PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Spring is almost upon us! I am looking forward to the days getting longer, and being able to work in the garden, one of my favorite pastimes.
Lots of stuff happening with the PSWA as the days and months pass. Remember, our organization exists to support people involved in writing about any and all aspects of public safety.
The conference planning is going well, thanks to Mike Black, and looks to be another great, informative event. This year’s conference is happening July 13-16. The early bird price is still $275, which includes lunches, an opening reception, with a guest on Thursday, the writing competition awards reception and presentations on Saturday evening, and an optional writer’s workshop on Thursday for a nominal fee. Sign up now before the price goes up. Everything you need to know is at our website- www.policewriter.com, and I‘m sure Mike will have more information for you in the newsletter.
Don’t forget our writing competition. Check the submission in this newsletter from Barbara Hodges, our writing competition chair, for all the important deadlines. You, too, could be an award-winning author!
Our mid-year board of directors meeting was held in February. Hopefully, our VP, who presided over the meeting, will provide info on what was discussed. I was unable to attend as I was attending the birth of our first grandchild, Olive Reese Schembra in North Carolina. I don’t know who cried more when she was born – her or me!
I continue to read on the list serve all the help our members give each other. Ask a question, and it will be answered quickly. For me, this is one of the best benefits of membership in the group, to be able to share accurate information to improve our writing skills.
I would like to commend all the board members who work so diligently for the benefit of the PSWA, and all our members who contribute in any way. You are the reason this is such a great group.
So, in closing, keep writing and turning out those masterpieces!
I hope to see you all in July at the Orleans Hotel and Casino.
—John Schembra
President, PSWA
VICE PRESIDENT MESSAGE
March is coming in like a lion here for us in Wisconsin. Each week we get covered in snow, only to have the temperatures warm up and melt it all away. Then a few days later the process gets us again. A vicious cycle that hopefully will be coming to an end soon.
I am sure most of you don’t care much about the Weather here in the frozen tundra land. You all would love to learn about what we discussed at the mid-year board meeting.
First, we ironed out details for the big change, moving the awards to Saturday night. This move has been in the works for some time. It was not a decision made simply by the board willy-nilly this was based on feedback from you the members and the realities of working with the hotel. Moving to a Saturday night awards mixer allows members to access the bookstore one more time after the awards to pick up award-winning books. With the Sunday lunch, the bookstore was closed and packed up before learning the results. Secondly, it helps with food costs, the largest expense we have in the conference. By controlling costs we are keeping the conference at a reasonable price point while still providing the experience you expect from the PSWA.
Secondly, we are doing some door prize giveaways. You are entered to win simply by coming to the conference. I am not going to spoil some of the prizes you could win. However, we will be announcing them and teasing others over the next few months in the email list.
Third, we had some discussion about the writing contest. Based on feedback from you the members we are looking at some new categories and redefining other categories for 2024. It is too late to make changes to the 2023 awards. More details about some of them will be announced later, however, I think I can let slip that novellas will get some recognition.
Fourth it has been mentioned that during the conference folks members of the audience may know fully know who the panel members are. We will be adding name tents to go with the printing order for the name badges.
Fifth last year we tested out having some advertisements in the conference program. It helped offset the cost of printing the program. Kelli is in charge of the program layout and will handle all orders for ad placements. If you wish to have an ad contact her directly – peacock.kelli3@gmail.com.
Sixth if you are not aware the PSWA is considered a nonprofit organization. As a board, we had to update some paperwork for our status as a 501(c6). Technically we are a business league which is why we are a “c6” and not a “c3” for anyone reading this who is into accounting geek stuff.
Seventh many years ago we did an anthology. The board thinks it might be time to do one again. We are in the early stages of planning this. One of the big things we will need is an editor for the anthology. Discussions for this anthology are still very early so once we have an editor secured then submission guidelines can be developed.
Eighth in the past members who wanted to sell books at the conference could ship them to a member living in the Vegas metro area. Moving forward we will ask members to bring their own books or make their own arrangements to ship them to the hotel.
