2024 Guest Speakers
August 2024 Speaker
Brent Bill
Writing from the Heart
Hoosier author Brent Bill will guide us through exercises from his popular “‘Writing form the Heart” workshop, which has been featured at the Indiana Writers Center, Midwest Writers Workshop, and numerous other locations.
Brent Bill is a writer, photographer, retreat leader, writing coach, and Quaker minister. His first book was published in 1984. Since then, he’s written many more, including “Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality,” “Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker,” and his newly released short story collection, “Amity: Stories from the Heartland.” Brent lives in Hendricks County on Ploughshares Farm, 40 acres of former family farmland being transformed into tall grass prairie and native hardwood forests.
For more information about Brent, please visit his website at brentbill.com.
Writing from the Heart
Hoosier author Brent Bill will guide us through exercises from his popular “‘Writing form the Heart” workshop, which has been featured at the Indiana Writers Center, Midwest Writers Workshop, and numerous other locations.
Brent Bill is a writer, photographer, retreat leader, writing coach, and Quaker minister. His first book was published in 1984. Since then, he’s written many more, including “Holy Silence: The Gift of Quaker Spirituality,” “Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker,” and his newly released short story collection, “Amity: Stories from the Heartland.” Brent lives in Hendricks County on Ploughshares Farm, 40 acres of former family farmland being transformed into tall grass prairie and native hardwood forests.
For more information about Brent, please visit his website at brentbill.com.
July 2024 Speaker
Ray Boomhower
The Ultimate Protest
Biographer, historian, and journalist Ray Boomhower will speak with us about the subject of his most recent book,The Ultimate Protest…, American journalist, war correspondent, and photographer Malcolm Browne (1931-2012), widely known for his award-winning photo of the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire on June 11, 1963 in protest of the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. Ray also will discuss his methods for researching his biographies and historic nonfiction projects.
Ray 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 17 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, John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog, and, of course, The Ultimate Protest: Malcolm W. Browne, Thich Quang Duc, and the News Photograph That Stunned the World.
For more about Ray, please visit his blog: http://rayboomhower.blogspot.com/ or his Amazon author page: https://tinyurl.com/3the5sa7
The Ultimate Protest
Biographer, historian, and journalist Ray Boomhower will speak with us about the subject of his most recent book,The Ultimate Protest…, American journalist, war correspondent, and photographer Malcolm Browne (1931-2012), widely known for his award-winning photo of the Buddhist monk who set himself on fire on June 11, 1963 in protest of the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government. Ray also will discuss his methods for researching his biographies and historic nonfiction projects.
Ray 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 17 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, John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog, and, of course, The Ultimate Protest: Malcolm W. Browne, Thich Quang Duc, and the News Photograph That Stunned the World.
For more about Ray, please visit his blog: http://rayboomhower.blogspot.com/ or his Amazon author page: https://tinyurl.com/3the5sa7
June 2024 Speaker
Jane Simon Ammeson
A Writer's Journey
Jane Simon Ammeson, author of four historic true crime books, might never have written any of them if not for her mother telling her about a family link to a decades-old, highly sensational Indiana murder. And so it began. That revelation was all it took to spark Jane’s curiosity. Join Jane to learn about her fascinating journey, and how she came to realize that some of her life’s paths connected with the victim of that long-ago crime.
Jane Simon Ammeson is a freelance writer who specializes in travel, food, personalities, and true crime. Her historic true crime books include How to Murder Your Wealthy Lovers and Get Away With It: Murder and Mayhem in the Gilded Age, Murders That Made Headlines: Crimes of Indiana, and A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana. She is also the author of other books such as Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest, Brown County, Indiana, Holiday World with Pat Koch, East Chicago, and Lincoln Roadtrip: The Backroads Guide to America’s Favorite President, In addition, she is co-author with Patricia Yelling Koch of Santa's Daughter.
She writes frequently for the Times of Northwest Indiana, Edible Michiana, Kentucky Living magazine, Lakeland Boating, MexConnect, Long Weekends Magazine, Travel Indiana, Indianapolis Monthly, and the Herald Palladium, where she has a weekly food column. She also writes the monthly marketing column for the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association, reviews books for the New York Journal of Books, and writes the book review column Shelf Life for the Times of Northwest Indiana. Jane is the winner of the Bronze Award in the 2019-20 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition in the Travel Book category. Her base camp is Stevensville, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Michigan.
