Mystery Writers of America

May 17th Outreach meeting in Milwaukee

June 1st, 2010

The May Meeting of the Midwest Chapter was another outreach meeting, this one held in Milwaukee.  Ted Hertel (one of MWMWA’s past presidents) helped out the chapter by arranging for a dinner meeting, held at the Best Western at the Milwaukee airport.  Our guest speakers were Ben LeRoy and Alison Janssen of Tyrus Books.

After dinner, everyone introduced themselves and members gave updates on their latest news.  Then MWMWA President Tony Perona introduced our speakers.  They immediately befriended everyone there by offering us free books, review copies of their fall titles.  (”It’s like Christmas!” said Alison.)  Then Ben gave us a brief history of how he founded Bleak House Books, Alison’s joining the company first as an intern and then as editor, and their break when Big Earth Books bought the company and provided them the capital to go from 2 books a year to 15 to 20.

In 2008 Bleak House Books had three Edgar nominations, one for Best Novel, Best First Novel, and Best Short Story. Alison holds the distinction of being the only editor to have accomplished having three titles be Edgar nominees in the same year.

However, in 2009, Ben and Alison had philosophical differences with the owners and decided to go out on their own.  They created Tyrus Books and produced three books that year.  This year, 2010, will be their first year to produce a full line, and they are very excited the ten titles they are offering.

Ben said that they are currently closed to submissions as they are working hard to make their books a success.  They hope to re-open the submission process later in the year.  Tyrus Books is mainly interested in manuscripts where a crime has been committed and everyone is dealing with the consequences.   (They are not, as both Ben and Alison mentioned, interested in thrillers.)

The meeting was adjourned about 8:45 p.m.

Here are a couple of other photos from the meeting:

(Left to right) Ben LeRoy, Alison Janssen, Jon & Ruth Jordan, and Libby Fischer Hellmann have a talk before the meeting starts.

MWMWA members gather with our guest speakers for a photo.  Back row:  Ted Hertel, Ben LeRoy, Tony Perona, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Jon Jordan, Ruth Jordan, David Walker.  Front row: Katie Vanderjack, Alison Janssen

Categories: Uncategorized |