Ninth was the topic of sponsorships at the conference. Members in the past have pitched in to pay for the coffee and afternoon beverages. Last year some of the sponsorship signs were tossed in the garbage, meaning these generous sponsors were not properly acknowledged. Moving forward we will also be printing the list of sponsors in the program. We will also better communicate with hotel staff to leave the signage out for us on the board to swap at appropriate times. If you want to sponsor the coffee or other beverage service email Bob – robert@calloutpress.com
Lastly, there were some PSWA housekeeping items that needed attention. We reviewed pages on the website and made some edits. Authorized software subscriptions for Kelli to make the conference program and Bob for accounting.
This was a quick overview of the board meeting, each of our board members will give some deeper details in their individual reports below.
—RJ Beam
Vice President, PSWA
Treasurer’s Report
As your Treasurer, I don’t only keep track of the money. In PSWA, the Treasurer’s job includes lots of logistics surrounding the annual conference. Let me run through some of the changes for 2023 that will affect individual members.
We are allowing registered conference attendees to bring one (1) guest at no charge to the Saturday evening award ceremony. However, please drop me an e-mail if you do plan to bring someone. We want to make sure we order enough food. My e-mail address is below. (Payment is still required for guests at the formal lunches Friday and Saturday.)
On the topic of “letting us know,” make sure you tell us ASAP if you need a vegetarian meal for the Friday or Saturday lunches. We try to capture that information when you register, but if you missed it or your dietary needs have changed, please send me an e-mail. Post-COVID, the hotel changed the way it handles food inventory. They no longer have spare meals or ingredients around the kitchen. We will be unable to accommodate last-minute requests for special-diet meals.
The hotel prepares all vegetarian meals as vegan, so they work for both disciplines.
Our cancellation policy is changing, and we think it’s very generous when compared to other writing conferences. You can cancel with a full refund right up until July 1. After July 1 there will be no cancellations, rollovers or partial refunds. The biggest portion of your registration fee goes to food, and we have to give the hotel our order shortly after July 1. Once we order the food we’re on the hook to pay and will thus be unable to refund or roll over your registration.
Something that’s not new is how we pay you for bookstore sales. In 2022, all payments were handled Sunday before I left Las Vegas. Those who provided an e-mail address associated with a PayPal account had their money Sunday night. Those who preferred checks saw them arrive about a week or so after the conference. Please make sure the 3×5 cards you place in your books (you do that, right?) include either your PayPal-associated e-mail or a physical mailing address for checks.
Speaking of the bookstore…in the past we offered a local address where attendees could send books and have them held for the conference. We don’t currently have a Las Vegas-area member who can handle that for us. Sending books to the hotel itself is prohibitively expensive and complicated. Starting this year members are responsible for getting their own books to the conference.
OK…if you need to send me an e-mail, here’s the address I promised. robert@calloutpress.com.
That’s it for this newsletter. Stay Found!
—Bob Calkins
Treasurer PSWA
WRITING COMPETITION CHAIR
Returned from Vegas and a great board meeting with something I could do without…a nasty cold. I loved how much we discussed and accomplished. Judging by the conversation, this year’s conference is going to be the best one yet. The addition of the 13 free prizes is a big plus. I’d love to win any of them myself.
The writing competition is chugging along. The judges for the published books have been busy, and there are a lot of them, books, not judges.
The bulk of this year’s entries have been books. I’d love to see some more short stories, articles, flash writing and poetry. I know this is a talented, eclectic group. Please share your expertise and experiences with us. I feel there is something we can learn from each of you. I want to stress, even if you enter a category light on entries, it doesn’t mean you would receive an award. There have been years when awards weren’t given out because the entry didn’t deserve one. If you enter the PSWA Writing Competition, and you win an award, it’s because your writing deserved it. It’s something to be proud of.
There should be around two weeks left to enter as you are reading this. That’s enough time to get your entry to me. It just needs to be postmarked by March 31st.