A Writer's Journey
Jane Simon Ammeson, author of four historic true crime books, might never have written any of them if not for her mother telling her about a family link to a decades-old, highly sensational Indiana murder. And so it began. That revelation was all it took to spark Jane’s curiosity. Join Jane to learn about her fascinating journey, and how she came to realize that some of her life’s paths connected with the victim of that long-ago crime.
Jane Simon Ammeson is a freelance writer who specializes in travel, food, personalities, and true crime. Her historic true crime books include How to Murder Your Wealthy Lovers and Get Away With It: Murder and Mayhem in the Gilded Age, Murders That Made Headlines: Crimes of Indiana, and A Jazz Age Murder in Northwest Indiana. She is also the author of other books such as Hauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest, Brown County, Indiana, Holiday World with Pat Koch, East Chicago, and Lincoln Roadtrip: The Backroads Guide to America’s Favorite President, In addition, she is co-author with Patricia Yelling Koch of Santa's Daughter.
She writes frequently for the Times of Northwest Indiana, Edible Michiana, Kentucky Living magazine, Lakeland Boating, MexConnect, Long Weekends Magazine, Travel Indiana, Indianapolis Monthly, and the Herald Palladium, where she has a weekly food column. She also writes the monthly marketing column for the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association, reviews books for the New York Journal of Books, and writes the book review column Shelf Life for the Times of Northwest Indiana. Jane is the winner of the Bronze Award in the 2019-20 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition in the Travel Book category. Her base camp is Stevensville, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Michigan.
May 2024 Speaker
Chris Flook
Indianapolis Graverobbing
In the fall of 1902, Indianapolis police uncovered a prolific graverobbing ring operating across the city. At the time, cemeteries across central Indiana were relieved of their dead by ghouls, as the graverobbers were called, seeking fresh corpses desperately needed by the city’s medical colleges. In Hamilton County, a former Confederate soldier named Wade West delivered stolen corpses by floating them down the White River. His counterpart in Indianapolis, Rufus Cantrell, an itinerant preacher and full-time graverobber known as the “King of the Ghouls,” ransacked Indy’s cemeteries for years before being caught. Flook will explore this story and his book, “Indianapolis Graverobbing: A Syndicate of Death.”
Chris Flook is a public historian from Muncie, Indiana and has authored three books about local history: “Indianapolis Graverobbing,” “Native Americans of East-Central Indiana,” and “Lost Towns of Delaware County.” In 2016 he co-authored and edited “Beech Grove Cemetery Comes to Life.” Flook also writes the bi-monthly “ByGone Muncie History” column in the Muncie Star Press.
In addition to serving on the board of directors at the Delaware County Historical Society, Flook works professionally as a motion graphics designer, photographer and documentary filmmaker, and he teaches motion graphics in the Department of Media at Ball State University as a senior lecturer. For more information, please visit http://www.chrisflook.com
View this event on YouTube.
Indianapolis Graverobbing
In the fall of 1902, Indianapolis police uncovered a prolific graverobbing ring operating across the city. At the time, cemeteries across central Indiana were relieved of their dead by ghouls, as the graverobbers were called, seeking fresh corpses desperately needed by the city’s medical colleges. In Hamilton County, a former Confederate soldier named Wade West delivered stolen corpses by floating them down the White River. His counterpart in Indianapolis, Rufus Cantrell, an itinerant preacher and full-time graverobber known as the “King of the Ghouls,” ransacked Indy’s cemeteries for years before being caught. Flook will explore this story and his book, “Indianapolis Graverobbing: A Syndicate of Death.”
Chris Flook is a public historian from Muncie, Indiana and has authored three books about local history: “Indianapolis Graverobbing,” “Native Americans of East-Central Indiana,” and “Lost Towns of Delaware County.” In 2016 he co-authored and edited “Beech Grove Cemetery Comes to Life.” Flook also writes the bi-monthly “ByGone Muncie History” column in the Muncie Star Press.
In addition to serving on the board of directors at the Delaware County Historical Society, Flook works professionally as a motion graphics designer, photographer and documentary filmmaker, and he teaches motion graphics in the Department of Media at Ball State University as a senior lecturer. For more information, please visit http://www.chrisflook.com
View this event on YouTube.
