Vol. 2_No. 12 Carmel, Indiana June 23, 2007
Speed City typically meets on the 4th Saturday of the month.
NEXT MEETING:
July 28, 2007
10:30a.m. critique group -?-
11:30a.m. business meeting
1:00p.m. guest speaker: John Fisher, a Barnes & Noble Community Relations manager, will talk about his work at B&N and his store's relationship with writers. He'll no doubt have a different perspective on the industry.
NO AUGUST MEETING: FIELD TRIP TO CHICAGO, INSTEAD.
FUTURE MEETINGS AND EVENTS:
September 22, 2007
10:30a.m. critique group
11:30a.m. business meeting
12:00p.m. guest speaker: TBA
MEETING LOCATION:
The Mystery Company
233 2nd Avenue SW
Carmel, IN 46032
317-705-9711
800-643-6737
CRITIQUE GROUP
SinC members who have not joined the critique group but are interested in doing so need to contact Pat Robertson at:
TO JOIN SPEED CITY SINC:
You must be a member of the National Sisters in Crime Local chapter dues are $15.00, due on or before October 15, 2006 and payable to SCISinC. You can mail your application and check to:
Pat Robertson
554 Miami Street
Ellettsville, IN 47429
E-mail Pat Robertson if you need an application or additional information.
INDIANA SISTERS IN CRIME CHAPTER OFFICERS
(January 1, 2007 - January 1, 2008)
Brenda Robertson Stewart, president
317-831-1566
Andrea Smith, vice president
Pat Robertson, membership chairman, 812-876-7772
Jim Huang, program chairman
Vicki Stewart, treasurer
Kit Ehrman, secretary, newsletter editor
Mark Zacharias, communications chairman, (webmaster)
Sheila Boneham, critique group chairperson
CALL FOR GUEST SPEAKERS
Give Jim a hand in finding interesting guest speakers by providing the following information:
GUEST SPEAKER CONTACT INFORMATION
•
name, job title
name, job title•place of employment
place of employment•address
address•phone
phone•fax
fax•e-mail
e-mail•website if applicable
website if applicable•suggestions for topic(s) the speaker is qualified to speak about and that the group would find interesting
suggestions for topic(s) the speaker is qualified to speak about and that the group would find interesting•list of published works if applicable
list of published works if applicable•your connection to the speaker—how you know him/her
your connection to the speaker—how you know him/her•permission to use your name in the initial contact
permission to use your name in the initial contactSend your information to Jim Huang
Put SinC Possible Guest Speaker in the subject line.
WEBSITES OF INTEREST
If you’re a chapter member with a mystery website, and you would like it listed here, e-mail Kit Ehrman.
WEBSITES OF INTEREST TO WRITERS
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
Want to see what happened at an earlier meeting? Visit the newsletter archives page.
MEMBER NEWS:
Kit Ehrman's latest release in the Steve Cline
Mystery Series, TRIPLE CROSS is a Great Lakes
Book Award nominee and a Best Book of Indiana
Finalist.
~~Speed City members, share your news.~~
E-mail news releases to Kit Ehrman.
SPEED CITY
Indiana Chapter of Sisters in Crime News
SPEED CITY
Indiana Chapter of Sisters in Crime News
compiled by Kit Ehrman
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Brenda Stewart opened the meeting with the following updates and announcements:
Articles of Incorporation:
Moni Draper has compiled the Articles of Incorporation for our chapter, and they are ready to be sent to the Secretary of State's Office as soon as Brenda gets a check from our treasurer, Vicki Stewart. When the application is processed, Moni will file for the non-profit status and so forth. For the federal ID, it's going to cost about $300.
Income will come from booksales and the royalty we receive. Brenda thinks the print run will be 3,500.
August 25th Trip:
Instead of our August 25th Sisters in Crime meeting, Brenda is organizing a trip to the CSI Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Brenda currently has two people signed up, and she needs to solidify a headcount so she knows what kind of transportation to arrange. They'll be leaving from The Mystery Company and will return on the same day. Guests are welcome. The exhibit fee is $19.00 plus transportation which should be reasonable.
Read all about this fascinating exhibit here and contact Brenda right away if you want to go!
If this weekend does not work for you, the exhibit will run all summer.
Anthology Book Launch Party!
The RACING CAN BE MURDER anthology book launch party will be held at The Mystery Company on Sunday, October 7th, 2007, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Mark your calendars because the only excuse for not attending is "if you're dead or on your way home from an Alaskan road trip."
