Speakers Bureau Authors
Welcome to the Sisters in Crime/LA Speakers Bureau. Our published authors are available for events large and small throughout the greater L. A. area. To book an author or a panel of authors free of charge, or for any questions regarding the Speakers Bureau, please contact the Speakers Bureau Director at speakersbureau@sistersincrimela.com
Here are some of our authors:
Name: Lawrence Allan
Website: LawrenceAllanWrites.com
Books: Big Fat F@!k-up, Big F@!king Deal
Sub-genre: private eye, comedy
Bio: Lawrence Allan is an award winning novelist whose characters use humor to cover their emotional trauma. His debut novel Big Fat F@!k-Up was a Shamus Award Finalist for Best First PI novel and won 2 Claymore Awards at Killer Nashville, including Best Comedy. He has an MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin and studied Improv at the Brave New Workshop in Minneapolis. His fiction can be found on Shotgun Honey and in the award-winning crime anthology Wrong Turn. His second book, Big F@!king Deal is out now.
Name: Anne Louise Bannon
Website: AnneLouiseBannon.com
Books: Old Los Angeles series, Operation Quickline series, The Time Travel trilogy.
Sub-genre: historical mysteries, time travel
Bio: Anne Louise Bannon’s husband says that his wife kills people for a living. Anne has worked as a freelance journalist for magazines and newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. She and husband Michael Holland created the OddBallGrape.com wine education blog, and she co-wrote a book on poisons. Her latest novel, Death of an Heiress, is book four in the Old Los Angeles series. Anne and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters.
Name: James Bartlett
Website: www.thealaskanblonde.com, gourmetghosts.com
Books: The Alaskan Blonde
Sub-genre: nonfiction/true crime
Bio: Anthony Award-nominated and National Indie Excellence Award Winner James T. Bartlett is originally from London, but has been living in Los Angeles since 2004.
As a travel and lifestyle journalist and historian, he has written for the Los Angeles Times, BBC, Los Angeles Magazine, ALTA California, High Life, Hemispheres, Westways, Frommers, Crime Reads, Career Authors, Jungle Red Writers, American Way, Atlas Obscura, The Guardian, Daily Mirror, Real Crime, Variety, Whitechapel Journal, Sunday Life, History Ireland and Bizarre, among others.
In 2012 he published Gourmet Ghosts – Los Angeles, an alternative guide to the history and ghost stories behind some of the city’s oldest bars, restaurants and hotels, while 2016’s Gourmet Ghosts 2 focused on true crimes that took place at more of L.A.’s notable locations and eateries.
Name: Mike Befeler
Website: www.mikebefeler.com
Books: Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series, Omnipodge Trilogy
Sub-genre: geezer lit
Bio: In the May, 2008, issue of the AARP Bulletin Mike Befeler was identified as one of four authors in a new emerging mystery sub-genre. Harlan Coben, president of Mystery Writers of America stated, “We’ve just scratched the surface on geezer-lit. It could be the next frontier in crime fiction.” Mike turned his attention to fiction writing after a career in high technology marketing. He holds a Master’s degree from UCLA and a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford. He grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, and now lives in Lakewood, California. Mike is past president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.
Name: Paula Bernstein
Website: www.hannahklinemysteries.com
Books: Hannah Kline Mysteries
Sub-genre: medical mysteries
Bio: Paula Bernstein, like her series heroine Hannah Kline, spent her professional life practicing Obstetrics and Gynecology. After retiring from her full-time practice, she reinvented herself as a writer of medical mysteries. Paula is the author of the Hannah Kline series. Her short story, “On Call for Murder,” was published in LAst Resort, a Sisters in Crime LA anthology. A second short story, “The Queen of Mean” was published in Avenging Angelenos.
Name: Frankie Bow
Website: frankiebow.com
Books: Professor Molly series, Miss Fortune World Series
Sub-genre: amateur sleuth, short stories
Bio: Like Professor Molly, Frankie works in higher education. Unlike her protagonist, she is blessed with delightful students, sane colleagues, and an adequate office chair. She is a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime.
Follow Frankie at frankiebow.com.
Name: Lynne Bronstein
Website: https://www.facebook.com/lynne.bronstein/
Books: Stories in Crime Under the Sun and LAst Resort anthologies.
Sub-genre: short stories, poetry
Bio: Lynne Bronstein spent many years in the Santa Monica-Venice area and supported herself as a journalist while contributing to the literary community with four books, poems and short stories in numerous magazines, readings, and organizing poetry events. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Awards and her short story “Why Me?” won a prize in the poetic diversity Short Fiction Contest.
Name: Connie di Marco
Website: http://conniedimarco.com/
Books: Zodiac Mysteries (under Connie di Marco), Soup Lover’s Mysteries (under Connie Archer)
Sub-genre: cooking cozy
Bio: Connie di Marco is the author of the Zodiac Mysteries featuring San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti, a woman who never thought murder would be part of her practice. The fifth in the series, The Light Beside the Sea is the next to be released. Writing as Connie Archer, she is also the author of the national bestselling Soup Lover’s Mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime. You can find her excerpts and recipes in The Cozy Cookbook and The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook. Connie is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Crime Writers Association, International Thriller Writers and Sisters in Crime.
