February 2023 Chapter Meeting

On Sunday, February 5, Naomi Hirahara was the speaker, talking about “Strategies to Make Your Historical Mystery Stand Out” and Linda O. Johnston was the reader.

Naomi Hirahara is an Edgar Award-winning author of multiple traditional mystery series and noir short stories. Her Mas Arai mysteries, which have been published in Japanese, Korean and French, feature a Los Angeles gardener and Hiroshima survivor who solves crimes. The seventh and final Mas Arai mystery is Hiroshima Boy, which was nominated for an Edgar Award for best paperback original. Her first historical mystery is Clark and Division, which follows a Japanese American family’s move to Chicago in 1944 after being released from a California wartime detention center. Her second Leilani Santiago Hawai‘i mystery, An Eternal Lei, is scheduled to be released in 2022. A former journalist with The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, Naomi has also written numerous non-fiction history books and curated exhibitions. She has also written a middle-grade novel, 1001 Cranes.

Linda O. Johnston, a former lawyer who is now a full-time writer, has published 57 books so far, including mysteries and romantic suspense. More than twenty-five of them are romances for Harlequin, including Harlequin Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Nocturne. Her latest release is Shielding Colton’s Witness for Harlequin Romantic Suspense. She has also written several mystery series including the Barkery & Biscuits Mysteries and Superstition Mysteries for Midnight Ink, and the Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter Mysteries and Pet Rescue Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and her current mystery series is the Alaska Untamed Mysteries for Crooked Lane under the pseudonym Lark O. Jensen. Nearly all Linda’s current stories involve dogs!

Meeting dates for the first half of 2023 are: Jan 8, Feb 5, March 5, April 2, May 7.