We need guest lists for the launch party. We need names and addresses. Jaci Muzamel will be sending out invitations, but Brenda needs this data by July 15th. If you get them to her on July 16th, the guests won't be added to the list.
Hit the deadline, for this and other anthology requests. Producing an anthology is a lot of work, and it's really for the authors' benefit. It's for the authors that we're doing this book. Even if you can't do something, please respond to requests and keep the lines of communication open.
So, please get your guest lists to Brenda. We want the launch to be a really big deal. We'll be inviting the media and race people. The more the merrier.
Once again, Sunday, October the 7th is the book launch. MARK YOUR CALENDAR. This date ties in with the launch date of National's anthology--a collection of mysteries written by past presidents of Sisters in Crime. We're launching together.
Anthology Cover:
The cover has not been finalized, although it should be ready in the middle of July. No one particularly cared for the first one. We don't know what the cover will be like, but it's going to be a neat book. There are a lot of fun stories, some really good stories.
We'll probably do another anthology, but we might pick another subject besides racing.
Other Anthology Events:
Debi Watson has graciously volunteered to manage the anthology booksigning calendar. She asked about authors arranging booksignings on their own. This is fine, but it's important that the dates not conflict with other chapter booksigning events and that several authors (at least) have agreed to attend each planned event.
October will be very busy, but these events will, and should, be spread out through the fall and then pick up in the spring. They can be booked months in advance, and there should be lots of events before the race.
Brenda thought a letter should be compiled and sent to surrounding libraries. Sherita mentioned Muncie and Ball State libraries.
Yahoo Groups:
If you have not joined the Yahoo Groups' Speed City SinC Group, please do so. Stay informed about anthology booksignngs, brainstorm ideas, and check the booksigning calendar.
How to Join:
Go to Yahoo Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/
Top of Page: Sign In.
New User? Sign up.
Once you have an account (no cost), write your User Name and Password somewhere where you can find it.
Go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mysteryusindiana/ and Join Group.
Who Will Provide the Books for Signings?
This is something we'll work out before the time comes. Either Tom at Cardinal Publishing will provide them or Jim will. We can, as a chapter, buy x number of books at 51% and sell them at libraries. We intend to sell them at libraries for $10.00, not the list price. If we go through Jim, we get the royalties.
Directions to the new MYSTERY COMPANY:
It's easy to get to the new Mystery Company from the old location. Leave the old parking lot and turn right, heading north on S. Rangeline Road. Pass beneath a steel Arts & Design District arch that spans the road. Almost immediately, make a left onto 3rd Street SW. Third Street SW dead ends at the Monon Trail. Make a right onto 2nd Avenue SW. Go a half block. The new store is on the right. Additional parking is across the street.
Mapquest Map
The Mystery Company phone # 317-705-9711
PRIME TIME is an action-filled page-turner, with humor, romance and a scheme so timely and innovative you’ll wonder why someone hasn’t tried it. A twist of an ending will have readers going back to the beginning to check for all the clues they missed.
There came a time when Hank was worried that she wouldn't finish PRIME TIME. She mentioned this to her mother who gave her some pivotal advice. "You will if you want to," she said. And Hank said she has never forgotten that. When Hank finished PRIME TIME, she called her husband into the room, typed The End and burst into tears.
While writing, you live in the world you've created, and it's hard to let it go, but like everything, the end of one thing is the beginning of something else.
So, Hank is a reporter and a member of Sisters in Crime. Her station had no trouble with her affiliation with SinC or the fact that she was writing a mystery. When she began she did have to worry about whether she had a right to her own name or a right to her own image, but the station has been nothing but enthusiastic.
Generally, the first question she gets from the staff is:
News director: "Do you kill a news director?"
Station manager: "Do you kill a station manager?" ETC.
Her ideas begin with a nugget of truth but find their own life. "It's kind of like reality with accessories."
Hank likes first person because we can only see the world from our perspective. In PRIME TIME, main character Charlie McNally sees her world from her perspective, but like every one of us, she might be wrong. The reader might think Charlie's wrong about something and form their own opinions as they go on the journey with Charlie to uncover clues and solve the mystery.
The name Charlie McNally appeared in Hank's brain fully formed and ready to go. Some names are like that, others she might struggle to come up with.