April 2024 Speaker
J.R. Jamison
This Author's Life
J.R. Jamison will join us to share his writing journey from penning short stories for fun, to co-founding a national nonprofit writing project (The Facing Project), to becoming an award-winning memoirist and author of young adult novels. He will cover his pathway to publishing, and how writing across categories and genres has strengthened his craft.
J.R. Jamison is author of the bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Queer, which received starred reviews from Library Journal and Foreword and was Silver winner of the 2022 Nautilus Book Award for Best Memoir and finalist for the 2022 Indiana Authors Award in the debut category. Most recently his book was a Libro.fm bestseller in LGBTQ nonfiction (audiobook, narrated by the author).
In July of 2023, J.R.’s entry in the Speed City Sisters in Crime’s Flash Fiction Contest was selected WINNER — an achievement he calls “one of his proudest moments.”
J.R. is host of the NPR podcast and radio show, The Facing Project, and founder of the national Facing Project network, a nonprofit serving more than 100 communities in 18 states. He lives in Muncie with husband, Cory, and their lovable, super-cute pit bull, J.J.
For more information about J.R., please visit jrjamison.com.
View this event on YouTube.
March 2024 Speaker
Nick Petrie
Life Logistics
“Writing is challenging. It will always be challenging. I don't know a way around that, but I do know a few simple hacks, as well as some Jedi mind tricks that have really helped me get out of my own way and keep my book projects moving forward.” — Nick Petrie
Join us on March 23, when bestselling author Nick Petrie will join us to talk about everything from life logistics to work habits to the mental and emotional aspects of the writing life.
Nick Petrie received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington and won a Hopwood Award for short fiction while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. His story “At the Laundromat” won the 2006 Short Story Contest in The Seattle Review, a national literary journal.
His first novel, The Drifter, won the ITW Thriller and Barry Awards, and was nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Hammett Awards. He won the 2016 Literary Award from the Wisconsin Library Association and was named one of Apple’s 10 Writers to Read in 2017. Light It Up was named the Best Thriller of 2018 by Apple Books. Both Light it Up and The Wild One were shortlisted for the Barry Award.
His books in the Peter Ash series are The Drifter, Burning Bright, Light It Up, Tear It Down, The Wild One, The Breaker, and The Runaway. A husband and father, he has worked as a carpenter, remodeling contractor, and building inspector. He lives in Milwaukee, where he is hard at work on the next Peter Ash novel.
For more information about Nick and his books, please visit his website at nickpetrie.com.
View this event on YouTube.
Life Logistics
“Writing is challenging. It will always be challenging. I don't know a way around that, but I do know a few simple hacks, as well as some Jedi mind tricks that have really helped me get out of my own way and keep my book projects moving forward.” — Nick Petrie
Join us on March 23, when bestselling author Nick Petrie will join us to talk about everything from life logistics to work habits to the mental and emotional aspects of the writing life.
Nick Petrie received his MFA in fiction from the University of Washington and won a Hopwood Award for short fiction while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. His story “At the Laundromat” won the 2006 Short Story Contest in The Seattle Review, a national literary journal.
His first novel, The Drifter, won the ITW Thriller and Barry Awards, and was nominated for Edgar, Anthony, and Hammett Awards. He won the 2016 Literary Award from the Wisconsin Library Association and was named one of Apple’s 10 Writers to Read in 2017. Light It Up was named the Best Thriller of 2018 by Apple Books. Both Light it Up and The Wild One were shortlisted for the Barry Award.
His books in the Peter Ash series are The Drifter, Burning Bright, Light It Up, Tear It Down, The Wild One, The Breaker, and The Runaway. A husband and father, he has worked as a carpenter, remodeling contractor, and building inspector. He lives in Milwaukee, where he is hard at work on the next Peter Ash novel.
For more information about Nick and his books, please visit his website at nickpetrie.com.
View this event on YouTube.
February 2024 Speaker
Laura Van Arendonk Baugh
BookFunnel, an Essential Tool for Your Author Business
Whether sending out ARCs of your new book, selling ebooks at author events, fulfilling your ebook orders to readers, or even delivering your book’s “reader magnet” to attract new readers, BookFunnel does it all for you — efficiently and quickly. According to Laura Van Arendonk Baugh, BookFunnel is an indispensable tool for marketing and distribution, and once you give it a try, you won’t know how you managed without it.
