Mystery Writers of America

Our May meeting

May 15th, 2012

Jon Jordan, co-editor of CrimeSpree magazine, has never been afraid of speaking his mind, and he’ll be in rare form when he and Ruth Jordan speak to the Midwest Chapter of Mystery Writers of America on Sunday, May 20 at 1 pm.

Jon was recently goaded into sharing his thoughts on publicity in an entertaining blog post called “You’re doing it wrong”
crimespreemag.com/blog/2012/04/youre-doing-it-wrong-thoughts-on-publicity.html

Jon and Ruth will expand on this theme and draw on their long experience dealing with publishing giants, small press and self-publishers. It’ll be fun!

Our meeting will be at 1 PM Central Daylight Time on Sunday, May 20 at Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, 7419 W. Madison St., Forest Park, IL 60130.

And if you can’t make it to the store, you can watch and interact with us online as we’ll be broadcasting the meeting over the Internet via ustream (with our sound problems corrected this time!). Go to

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mwa-midwest

That’s http colon slash slash www dot ustream dot tv slash channel slash mwa-midwest

You’ll have to watch a lame commercial for a few seconds, but then you’ll be connected to the live stream.

To ask questions of our speaker, email cns7419@sbcglobal.net

And save the date! On Sunday, June 3, members from our Cleveland chapter will give us a peek into their plans for this year’s Bouchercon!

Categories: Announcements | Tags: Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, Crimespree Magazine, Jon Jordan, Mystery Writers of America | No Comments

Chapter meeting this Sunday

April 20th, 2012

Our April meeting will feature crime scene expert Howard Dean. Howard will be talking about bloodstain evidence: how it’s collected and analyzed and how it helps solves murders.

Howard Dean has been working at crime scenes for over 20 years as a Crime Scene Investigator, Blood Stain Analyst, and Rifle Armorer. Currently he is the Technical Services Director for the Loves Park Police Department, in Loves Park, Illinois. He’s also a certified pistol instructor who offers classes designed specifically for writers.

Our meeting will be at 1 PM Central Daylight Time on Sunday, April 22 at
Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore, 7419 W. Madison St., Forest Park, IL 60130.

And if you can’t make it to the store, you can watch and interact with us online
as we’ll be broadcasting the meeting over the Internet via ustream. Go to

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mwa-midwest

You’ll have to watch a lame commercial for a few seconds, but then you’ll be
connected to the live stream. To ask questions of our speaker, email aabroder@yahoo.com.

Categories: Announcements, Event | Tags: Meeting | Comments Off

Incredible opportunity for MWA members!

April 4th, 2012

MWA-University is coming to Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 16! Waukesha is right outside Milwaukee and only a day trip from Madison and Chicago.

MWA-U is a full-day writing seminar which teaches participants the skills needed to write a novel, from the idea stage to publication. The focus is on the craft of writing, and the college-level courses are taught by published writers and experienced teachers. The core curriculum includes:

- After the idea
- Dramatic structure and plot
- Setting and description
- Character
- Editing
- The writing life

The all-day workshop is only $50. Registration is limited, and the registration deadline is June 4. Sign up now!

Go to http://mysterywriters.org/?q=MWA-University

Categories: Announcements, From our MWMWA president | Comments Off

Writing contest!

January 30th, 2012

Our ghost story writing contest and fundraiser for the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart, Texas, has entered its fourth year this 2012. We offer nice cash prizes and trophies for ghost story entries of 5,000 words or less for an entry fee of $20.00 that goes in its entirety to the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library.

First place prize is $1000.00 and a trophy. Second place prize is $500.00 and a ribbon. Third place prize is $250.00 and a ribbon. No publication is involved.

There is also a Junior contest for writers aged 12-18. The same rules apply to both contests. First prize for the junior contest is $250.00 and a ribbon. All other top contenders receive a prize ribbon. The junior contest entry fee is $5.00.

We want ghost stories of 5,000 words or less, written in English. No other restrictions apply. We accept entries from July 1, 2012; the deadline is October 1, 2012 (postmarked).

Full rules and entry forms are at http://clarklibraryfriends.com. You can also see a list of all winners from the past contests on this site.