FACE TIME, the second Charlie McNally mystery, will be published in October 2007, and Hank just learned that there will be a DRIVE TIME and AIR TIME!
Harlequin's NEXT line is not chick lit. It's about women who've had a before and are seeing what's going to happen next. It's women's fiction about grownups.
Harlequin's NEXT line is a reflection of how the publishing house is moving into the next chapter of publishing.
When asked if Hank is ready to give up being an investigative reporter to pursue writing full time, she described her early days in TV news. She'd get up at four, go into work to find an assignment that she would have to research, film, and finalize to air that day at six, and you were only as good as your last story. Her day had a definite rhythm of rush, rush, rush, then down, then gear up the next morning. Being an investigative reporter, her life follows a different arc. She might be working on ten different stories, working with the producer, doing lots of research. The job is so different.
Time is an important element in her series. TV is all about TIME, and that's why the books all have time in the title.
When asked about the cover of PRIME TIME, Hank said she liked the cover but has no idea how it relates to the story. It's noticeable, sleek, and clearly, there's something going on. All positives.
About Charlie, Hank describes her as being true to herself. She loves her job and wants to do the best job she can. She sees the media changing around her and is dismayed and delighted at the same time.
TV changes.
The media changes.
Everything changes.
And Charlie knows she has to change with it to survive.
BREAKING NEWS: Hank just learned that she and PRIME TIME have made the Paperback Bestsellers List at the prestigious Boston Globe!
Congratulations, Hank!
Our Guest:
We were delighted to have Hank Phillippi Ryan join us!
Award winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan is currently on the air at Boston's NBC affiliate where she's broken big stories for the past 22 years. Along with her 24 EMMYs, Hank has won dozens of other regional, national, and international honors for her hard-hitting investigations. Hank’s been a radio reporter, a legislative aide in the United States Senate, and in a two-year stint in Rolling Stone Magazine's Washington Bureau, she worked on the political column "Capitol Chatter" and organized presidential campaign coverage for Hunter S. Thompson. She began her TV career in 1975, anchoring and reporting the news for TV stations in Indianapolis and then Atlanta. She and her husband, a nationally renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney, live just outside Boston.
Visit Hank Phillippi Ryan's website.
Hank grew up in Zionsville, Indiana and attended School 53, then went to Pike High School. Currently, she's the investigative reporter for the NBC affiliate in Boston. She's been a reporter for 30 years. She's wired herself with hidden cameras to catch criminals, confronted corrupt politicians, and chased down criminals. She's been involved in lots of exciting things in her career, but bringing a book out is somehow even more intimidating.
After the book was accepted for publication, the realization hit: "Oh, my gosh. People are going to read this!" But, now she's thrilled with the response, the great reviews, and the enthusiastic reception her first mystery is getting.
As a child, Hank says her mother knew she would be a TV reporter--because Hank watched so much TV! Hank said she thought that was just her mom's way of justifying all that TV watching, but as it turned out, Mom was right!
Hank knew she wanted to write a mysteries after discovering Nancy Drew. She remembers reading CLUE IN THE DIARY. She misread "dairy" for "diary" and keep waiting for a cows to show up in the story.
Later, Hank moved on to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, and then discovered every mystery that came her way.
But Hank says being an investigative
reporter and being a mystery writer
are similar. They're all about tracking
down clues, doing research, following
leads, exposing reality, and getting
justice in the end. Two big differences:
In journalism, you can't make anything
up--and you can't kill anyone.
PRIME TIME introduces forty-something
Charlotte 'Charlie' McNally, an
investigative reporter.
Charlie’s smart, successful
and devoted to Italian clothing
designers--but she’s worried her
news director is about to replace
her with a younger model. On the
hunt for a story that will save her
job, Charlie suspects some of that
annoying Spam clogging her compu-
ter is more than cyber junk. She
discovers it actually carries big-
money secret messages to the big-shot insiders who know how to
decode it. Problem is, the last out-sider who deciphered the system
now resides in the local morgue. So this could be the biggest story
of Charlie's already successful television career--or the one that may
end her life. Charlie's also facing another dilemma: what happens when a top-notch TV reporter is married to her job--but the camera doesn't love her anymore?
photo by Kit Ehrman
Hank Phillippi Ryan speaks in front of a packed house at The Mystery Company
A rapt audience listens to Hank Phillippi Ryan talk about PRIME TIME.
photo by Kit Ehrman
