MWA at Printers Row

June 7th, 2012

Come join us at Printers Row Lit Fest!
Our tent is located steps north from Dearborn and Polk, and we’ll have more than 30 mystery authors reading signing their latest books.
Plus, our popular Flash Fiction contest returns, but this time on the Center Stage starting at 2 pm!

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Our June meeting

June 3rd, 2012

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.
We’ll be logging on to listen and watch Shelley Costa Bloomfield, Cari Dubiel and members from Cleveland give us a sneak peak at Bouchercon 2012!
Afterward, we’ll be meeting to come up with content for the Flash Fiction Contest at Printers Row. We need to come up with about five beginning sentences for the flash fiction contestants to use.
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.

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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!

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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.

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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

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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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MWA Printers Row Flash Fiction Contest

May 30th, 2011

When: 4 pm to about 6 pm, Saturday June 4

Where: The Midwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America tent at the Printers Row Lit Fest. We’re in tent V, near the intersection of Dearborn and Polk.

Who can participate? Anyone – you don’t have to be an MWA member.

How does it work?

Take one of five opening sentences and come up with a short story – so short that you can read it in five minutes or less. We’ll be timing you, but if the story is good enough we just forget to look at the clock.

Here’s the opening sentences, you can make them any gender you want:

1) He wasn’t going to make it.

2) It was the smell that got to her.

3) Digging a hole six-feet deep was harder than he thought.

4) He’d have done it different if he’d known how much weight she’d gained.

5) They say a goldfish will eat anything.

Judging will be completely arbitrary and potentially quite unfair. But regardless it’ll be awesome because we have two of the most distinguished authors in Chicago history, Barbara D’Amato and Sara Paretsky, judging. So no, no pressure here. Nope, none at all.

What can you win? All participants will likely win prizes and there will be one grand prize awarded – a $25 Starbucks gift card.

Anything else? We’re limited to at most 12 participants due to time. There will be a sign-up sheet at the tent, but first come, first served.

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March meeting

March 17th, 2011

“The Borders Bankruptcy” will be the subject of a panel discussion at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 19 at the Centuries & Sleuths Bookstore,
7419 W. Madison St., Forest Park Ill, (708) 771-7243.  The panel, sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America’s Midwest Chapter, will discuss the implications for mystery writers of the national book chain’s financial troubles. Panel members will include authors, a publishing company representative, and August Aleksy, owner of Centuries & Sleuths.

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