Once again, I have a great group of judges. Each is a fantastic writer themselves. All the unpublished entries are judged blind. The judges only know the writers as a number. They won’t find out the writer’s name until everyone else does. I know some of them think they knows ahead of time who the writers are. It’s fun to get with them afterward and see how close they were. I also ask the reason behind their choices…what made the winning entries stand out. As an author myself, I want to know.
I’m also excited about the awards ceremony Saturday evening. With a cash bar and hors d’oeuvres, a cut above our Thursday night get-to-gather (Bob’s words) it’s going to be a celebration the winners deserve. For the authors who entered the competition and have their book with them, it also gives us a chance to purchase the winning book on Sunday.
I always felt it was a disservice to them to get a moment in the limelight, then let’s pack up and get out of Dodge.
That’s it from me. I hope to see you most of you at the conference. Until then, later.
—Barbara M. Hodges
Writing Competition Chairperson, PSWA
Elegant Eighteen Is Gonna Be Great
Take it from me, our next conference, “Elegant Eighteen,” is going to be great. We just finished our annual PSWA Board meeting and finalized the plans for this summer’s conference. As we’ve mentioned before, we’ve made some exciting new changes to the conference that I’m sure you’ll find exciting and beneficial. The early bird price discount is still in effect so take advantage of it before it expires. And don’t forget we also offer a special conference rate for rooms at the Orleans Hotel and Casino. This special rate also has an expiration date, so be sure to take advantage of both discounts. (See the PSWA website for details on each. https://policewriter.com/conference/ )
As I’ve said before, we’ve got a dynamite line-up of featured speakers this year. You may remember award-winning author and former prison warden, James L’Etoile, who attended the conference a few years back. James has an outstanding new book series out and he’s going to be doing an interesting presentation called, “What Happens When the Jail Door Shuts.” Former police officer, retired FBI agent, and college professor Pete Klismet practically wrote the book on criminal profiling and has put together a shortened presentation of the course he once taught at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia on criminal profiling for mystery and true crime writers. Our very own RJ Beam, who’s experience in police work ranges from patrol to detectives to SWAT operations, to police academy instruction will break down some of the latest methods and technology used today at real crime scenes and show off some of amazing gadgets. And rounding things out we’ll have well-established editor and publisher Jo Wilkens of Mystic Publishing and published author and marketing expert Jenni Curtis on hand to discuss the principles of novel writing and marketing, whether you are going to use the traditional publishing route or take the plunge into self-publishing.
Let me talk a little bit about some of the new features of the conference. As we’ve previously mentioned, the Writing Competition Awards Ceremony has been moved to Saturday at 1730. That’s five-thirty pm for all you civilians. The reasons for this were many, but suffice it to say, it was a good decision. In the past many people complained about not being able to purchase some of the award-winning books because the PSWA bookstore was closed by the time the awards ceremony was concluded. Plus, many people have to leave early on Sunday before the conclusion of the conference. This new move seems to address all those previous problems. To sweeten the pie, there will be a cash bar and special upscale snacks on hand as well. The PSWA Writing Competition has grown in stature in the past few years. I can personally attest to having been in a conversation with an acquisitions editor for a publishing company regarding another writer I was helping out, and the editor made mention how impressed she was that the prospective author we were discussing had previously won the PSWA Writing Competition Award.
We’re also planning to have a series of drawings throughout the conference. We’re offering some fabulous prizes, such as an Amazon gift card, free manuscript editing and critiques, a beautiful, matted photograph, a fashionable scarf, and several other gifts. Unlike other conferences where you have to buy raffle tickets to qualify, at the PSWA Conference, you just have to register and attend. A duplicate of the name badges will be used for the drawings, and all of the name tags, except those of us board members, will be used for the grand prize drawing at the conclusion of the conference on Sunday. I’m not going to reveal what this grand prize is just yet but let me assure you it’s a real doozie. (See future updates on the listserv for more revelations on this and the other prizes.)
