Our mission is to promote
the ongoing advancement, recognition,
and professional development of women crime writers.
~ SINC Mission Statement
Program: Michael Noll on the Writers League of Texas
Upcoming Programs
The Word on Our Members
Blog Challenge: Blogging From A to Z
Selected Sites
Subscribe to HOTSHOTS!
Nolo Contendere
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Writers’ League of Texas Program Director Michael Noll, author of the recently published book The Writer’s Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction, will discuss strategies for solving problems of character, scene, plot, and structure. A great way to find such strategies is by doing close readings of great writing and adapting the techniques gleaned from these close readings to your own work. The approach presented by the book and his blog, Read to Write Stories, is used in more than three dozen university classrooms around the country. This presentation will offer practical tips for reading like a writer, plus a preview of upcoming Writers’ League programming that could help with your writing and publishing goals.
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Michael Noll is the author of The Writer’s Field Guide to the Craft of Fiction, the Program Director at the Writers’ League of Texas, and the editor of Read to Write Stories, where he posts writing exercises based on published work and interviews authors about the craft behind their novels, stories, and essays. His short stories have been published widely, including in The Best American Mystery Stories anthology.
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Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter meets monthly on the second Sunday of the month, at 2:15 p.m. at Cafe Express, 3418 N. Lamar, Austin 78705, 512 452-9888
For information about the Heart of Texas Chapter contact Joyce Arquette, Publicity, (512) 266-6543.
Check out our blog/newsletter, HOTSHOTS!, at https://sinc-heartoftexas.com/posts/
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The first thing we see about a story is its mystery.
And in the best stories, we return at last to see mystery again.
Every good story has mystery, not the puzzle kind, but the mystery of allurement.
~ Eudora Welty
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Upcoming Programs
May 20 – the 3rd Sunday: Ed Martin, former U. S. Treasury agent, now private investigator at Sage Investigations, on Breaking the Madalyn Murray O’Hair Kidnapping/Murder Case
June 10: K9 Unit Leader Elizabeth Bryant, Travis County Search and Rescue
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I believe I could commit a crime. We all can.
It depends on which situations we find ourselves in.
In despair, I would steal food if my children were hungry. ~ Karin Fossum
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The Word on Our Members
Laura Oles’ “Family Matters and Writing” appeared on Women Writers, Women’s Books (March 2).
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Patty Flaherty Pagan of Houston has a new collection of crime, literary & speculative short stories, and flash fiction, ENDURING SPIRIT, coming from Spider Road Press in May 2018.
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NoreenCedeño, KP Gresham, Helen Currie Foster, and Dave Ciambrone have joined the blogging team at Writing Wranglers and Warriors. Recent posts there by HoTXSinC members:
M. K. Waller, “Inspiration, Suspiration, Desperation, Broccoli” (March 1); and “Four-Sentence Book Review: A Broom of One’s Own” (March 7)
Noreen Cedeño, “A Plantain Is Not the Same Thing as a Banana: Merging Family Menus” (March 6)
KP Gresham, “I Love Research and Nolan Ryan,” (March 13)
Helen Currie Foster, “The Deep Dive” (March 19)
Dave Ciambrone, “Finding the Muse” (March 22) and “Your Characters Talk to You?” (March 25)
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Blog Challenge
Starts Sunday, April 1. The last day to sign up is March 31–click here for instructions.
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I think it was Freud who said that we’re all arrested at a certain age.
For me, it was always 13. ~ Megan Abbott
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Upcoming Events
Events listed below appear on the blog Texas Book Lover: Great books and all things Texas. Check Texas Book Lover for info on calls for submissions, workshops, conferences, book clubs, and other topics related to reading and writing.
Austin International Poetry Festival, April 5-8, 2018
San Antonio Book Festival, April 7, 2018
North Texas Book Festival, Denton, April 7, 2018
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Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want,
and which way the wind blows.~ Ellen Raskin
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Selected Sites
What Mystery Propels Your Novel?
The articles below were shared on The Passive Voice.
Amazon Severs Ties With Top Lobbying Firms Washington
Facebook to simplify privacy controls amid anger over breach
Another Downtown bookstore was destined for closure. Then these buyers called.
Microsoft Quietly Rolls Out Its E-bookstore
Romance community be warned: Amazon is stripping rankings from titles
You can now get a PhD in creativity
Mickey Spillane’s Work Keeps Coming, 12 Years After His Death
Tracking the slow, sad death of Barnes & Noble via data
Exclusive: Amazon aims to turn Alexa into a real-time universal language translator
B&N Third Quarter: Sales Drop 5.3%; Net Loss of $63.5M
Barnes & Noble drops after soft quarter
The 15 Most Memorable On-Screen Bookstores
Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors
Measuring Fair Use: The Four Factors
Walmart Beat Netflix and Amazon to Video on Demand but Still Lost
The Basics of Using Styles in MS Word
Characters in Cars Thinking, or, How to Deal with the Passage of Time
How to Develop Buyer Personas Using Facebook Insights
The profits from publishing: authors’ perspective
Using Third Person vs First Person Novel Narratives
The Advice Columnists Who Prescribe Literature as Medicine
7 Books About Different Writing Lives
Insect Photographer Sues Pest Control Company for $2.7 Million
Hundreds protest college’s proposal to drop humanities for more practical majors
President Donald Trump Slams Amazon Over Taxes It Pays and Impact on Other Businesses
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The library is what keeps us a step ahead of the apes. ~ Dana Stabenow
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To me thin people never had any meaningful problems. ~ Dorothy Cannell
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No Lo Contendere
Members, send news to kathywaller1 at gmail dot com. Include both past and upcoming events.
Also send head shots and a list of your book titles/short story titles for the HOTXSINC author page.
HOTSHOTS! welcomes reviews and articles written by members. Email kathywaller1 at gmail dot com.