Laura Van Arendonk Baugh writes captivating epic and urban fantasy, historical fiction, and mystery, as well as non-fiction on animal training & behavior. Many people known to have exceptional taste think it’s pretty cool stuff. Laura was born at a very early age and never looked back. She overcame her childhood deficiencies of having been born without teeth and unable to walk, and by the time she matured into a recognizable adult, she had become a behavior analyst, an internationally recognized animal trainer, a costumer/cosplayer, a chocolate addict, and of course a writer. Now she is an award-winning writer of speculative fiction, mystery, and non-fiction. Her works have earned numerous accolades, including 3-star (the highest possible) ratings on Tangent‘s “Recommended Reading” list. She admits a mental turning point in her career when she realized she could buy that sexy red Tesla with income from her books!
For more information about Laura, her books, and her blog, visit lauravanarendonkbaugh.com/.
View this event on YouTube.
BookFunnel, an Essential Tool for Your Author Business
Whether sending out ARCs of your new book, selling ebooks at author events, fulfilling your ebook orders to readers, or even delivering your book’s “reader magnet” to attract new readers, BookFunnel does it all for you — efficiently and quickly. According to Laura Van Arendonk Baugh, BookFunnel is an indispensable tool for marketing and distribution, and once you give it a try, you won’t know how you managed without it.
Laura Van Arendonk Baugh writes captivating epic and urban fantasy, historical fiction, and mystery, as well as non-fiction on animal training & behavior. Many people known to have exceptional taste think it’s pretty cool stuff. Laura was born at a very early age and never looked back. She overcame her childhood deficiencies of having been born without teeth and unable to walk, and by the time she matured into a recognizable adult, she had become a behavior analyst, an internationally recognized animal trainer, a costumer/cosplayer, a chocolate addict, and of course a writer. Now she is an award-winning writer of speculative fiction, mystery, and non-fiction. Her works have earned numerous accolades, including 3-star (the highest possible) ratings on Tangent‘s “Recommended Reading” list. She admits a mental turning point in her career when she realized she could buy that sexy red Tesla with income from her books!
For more information about Laura, her books, and her blog, visit lauravanarendonkbaugh.com/.
View this event on YouTube.
January 2024 Speaker
Tim Byers
Building the Novel Only You Can Build
Tim Byers, author of the young adult thriller, The Order of the Red Lion and the first of a series, will be with us on January 27 to talk about what sparked his interest in World War II and what prompted him to set his first novel in 1939 Luxembourg, amid the perilous circumstances leading to the war. Tim also will delve into his research of long-ago and far-away Luxembourg and how it has impacted his life. Writers of historical fiction will find Tim’s journey as an author as fascinating as it is inspiring.
Tim grew up building World War II-era model airplanes and tanks in his basement. On long, summer vacation drives with his family, he discovered spy novels. It was only natural then, that after a semester in Luxembourg, Tim’s first novel, The Order of the Red Lion, was born. When Tim’s not writing, he enjoys remodeling his home in Carmel, traveling, and savoring life’s adventures with his wife, Mary.
For more information, please visit Tim at www.tim-byers.com and Facebook @tim.byers.184.
View this event on YouTube.
Building the Novel Only You Can Build
Tim Byers, author of the young adult thriller, The Order of the Red Lion and the first of a series, will be with us on January 27 to talk about what sparked his interest in World War II and what prompted him to set his first novel in 1939 Luxembourg, amid the perilous circumstances leading to the war. Tim also will delve into his research of long-ago and far-away Luxembourg and how it has impacted his life. Writers of historical fiction will find Tim’s journey as an author as fascinating as it is inspiring.
Tim grew up building World War II-era model airplanes and tanks in his basement. On long, summer vacation drives with his family, he discovered spy novels. It was only natural then, that after a semester in Luxembourg, Tim’s first novel, The Order of the Red Lion, was born. When Tim’s not writing, he enjoys remodeling his home in Carmel, traveling, and savoring life’s adventures with his wife, Mary.
For more information, please visit Tim at www.tim-byers.com and Facebook @tim.byers.184.
View this event on YouTube.
See Speed City Sisters in Crime's Youtube Channel for more past guest speakers