I’m particularly proud of the changes we’re making to the Pre-Conference Workshop. We’re planning to make it more interactive this time, and we’ll be covering the topics of tense usage, writing a dynamic opening, what point of view to use, and how to write emotion in scenes. And best of all, this year one of our instructors, Mysti Berry, is making an extremely generous offer to give each attending workshop member a free book on writing. The book is Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas.
This excellent workbook is a companion piece to his bestselling book on writing, but you don’t need to have read the companion book to use the workbook. It has exercises ranging from the beginner to the advanced writer. (Any attendee who already has this can email Mysti for an alternative: mystiberry@gmail.com ). This is a fabulous opportunity and many thanks to Mysti for her generosity. And, as always, we’re offering a special, one-on-one manuscript critique (up to 30 pages double spaced) by one of the three instructors to all workshop attendees. I’m just finishing up a short story that I started during one of the exercises in a past Pre-Conference Workshop, and Jim Guligi has recently seen several of his workshop stories published in the past few months. The workshop is always a learning experience for all, instructors and attendees alike. It does require an additional fee of $45 or so in addition to the conference registration fee, but this is necessary to cover the cost of the room expense. It’s from 09:00 am to 3:00 pm on Thursday, July 13th and leads into the conference check-in. If you’ve already registered and now wish to attend the workshop, simply contact PSWA Treasurer , Bob Calkins (robert@calloutpress.com) or myself (DocAtlas108@aol.com) and we’ll get you set up.
Keep in mind also that there is no better or more affordable conference than the PSWA Conference. We always have a great time and this year “Elegant Eighteen” will be… Well, take it from me, it’ll be elegant.
I hope to see you there.
Stay Strong.
—Michael A. Black
Program Chair, PSWA
NEWSLETTER EDITOR
I’m very excited about the 2023 PSWA Conference. At our February board meeting we finalized the details of the conference. Please make sure to take advantage of the early bird pricing.
The pre conference workshop is going to be another year of information and education with more hands-on participation. Mysti Berry is generously offering a Donald Maas workbook. Mike has more information about the workshop in his article.
Again, this year we will be offering advertising in the conference program. This is a great way to advertise for an affordable price. Other conferences are more than double what we charge. The prices are the same as last year.
2023 PSWA Program Conference Advertising
Below are the requirements and costs to advertise in the PSWA conference program. If you would like to advertise in the program please send your advertisement to peacock.kelli3@gmail.com no later than May 20, 2023. You may make your payment via PayPal to PSWA. Any questions please email Kelli at peacock.kelli3@gmail.com.
You can submit your advertisement in the following formats: .doc, .pdf, or jpg. All ads will be in color.
Inside back cover $250 Inside back cover: 8.5″ X 11″ (trim); 8.875″ X 11.25″ (bleed)
Back cover $250 Back cover: 8.5″ X 11″ (trim); 8.875″ X 11.25″ (bleed)
Full page $200 8.5″ X 11″ (trim); 8.875″ X 11.25″ (bleed)
1/2 page $100 7″ X 4.625″ (Horizontal); 3.5″ X 9.25″ (Vertical)
1/4 page $ 50 3.5″ X 4.625″ (Vertical)
There is not any limit for the number of the ads we receive except for the inside back cover and back cover spots. Advertising is open to any PSWA member whether attending the conference or not.
Something new this year, well maybe not entirely new, is the conference bags. We are asking for items to be placed in the bags. If anyone would like to contribute small items – crime related or promotional – we would love to have them. Examples of what we are looking for are postcards, keychains, bookmarks, mini sewing kits, eyeglasses cloths, etc. The possibilities are endless. All we ask is they are small items, NOT mugs, cups, water bottles, etc. And no more than 50 of each item. Barbara Hodges and Kelli Peacock will be collecting the items. Please mail the items to either Barbara or Kelli no later than July 8, 2023.
I hope to see all of you at the conference in July. It will be one of the best.
—Kelli Peacock
Newsletter Editor, PSWA
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU CAN’T DO IN-PERSON EVENTS?
In-Person events have always been something I loved to do. Meeting people and talking about my books and the writing process is energizing. However, circumstances in my life have changed greatly, and I needed another way to sell my books.
