Join SinC/LA for the
Sizzling Summer Series!
Our Sizzling Summer Series is a collaboration between the Sisters in Crime Chapters in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Northern California. During the months of June through September, each chapter takes a turn hosting a zoom meeting for the four chapters. The combined audience builds a broader community and wider perspective.
The next meeting will be hosted by the San Diego Chapter of Sisters in Crime
Saturday June 11 at 2 pm on Zoom
link to follow soon!
Matt Coyle will interview special guest author Allison Brennan.
Previous meetings:
MAY MEETING
Maggie Marr — Legal Issues for Authors: What Every Author Needs to Know
Reader — Anne Louise Bannon
Maggie’s words: As an author you do the most brilliant thing; you create stories that travel through space and time. You place words, pictures, and emotions into reader’s mind. You are also a business owner and entrepreneur. Your books are your business. Your business is the creation, management, and sale of intellectual property. Join me as I walk through some of the legal issues that are unique and not so unique to authors.
Maggie Marr is a USA Today Best Selling Author of over 20 books, including the beloved and best selling Hollywood Girls Club Series. She is the founder of Happily Ever After, Inc. a media company specializing in books and mobile games and co-founder and managing partner of Tule Productions, a division of Tule Entertainment. She is a former ICM motion picture literary agent; while at ICM she worked on such projects as Meet The Parents, Meet The Fockers, Underworld, Last First Kiss, Bourne Identity, Bridget Jone’s Diary, Game of Thrones, and a host of books to film and TV projects. She founded Maggie Marr Legal, a boutique intellectual property law practice dedicated to the sales, representation, and legal needs of creatives. Web: Maggie Marr Legal
Anne Louise Bannon has made not one, but two careers out of her passion for storytelling. Both a novelist and a journalist, she has an insatiable curiosity. In addition to her mystery novels, she has written a nonfiction book about poisons, freelanced for such diverse publications as the Los Angeles Times, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Backstage West, and edits the wine blog OddBallGrape.com. On the fiction side, she writes a romantic serial, The Old Los Angeles mystery series, the Kathy and Freddy 1920s mystery series, and the Operation Quickline series of romances with espionage intrusions. Her most recent title is the stand alone Rage Issues. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters. It starts when the inheritance that Lavina Gaines was to receive is stolen by her brother Timothy. Then an old Indian healing woman is murdered. Winemaker and physician Maddie Wilcox wants to find the person responsible for Mama Jane’s death, but is also occupied with another killer – the measles. When Lavina’s friend Julia Carson dies trying to rid herself of a pregnancy, Lavina asks Maddie’s help finding the man responsible for Julia’s child. Soon after, Lavina is killed and her murder bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Mama Jane’s. The only motive Maddie can find involves Julia’s death, which is not the sort of thing one talks about. Not only that, Lavina’s nether garments are missing. It’s a difficult challenge, but Maddie rises to it, searching among the many men of the pueblo, including some of her dearest friends. How does a proper lady in 1872 get the answers she needs to stop a killer determined to stop her first? Visit her website at: https://annelouisebannon.com
APRIL MEETING
our first hybrid zoom and in-person event since the pandemic began!
YouTube link coming soon!
Feature Speaker (update coming soon)
Readers: HJ & Alexia Forman
Readers: HJ Forman (our Corresponding Secretary, Henry Jay) was born and raised in New York City. In the latter part of a long and successful career as an award-winning academic biomedical scientist, he began writing mysteries. He is willing to admit that a small percentage of the inhabitants of academia are unworthy of admiration. Alexia Forman, a proud Philadelphian, went from painting pictures with oils to painting them with words. In her long history as an academic librarian, she also discovered how academia mirrors the rest of society. The Formans live in Southern California. They have one daughter of whom they are extremely proud and a tiny Yorkshire Terrier who is delighted to be the only real character in the book. In Toxic Vengeance, bodies of respected, highly educated men and women are dropping in different parts of the country. Why are all the victims poisoned even when they die by different means? It takes fiery redhead police detective Cindy Firestone from a Washington, D.C. suburb to spot a connection. She brings the case to the attention of FBI Special Agent Steve Jude, who recognizes her intelligence and enjoys her packaging. Together, they investigate the many suspects and learn about the world of academic science, which most outsiders assume to be sedate. How wrong is that!