Name: Amy Dunkleberger (A.D. Price)
Website: https://www.adpricebooks.com/
Books: After the Blue, Blue Rain
Sub-genre: historical (WWII and just after)
Bio: A native of Washington, D. C., A. D. Price is an Emmy-winning screenwriter and author. Her publications (as Amy Dunkleberger) include educational books and feature articles on historical and arts-related subjects. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two dogs. After the Blue, Blue Rain is her first novel.
Name: Betty Hechtman
Website: www.BettyHechtman.com
Books: Three cozy mystery series: Writer for Hire, Crochet and Yarn Retreat
Sub-genre: cozy
Bio: Betty Hechtman was born in Chicago, Illinois and on a particularly eventful weekend graduated college, got married and moved to Los Angeles, California. She has a degree in Fine Arts and has had a variety of professions including being a volunteer farm worker on a kibbutz, Sunday school teacher, waitress, retail sales, editor of a finance company newsletter, telephone operator, associate publicist and freelance writer.
Her love of mysteries started with Nancy Drew and blossomed when she began to read Agatha Christie’s books. She has been doing handicrafts since she was a child. It is like a dream come true to be able to mix mystery and yarn craft in her books.
Name: Dorothy Howell
Website: https://www.dorothyhowellnovels.com/
Books: Four cozy series: Sewing Studio series, Hollis Brannigan series, Haley Randolph series, Dana Mackenzie series plus historical romances writing as Judith Stacy
Sub-genre: cozy mysteries, historical romance
Bio: Dorothy Howell is the USA Today Bestselling author of 49 novels in the mystery and romance genres. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages with millions sold worldwide.
Dorothy writes the Sewing Studio mystery series, as well as the Hollis Brannigan personal shopper series, and the Haley Randolph and Dana Mackenzie series. She writes historical romance novels under her pen name Judith Stacy.
Dorothy lives with her family in Los Angeles.
Name: Sybil Johnson
Website: www.authorsybiljohnson.com
Books: Aurora Anderson Mystery Series
Sub-genre: cozy mysteries
Bio: Sybil Johnson’s love affair with reading began in kindergarten with “The Three Little Pigs.” Visits to the library introduced her to Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and a host of other characters. Fast forward to college where she continued reading while studying Computer Science. After twenty years in the computer industry, Sybil decided to try her hand at writing mysteries. Her short fiction has appeared in Mysterical-E and Spinetingler Magazine among others. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Sybil now wields pen and paint brush from her home in Southern California.
Name: Sheila Lowe
Website: www.sheilalowebooks.com
Books: Claudia Rose Forensic Handwriting series, Beyond the Veil paranormal suspense series
Sub-genre: psychological suspense, paranormal suspense, nonfiction
Bio: Sheila Lowe writes stories of psychological suspense that put ordinary people into extraordinary circumstances. Like her fictional character Claudia Rose in the award-winning Forensic Handwriting series, she is a real-life forensic handwriting examiner who is recognized as an expert in the court system. Sheila also writes the Beyond the Veil paranormal suspense series and nonfiction books about handwriting and personality. Her latest book is a memoir, Growing From the Ashes: What I Learned From Life After Earth from the Murder of My Daughter. Sheila lives in Ventura, California, with Lexie, the Very Bad Cat. Sheila was recently featured in the HBO Documentary, Burden of Proof. Her next appearance will be on the CW TV show Mysteries Decoded
Name: Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger
Website: www.willzeilingerauthor.com, http://www.janetlynnauthor.com/, http://themarriedauthors.blogspot.com/
Books: Skylar Drake mysteries, The Pier mysteries,
Sub-genre: historical detective, hardboiled, thriller, co-writing
Bio: Published authors, Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger wrote individually until they teamed up and wrote the five book Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series. Janet has published seven mystery novels and Will has three in print, plus two short stories. Their world travels have sparked several ideas for murder, crime and thriller stories.
For their new International Crime File series, they are writing as Will Janns. The first novel is titled STONE PUB: an Exercise in Deception.
This creative couple has been married for 51 years.
Name: Marjorie McCown
Website: www.marjoriemccown.com
Books: Final Cut
Sub-genre: cozy mystery
Bio: Marjorie McCown has spent her entire professional life in the story-telling business, though she started out on the visual side of the craft. She began her career designing costumes for theater and opera companies all over the country, including the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, before she moved to Los Angeles to work in film. She spent 25 years as a key member of the costume design teams for a string of successful movies that includes “Forrest Gump,” “Apollo 13,” “A Bronx Tale,” “The Firm,” “Wag the Dog,” “The Aviator,” “Hairspray,” “Angels and Demons,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and “X-Men Days of Future Past.” She brings the experiences of her professional background in film to her writing, giving readers a look at Hollywood that’s different from what they’re accustomed to seeing on the red carpet. Her mysteries are set behind-the-scenes in the everyday working world of movies in production.