What I’ve done recently, and have done before, is offer one of my Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries, The Trash Harem for .99 cents on Kindle from March 20th to the 27th.
This was a fun book to write.
Tempe Crabtree has retired from her job as resident deputy in Bear Creek .When friends, who once lived in Bear Creek and attended Pastor Hutch’s church; ask Tempe and her husband to visit them in Temecula because of a big problem. The husband, Jonathan, is a suspect in what might be a murder case. Their friends live in an over 55 community with many interesting folks as neighbors, any of whom might have had a better motive than Jonathan. There is also a connection to Erle Stanley Gardner as well as the Pechanga Old Oak. What is a trash harem? You’ll have to read the book to find out.
To get the word out, I signed on with the Book Goodies and the Fussy Librarian. There are many places to advertise such as BookBub—which is way too pricey for me. I’ve written new posts on my blog for the time period of the sale telling more about the book. https://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/ and when the time comes, I’ll be letting everyone know about the posts on Facebook and Twitter.
The link:
While all this is going on, I hope to finish what will be the last and final mystery in the series. I’ll certainly miss hanging out with Tempe and her preacher husband Hutch, and her Indian friend Nick Two John. But it’s time for them and me to move on.
—Marilyn Meredith
A Visit to the Past
Last Friday I got a letter from the 5th District Police Station in Washington, D.C. The letter said I had property that needed to be picked up or it would be destroyed. I called the station and arranged to pick the property up the following Monday. It turned out to be a check I had made out to the guy who cuts my grass. A 5D officer had found the check in front of the station on the midnight tour and turned it in as found property.
As I waited for the property in the lobby of the station I perused the bulletin boards. Many years ago, I wrote a poem about a Fifth District officer, Scott Lewis, who was killed on H Street and the poem had been posted on one of the bulletin boards. The poem was titled, The Heroes of H Street. To my great surprise the poem was still on the bulletin board. That would mean that poem stayed there since 1995, 28 years.
When the property officer came out with papers for me to sign, I signed them quickly and said to him I wanted to show him something just for shit and giggles. I took him to the bulletin board and pointed out the poem. He read the poem slowly, like he hadn’t read it before, and when he got to the bottom he saw my name as the writer. With a big smile on his face, he turned to me and shook my hand. “Thank you for your service,” he said. I immediately became a fellow officer, which of course I was, but he didn’t know that until he read the poem.
When I left the station, my ego lifted, I wished him to be safe and walked to my car. As a writer you sometimes forget that your writings will live longer than you do. I honestly don’t think about that when I’m writing but seeing that poem 28 years after I had written it made me think. I have to believe that they just hadn’t gotten around to replacing the material on that bulletin board or they decided not to because it was a memorialization of one of the Fifth District officers who was killed in the line of duty. It was obvious to me that the property officer had not read the poem before and maybe had not even perused the bulletin board. I could only hope that since he read it, he might tell other officers who would in turn read the poem.
The Heroes of H Street
It seemed like a routine traffic stop
Something you do 0when you’re a cop
Assisting a citizen is common enough
Helping with directions, clothes and stuff
The citizen was hearing impaired
The officers tried to communicate because they cared
Then a car stopped and another man approached
And into these three lives he encroached
He shot Officer Lewis in the head
And would have shot the other dead
But Officer Deville shot back at his foe
And the bullets seemed to know where to go
A policeman, a fireman, too young to die
A dedicated public servant, we all asked why
This is what he wanted to do
Helping people and arresting bad guys too
Three days later Officer Lewis died in peace
His funeral attended by firefighters and police
His friends and family heard prayers and praise
And will long remember his last days
But remember too Officer Deville. Who is alive
For the cops he saved from district five
Because the killer intended to kill more
But Deville’s quick action evened the score
Two officers doing their duty at night
End up in a deadly fire fight
One is killed, the other stays on the beat
These are the heroes of H Street
Detective Joseph B. Haggerty
Metropolitan Police Department
Washington, D.C.
—Joseph B. Haggerty Sr.