MARCH MEETING
YouTube link here: youtu.be/kxYYiWDS2IM
Featured Speaker: Wanda Morris
“The Overnight Success that Only Took Thirteen Years.” Wanda Morris, author of bestselling debut novel All Her Little Secrets, will talk about the trials and tribulations she encountered on her way to publication and how she persevered. Her agent, Lori Galvin of Aevitas Creative Management, will share what it was that she saw in Wanda’s work that made her take a chance.
Agent Lori Galvin
Lori Galvin has been an agent with Aevitas Creative Management since 2015. Previously she was an editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and America’s Test Kitchen. She also survived running a b&b in coastal Maine. She is actively building her list in the crime/mystery/thriller space. Some of her clients include crime writers Harrison Ash, Cambria Brockman, Cheryl A. Head, Wanda M. Morris, and Sebastian J. Plata. She is looking for: Superbly written thrillers and novels of suspense as well as contemporary noir, gothic fiction, and mystery/horror crossovers.
Don’t miss Wanda’s book! Everyone has something to hide… Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive, who just happens to be her white boss. But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice arrives in the executive suite and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head. And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Why? Ellice has been keeping a cache of dark secrets, including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law. She can’t be thrust into the spotlight—again. But instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone black attorney, is promoted to replace her boss. While the opportunity is a dream-come-true, Ellice just can’t shake the feeling that something is off. When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more sinister than she could have ever imagined…
Paula Bernstein, President of Sisters in Crime LA
Reading From Her Latest Novel, Murder Is A Hate Crime. Detective Brenda Jordan is called to the scene when a man’s body is found in a homeless encampment. Her examination convinces her that his murder was an LGBTQ hate crime. With her partner on vacation, Brenda is in charge and on her own. She must identify the victim and track the killer. As she delves into some of the darkest corners of Los Angeles, she uncovers a conspiracy that threatens her life and forces her to confront her feelings as a closeted lesbian in the LAPD. https://www.hannahklinemysteries.com
FEBRUARY MEETING
YouTube link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Xi-gdDf4k
Featured Speaker: Frank Zafiro
The title for his talk is “Thank You, Joseph Wambaugh” Frank Zafiro writes gritty crime fiction from both sides of the badge. He was a police officer in Spokane, Washington from 1993 to 2013, holding many different positions and ranks, including patrol officer, corporal, and detective. When he entered leadership, he had the good fortune to eventually command K-9, SWAT, Volunteer Services, the Patrol Division, and the Investigative and Special Operations Division. He retired as a captain. Frank is the author of over thirty novels, most of them crime fiction, including his flagship police procedural, The River City series (now at seven entries). He has collaborated with five different authors on more than a dozen books. In addition to writing, Frank hosts the crime fiction podcast Wrong Place, Write Crime. He is an avid hockey fan and a tortured guitarist. He currently lives in Redmond, Oregon.
Guest Reader: Peggy Rothschild
Peggy Rothschild grew up in Los Angeles and has authored two adult mysteries, CLEMENTINE’S SHADOW and ERASING RAMONA, as well as one young adult adventure, PUNISHMENT SUMMER. Her short stories, “The Cookie Crumbles” and “The Devil’s Club,” were published in the anthologies The Best Laid Plans and Heartbreaks and Half-Truths respectively. Her short story, “The Magic Hour,” was included in the recent SinC L.A. anthology, Avenging Angelenos. Peggy also illustrated the children’s book Angie’s Great Big Beautiful Life: Tales of Angie the Rescue Cat. After losing their home during a California wildfire, Peggy and her husband moved to the beach community of Los Osos along the central coast. When not at her desk or out walking, you can usually find her in the garden. Peggy is a member of Sisters in Crime National and Sisters in Crime Los Angeles, and is represented by Melissa Jeglinski of The Knight Agency. A DEADLY BONE TO PICK is her first cozy mystery.