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Love is Murder, Online classes

January 30th, 2012

Online classes start in February

The Midwest Chapter’s popular online classes are back for 2012. First up is Tony Perona’s class in writing synopses. Don’t you just hate trying to condense your book into 500 words? Want to know how to do it? Tony can help. He’ll take the first 10 people to email him at tony.perona@gmail.com. The class will begin in February. Remember, these classes are FREE and are a benefit to being a member of MWMWA.

In March Luisa Buehler will teach on “How to End a Series.” She’s done it, J.K. Rowling’s done it, and if you’re contemplating doing it, too, then take this workshop. Luisa thought long and hard before ending the Grace Marsden series, but she wanted to do it right. More information on that next month.

Also, if you have a special topic near and dear to your heart that mystery writers should know about, please contact Tony Perona (tony.perona@gmail.com) to talk about teaching a class. We’ve done everything from setting your novel to writing query letters to Medical Issues 101 to 50 Ways to Kill Your Lover to marketing your manuscript, so we’re open to a lot of ideas. (And Tony would welcome having those who’ve taught a class teach it again…)

Chapter meeting on Sunday

We’ll be holding our first chapter meeting of the year this Sunday, Feb. 5 at 11 am after the Love is Murder with special guest speaker Donald Bain. The meeting is open to anyone, you don’t have to be attending the conference. We’ll be in the Field room at the Intercontinental Chicago O’Hare, 5300 N. River Rd., Rosemont, IL, 60018

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Report from St. louis

September 15th, 2011

It’s just getting started, but Bouchercon is underway. Panels I’m interested in feature authors like Val McDermid, Gary Phillips, Tom Schreck, Peter Spiegelman and, well, a host of others.

The Jordans, of Crimespree Magazine fame, have put together a terrific program and you can’t two steps without seeing a author you’d love to spend some time with. And you can, everyone’s accessible and friendly. If you’ve never been to a con like this, it’s a great way to recharge your creative energy.

And this goes on for four days in downtown St. Louis. If you’re in the neighborhood, there are single day tickets available.

Categories: Extra event | Tags: Bouchercon | Comments Off

Bouchercon 2011

September 7th, 2011

Reminder: no meeting in September, although I hope to see quite a few of you at Bouchercon!
We’ll have two outreach meetings in October. The first will be in Minneapolis on Sunday, October 16 (the day after the book festival) at Once Upon a Crime bookstore at noon. MWMWA Board member Raymond Benson promises pizza, but you need to let him know ahead of time that you’ll be coming. Contact him through his website or see the latest CLUES for his email address.

The second of the two outreach meetings will be in Madison, Wisconsin on Friday night, October 21, at 6:30 p.m. at Booked for Murder bookstore. MWMWA Board member Jerry Peterson is organizing that one. He, too, promises pizza. You can reach him by visiting his website or by checking CLUES for his email address.

Back in Chicago in November & December

We’ll be back at Augie’s store, Centuries & Sleuths in Forest Park for our meeting in November and for our Holiday Party on December 11.
The November meeting will be Sunday, November 13 at 1 p.m. and will feature Susan Vondrak, Director of Training for the Illinois State Police crime labs and also Laboratory Director of Research and Development for the State Police. She’ll cover a lot of stuff about DNA, including uses for DNA evidence and DNA identification turn-around times. Bring your questions!

The Holiday Party will be Sunday, December 11 at 1 p.m. Board members Raymond Benson and Bob Goldsborough, who did a spectacular job last year, will be working on it again this year. We’re all hoping for better weather, however.
Hope you’ll be able to make it to a meeting!
Tony Perona, Midwest Chapter President

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August 23 Meeting in Ann Arbor

August 11th, 2011

Join us at Aunt Agatha’s bookshop in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Tuesday, August 23, 2011 at 7 p.m. for a MWMWA outreach meeting. We have two special guest speakers that evening: Kelly Nichols, half of the best-selling P.J. Parrish sisters, and Doug Allyn, two-time Edgar winner (including this year) for Best Short Story. Promises to be an excellent time. Aunt Agatha’s is a marvelous mystery bookstore at 213 South Fourth Avenue in Ann Arbor. Hope to see you there!

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