Author of the novels: Shame: The Story of a Pimp and An Ocean in the Desert Contributor to the PSWA anthology: Felons, Flames and Ambulance Rides Award winning poet, writer and lecturer on the sexual exploitation of women and children in prostitution and pornography. gudgerray@aol.com
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF POLICE
GABRIEL-NICOLAS DE LA REYNIE
May 1667: Gabriel-Nicolas de La Reynie, the newly appointed Lieutenant-General of Police, was meeting with King Louis XIV and Jean-Baptiste Colbert. He must have been feeling pretty good. He had already begun to clean up Paris, both physically and morally—street sweepers to plow through the filth deposited daily by the citizens and horses; street lights to lower crime; even regulating the depth of ladies’ necklines in church.
So, what next? The King complained of the terrible publicity he was getting from the Dutch press, which was capitalizing on the current scandals in the King’s flagrantly adulterous family. And there was another scandal brewing—rumors of poison and witchcraft in the court. If the Dutch got wind of this, His Majesty would be the laughing stock of Europe. Find out what’s going on, he said. And stop it.
La Reynie teamed up with Captain Francois Desgrez, and they began hauling in suspects—self-proclaimed witches, sorcerers (really con artists), poisoners, abortionists. They pointed their grimy fingers at the most famous witch in Paris, La Voisin, who had multiple prominent clients. And they whispered that La Voisin’s main client was Athènaïs, Marquise de Montespan, the King’s mistress. Was she after love spells? Or poison? And how do you investigate the King’s mistress without causing a scandal?
Aside from his position of Lieutenant-General of Police, somewhat analogous to our Attorney General, La Reynie was one of several judges. He not only investigated criminals, he interrogated them; brought charges; tried them with his panel of fellow judges; and questioned them under torture.
He found the suspects had used fortune-telling, promises of romance and good luck, to part the gullible nobility from their money. And if you wanted to get rid of a spouse? Arsenic. It was colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and if administered over a period of weeks, the victim would slowly decline, apparently of natural causes.
Most of the clients were noblewomen. No matter how wealthy, they were controlled by their fathers, brothers, husbands, sold into loveless marriages. The male courtiers were also trapped: they had to appear at court and flatter the King in order to gain any advancement. So, I called my novel The Menagerie, after the real little menagerie at Versailles. They were all behind bars, with the rest of the wild animals.
La Reynie kept on for years, digging, interrogating, and torturing suspects. He learned that Athènaïs had a maid that was also La Voisin’s client. Not only was the maid in deep, but she had also gotten pregnant by the King when the royal mistress was indisposed. (Louis never turned any female down.) Also implicated was another former royal paramour, the niece of the late Cardinal Mazarin. The evidence against her was so strong she fled the country.
The investigation took years. During that time, Athènaïs bore the King four children; broke up with him (she was still married); reconciled, two more children; then he went after any available skirt. And he had been listening to La Reynie—no proof of a crime, not yet.
The testimony grew darker: whispers of a criminal mastermind, a conspiracy of poison and witchcraft that could threaten the kingdom. And worse—a claim that Athènaïs had a black mass celebrated over her naked body in which an infant was sacrificed. Were they telling the truth? Was the King a target of a love spell—or poison? It must remain secret. What if one of the judges leaked it?
The King decreed that La Reynie must go it alone. Angry and frustrated, La Reynie went on, confiding his thoughts and fears, along with the evidence, in a stack of journals, letters, and transcripts. Finally, it was time to present his case to the King. Copies were made and put in three black coffers: one for La Reynie; one for Colbert, who had retained an attorney for Athènaïs; and one for Louis. And twelve years after it all began, La Reynie and the councilors met again in the King’s study. The result? Hush it up.
Years later, right after La Reynie’s death, the King burned the contents of his black coffer. He thought he had the only copies, his secret safe. But La Reynie had kept his own records and they are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. The French honor the memory of the world’s first modern police officer, while historians are still arguing—did Athènaïs have a black mass celebrated over her naked body?
