From the Chapter President
Janet E. Williams
Welcome to the Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime website where you can learn about who we are, the programs we sponsor, and how to join our organization of crime and mystery writers and readers.
We are looking forward to a new year of programs and events in the virtual world of Zoom that will educate, entertain, and spur us to develop our craft and improve as writers. In January, retired journalist Gary Sosniecki will talk about how he investigated his great-grandmother’s murder to write the compelling true-crime story, The Potato Masher Murder; February brings us Tammy Ayers and Mel Cabre and The Legend of Bigfoot; in March, author John Gilstrap will join us to talk about his career as a best-selling writer of the Jonathan Grave thrillers; and in May, William Kent Kruger, the acclaimed author of This Tender Land, is our featured speaker. Those are just a few of the programs planned for 2021.
Coming in September is our chapter’s eighth anthology, a yet-to-be titled collection of Halloween-themed stories written by chapter members and edited by Tony Perona and Diana Catt. Meanwhile, our other seven anthologies, including Homicide for the Holidays and Murder 20/20, continue to be available.
Though it has been difficult to be separated from our friends and colleagues, meeting through Zoom every month has enabled us to remain a strong community of writers and readers. In fact, we have been able to invite out-of-state speakers such as Nina Sadowski, Jaden Terrell and Les Roberts, who could never have attended our meetings in person. Programming Chair Janis Thornton has worked hard to bring us speakers who educate and entertain our members.
Information about our 2021 programs is regularly updated on our website by Hawthorn Mineart, our media chair, with assistance from Vice President Carol Paddock. If you have questions about membership, contact Elizabeth San Miguel, membership chair. Our leadership team includes Ramona Henderson as secretary and Brigitte Kephart, our immediate past president, who serves as treasurer.
In addition to a robust roster of speakers and workshops, our board is working on goals for 2021 that include launching a monthly write-in via Zoom to help us jumpstart our writing, firming up plans for a retreat that will likely take place in 2022 when we are past the pandemic, and making our programs available to all members through our chapter’s YouTube channel and website. We are working to promote our work through libraries and bookstores, forge closer relationships with other writing organizations in our community to expand our reach as an organization, and team up with other Sisters in Crime chapters on programs and projects.
I am honored to serve as president of our Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime and want to encourage anyone with ideas for programming, speakers or anything else to reach out to me or any member of our leadership team. We are all looking forward to the day when we can meet in person, but until COVID-19 is finally tamed we will continue to meet virtually.
I wish you all a 2021 of peace, health, hope, and a year filled with creativity.
Janet E. Williams, chapter president
We are looking forward to a new year of programs and events in the virtual world of Zoom that will educate, entertain, and spur us to develop our craft and improve as writers. In January, retired journalist Gary Sosniecki will talk about how he investigated his great-grandmother’s murder to write the compelling true-crime story, The Potato Masher Murder; February brings us Tammy Ayers and Mel Cabre and The Legend of Bigfoot; in March, author John Gilstrap will join us to talk about his career as a best-selling writer of the Jonathan Grave thrillers; and in May, William Kent Kruger, the acclaimed author of This Tender Land, is our featured speaker. Those are just a few of the programs planned for 2021.
Coming in September is our chapter’s eighth anthology, a yet-to-be titled collection of Halloween-themed stories written by chapter members and edited by Tony Perona and Diana Catt. Meanwhile, our other seven anthologies, including Homicide for the Holidays and Murder 20/20, continue to be available.
Though it has been difficult to be separated from our friends and colleagues, meeting through Zoom every month has enabled us to remain a strong community of writers and readers. In fact, we have been able to invite out-of-state speakers such as Nina Sadowski, Jaden Terrell and Les Roberts, who could never have attended our meetings in person. Programming Chair Janis Thornton has worked hard to bring us speakers who educate and entertain our members.
Information about our 2021 programs is regularly updated on our website by Hawthorn Mineart, our media chair, with assistance from Vice President Carol Paddock. If you have questions about membership, contact Elizabeth San Miguel, membership chair. Our leadership team includes Ramona Henderson as secretary and Brigitte Kephart, our immediate past president, who serves as treasurer.
In addition to a robust roster of speakers and workshops, our board is working on goals for 2021 that include launching a monthly write-in via Zoom to help us jumpstart our writing, firming up plans for a retreat that will likely take place in 2022 when we are past the pandemic, and making our programs available to all members through our chapter’s YouTube channel and website. We are working to promote our work through libraries and bookstores, forge closer relationships with other writing organizations in our community to expand our reach as an organization, and team up with other Sisters in Crime chapters on programs and projects.
I am honored to serve as president of our Speed City chapter of Sisters in Crime and want to encourage anyone with ideas for programming, speakers or anything else to reach out to me or any member of our leadership team. We are all looking forward to the day when we can meet in person, but until COVID-19 is finally tamed we will continue to meet virtually.
I wish you all a 2021 of peace, health, hope, and a year filled with creativity.
Janet E. Williams, chapter president