. Kammen has spoken in almost every state and federal circuit. He has been a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College since 1982 and the Trial Lawyers College since 2001. |
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January 2023 Speaker
Chapter Liaison Kim Garnick Giarratano January 28th, 2023 Sisters in Crime Online Community and Getting the Most Out of Your Membership Kim Garnick Giarratano is the author of several mysteries for teens and adults. Her debut novel Grunge Gods And Graveyards won the 2015 Silver Falchion Award for Best YA. Before having kids, Kim taught English as a Second Language and was a Young Adult Librarian. Currently, Kim teaches GED prep classes at SUNY Orange County Community College, and she reviews YA literature for BookPage. She lives in the Poconos with her family and has been a member of Sisters in Crime since 2014. Author Site: https://www.kimberlyggiarratano.com/ |