—Judy Willmore
Member News
John G. Bluck recently signed a seven-year literary contract with Wolfpack Publishing doing business as Rough Edges Press of Las Vegas. The first three books in Bluck’s Luke Ryder Series are slated for publication this summer. Ryder is a Kentucky deputy sheriff.
The first book, Death in the Holler, was previously published, but will be re-released with a new cover. This novel is the story of how Ryder solves a murder that takes place on a Kentucky farm’s food plot. In the second book, Murder at NASA, Ryder goes undercover at a NASA center in California to investigate a cold-case murder. The third book, tentatively titled Mayhem at Sea, is a thriller. While on an Alaska vacation cruise, Ryder deals with pirates who hijack the ship and demand ransom payments.
Bluck and his wife, Sheryl, are residents of Livermore, California. Bluck retired from NASA after thirty years of service. Prior to that, he was an engineer at ABC radio network, filmed daytime crime in Washington, D.C. for WMAL-TV (now WJLA-TV), and while he was in the Army during the Vietnam War, he was a journalist at Ft. Lewis, Washington.
For more information, visit Bluck’s website: http://www.bluckart.com and his Rough Edges Press webpage, https://roughedgespress.com/project/john-g-bluck/.
Ellen Kirschman will be on two panels at Left Coast Crime in Tucson.
Friday, March 17, 11:30 a.m. — She’ll be talking about senior sleuths (Dot Meyerhoff is 52) with Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Mike Befeler, Barna W. Donovan and Susan McCormick.
Saturday, March 18, 9:00 a.m. — She’ll be joining Terry Shames, Maria Bovines, Craig Faustus Buck and Kenneth Wishnia, all fellow contributor to Jewish Noir V. 2. If it’s anything like the last panel we did, it will be hilarious.
June 9-11 She’ll be at the California Writers Conference in Culver City California talking to my fellow writers about Cops and PTSD. Some estimates suggest that nearly 30% of all law enforcement officers suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder. An alarming statistic for the men and women who are thoroughly screened to get their jobs. Join Ellen to learn the little-recognized factors that put officers at risk and make your police characters all the more real.
Ellen is finishing a fifth Dot Meyerhoff mystery and am trying to arrange life so I can be at PSWA in July. Be well, stay safe.
Marcia Rosen will be featured on PSWA member Marilyn Meredith’s blog day of release, March 14th and be doing a book launch/signing at Barnes & Noble, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Saturday, March 25th, 12-4pm
Frank Scalise
HOPE DIES LAST, Frank’s fourth Stefan Kopriva mystery, was published on Feb 14.
Frank Scalise
fscalise3@gmail.com | frankzafiro.com
PSWA CORPORATE SPONSORS
Michael A. Black is the award-winning author of 48 books, most of which are in the mystery and thriller genres. He has also written in sci-fi, western, horror, and sports genres. A retired police officer from the Chicago area, he has done everything from patrol to investigating homicides to conducting numerous SWAT operations. Black was awarded the Cook County Medal of Merit in 2010. He is the author of over 100 short stories and articles, and wrote two novels with television star, Richard Belzer (Law & Order SVU). He did eleven novels under the name Don Pendleton in the Executioner series and numerous westerns the Gunslinger series under the name A.W. Hart (Killer’s Choice, Killer’s Brand, Killer’s Ghost, Killer’s Gamble, and Killer’s Requiem).His Executioner novel, Fatal Prescription, won the Best Original Novel Scribe Award in 2018. His latest novels are Chimes at Midnight and the ongoing Trackdown series, the latest of which are Devil’s Vendetta, Devil’s Breed, and Devil’s Reckoning. He is exceptionally proud that his latest short story, “Waiting for Godot,” was featured on the cover of the prestigious Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.
SL Ditmars is the award-winning author of the Big Dogs series. He is a retired police officer from Long Beach, California and has held positions in patrol, police K9, information technology, homeland security, counterterrorism, and police communications. He currently resides in Prescott, Arizona with his wife, Barbi, and their German Shepherd rescue, Gunnar.