Name: Lisa Morton
Website: www.lisamorton.com
Books: The Art of the Zombie Movie
Sub-genre: screenwriting, short stories, nonfiction
Bio: Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, and prose writer whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” She is a six-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award®, the author of four novels and over 150 short stories, and a world-class Halloween and paranormal expert. Her latest releases include Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances and Haunted Tales: Classic Stories of Ghosts and the Supernatural (co-edited with Leslie S. Klinger). Recent short stories appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2020, Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles, and Classic Monsters Unleashed.
Name: Vanessa Ryan
Website: http://vanessaaryan.com
Books: Hetty Carson mysteries, Lana Davis mysteries
Sub-genre: traditional mystery, thriller, urban fantasy
Bio: Vanessa A. Ryan is an actor in Southern California. She was born in California and graduated from UCLA. When not writing or acting, she enjoys painting and nature walks. Her paintings and sculptures are collected worldwide. At one point, she performed stand-up comedy, so her writing often reflects her love of humor, even for serious subjects. She lives with her cats Dezi, Teger, Riley, and Divena. She is the author of A BLUE MOON, an urban fantasy, A PALETTE FOR MURDER, a traditional mystery, and THE TROUBLE WITH MURDER, a mystery-thriller.
Name: Lida Sideris
Website: www.lidasideris.com
Books: Southern California Mystery Series
Sub-genre: traditional mystery, children’s fiction
Bio: Lida Sideris is the author of the Southern California Mysteries, a light-hearted series loosely based on her former life working as a lawyer for a movie studio…except without the homicides. She is a 2x Killer Nashville, Silver Falchion Award finalist as well as a recipient of the Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America Scholarship award. Lida lives in the northern tip of Southern California with her family, rescue dogs, and a flock of uppity chickens.
Name: Nancy Cole Silverman
Website: www.nancycolesilverman.com
Books: Carol Childs mysteries, Misty Dawn mysteries, Kat Lawson mysteries
Sub-genre: traditional, cozy
Bio: After 25 years in news and talk radio, Nancy Cole Silverman retired to write fiction. Silverman has penned both short and long fiction. Her short stories have appeared in many anthologies, and she has authored three series: The Carol Childs and Misty Dawn mysteries, and her newest, The Kat Lawson Mysteries, beginning with The Navigator’s Daughter. Nancy also teaches short story writing and enjoys mentoring new writers.
Name: Alice Sherman Simpson
Website: www.alicesimpson.com
Books: The Winthrop Agreement, Ballroom
Sub-genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Bio: Daughter of a legendary eccentric vaudeville dancer, Alice Sherman Simpson’s life and work are inspired by dance. Formerly a graphic designer and illustrator, she taught at F.I.T. School of Visual Arts, The New School and Otis Parsons. Her hand-painted books are in international collections.
Simpson comes to writing late in life. Her debut novel BALLROOM was published in 2015 by Harper (HarperCollins) when she was 73. On November 21, 2023, HarperCollins will publish THE WINTHROP AGREEMENT, a Gilded Age novel, which takes place in New York City’s Lower East Side tenements, the mansions on upper Fifth Avenue and Long Island’s Gold Coast.
Name: A.E. Wasserman
Website: www.aewasserman.com
Books: The Langsford Mysteries
Sub-genre: historical fiction mystery thrillers
Bio: The daughter of a newspaperman, A.E. Wasserman wrote her first novella at age 14 and never stopped writing. She has received numerous awards, including top honors from Writer’s Digest for her work. A.E. Wasserman’s current mystery/thrillers, THE LANGSFORD MYSTERIES, (think Sherlock Holmes meets Downton Abbey,) have garnered international attention. After graduating from The Ohio State University, she lived in London, then San Francisco. Currently she resides in the Los Padres National Forest in California with her family and her muse, a Border Collie named Topper.
Name: Virginia Welker (Lo Monaco)
Website: lo-monaco.com
Books: Terry Strong, PI series
Sub-genre: private eye
Bio: A native Californian, Virginia has recently returned from Italy, where she lived for almost 16 years. She is a former judge for the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Awards. She is a former editor of Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, both print and online versions. Her first
novel, “Lethal Relations”—(self-published) was Short Listed for the 2018 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards for Mystery and Mayhem section. (It was subsequently republished by Level Best Books.) Her second novel “Poison Butterfly,” was also self-published. Her third novel, “Suddenly Deadly,” (self-published) was Short Listed for the 2022 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards for Clue section.
Name: Jeri Westerson
Website: JeriWesterson.com
Books: King’s Fool Mysteries, Irregular Detective Mysteries, Crispin Guest Mysteries
Sub-genre: Medieval, Tudor, Sherlockian, LGBTQ mysteries, historical, paranormal
Bio:Los Angeles native Jeri Westerson currently writes two mystery series: a Tudor series, the King’s Fool Mysteries, and a Sherlockian series called An Irregular Detective Mystery. She wrote fifteen Crispin Guest Medieval Noir Mysteries, a series nominated for thirteen awards from the Agatha to the Shamus. She has also written several paranormal series and standalone historical novels. She has served as president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, president and vice president for two chapters of Sisters in Crime (Orange County and Los Angeles), and is also a founding member of the Southern California chapter of the Historical Novel Society. See JeriWesterson.com for more
