Our mission is to promote
the ongoing advancement, recognition,
and professional development of women crime writers.
~ SINC Mission Statement
@ CAFE EXPRESS!
Program: Manning Wolfe on Legal Issues for Authors
Upcoming Programs
HoTXSinC Interview Published in Austin Chronicle
Texas Book Festival: HoTXSinC Authors Update
Boerne Book Festival: Table for HoTXSinC Authors
For Members Only: A Fun Short Ghost Story Contest
The Word on Our Members
Who’s Blogging?
Opportunities
Selected Sites
HOTSHOTS! Wants You
Subscribe to HOTSHOTS!
Nolo Contendere
Manning Wolfe
on
Legal issues for Authors
Manning Wolfe will speak to Heart of Texas Sisters in Crime on August 12, 2018, at Café Express about Legal Issues For Authors. Manning’s legal thrillers include Dollar Signs, Music Notes and Green Fees. Manning’s a member of our chapter.
Have you ever wondered if someone could steal your manuscript? Have you ever badmouthed someone in your book and wondered if they could sue you? Have you ever wondered if it’s safe to say your character drank a Coke or a Lone Star Beer? These are the questions that Manning will cuss and discuss. She’ll also provide information on copyright, use of photos, ISBN’s, tax obligations, and more. Expect plenty of handouts for more in-depth study, and as a reminder of the tips she gives in her talk.
Don’t get caught with your proverbial pants down! Come out and learn the nuts and bolts of Legal Issues for Authors! Hope to see you there!
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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. We meet at Café Express at 3418 N. Lamar.
Sisters in Crime is an international organization of women and men whose mission is to promote the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality in the industry. Speakers include published mystery authors and technical experts who help writers craft better mysteries and readers enjoy what they read. Meetings are free and open to all. For more information, check out the Sisters in Crime website at https://sinc-heartoftexas.com.
For information contact Joyce Arquette, Publicity (512) 266-6543
Check out our blog/newsletter, HOTSHOTS!, at https://sinc-heartoftexas.com/posts/
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“All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win
is for enough good women to do nothing.”
~ Kate Atkinson, Life After Life
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Upcoming Programs
September: Dr. Kim Rossmo on Geographic Profiling (of serial killers/ terrorists/ rapists)
October: Robert Ansley on Paranormal Research and Announcement of Ghost Story Contest Winner
November: Mark Pryor, District Attorney and Author
December: Party and Showcase of Members’ Writing
And for 2019:
February: Jan Burke, Guest Speaker from SinC National Speaker’s Bureau
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Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day,
and on the good writing days nothing else matters.
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HoTXSinC Interview Published in Austin Chronicle
“Sisters in Crime Prefer Their Ink Mixed With a Little Blood”—an interview with HoTXSinC President Helen Currie Foster, President Elect Noreen Cedeño, and HOTSHOTS! editor M. K. Waller–appeared in the July 5, 2018 issue of the Austin Chronicle. Read it online here. It also ran in the Chronicle’s print edition under the headline “Murder, They Write.”
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“Why do cats sleep so much?
Perhaps they’ve been trusted with some major cosmic task,
an essential law of physics – such as:
if there are less than 5 million cats sleeping at any one time
the world will stop spinning.
So that when you look at them and think, “what a lazy, good-for-nothing animal,” they are, in fact, working very, very hard.”
― Kate Atkinson
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Texas Book Festival: HoTXSinC Authors Update
The 2018 Texas Book Festival is drawing near, and we are hard at work putting together the HoTXSinC booth! This year the festival takes place in and around the Capitol grounds and runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, 10/27 and from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, 10/28. Here are some things our members need to know!
- You can still sign up to staff the booth! Here’s the link to the sign-up page! Just copy and paste this address into your browser:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080544afaa23a64-2018
- We want to sell your books! HoTXSinC members may bring their books to any of our meetings between now and the festival. (October 14 is the date of the last SinC meeting before the festival.) We are asking for the following items:
–No more than ten copies of each book
–A brief synopsis of the book (think elevator pitch plus just a few more details)
–A brief bio of yourself
- An 8 X 10 photo of yourself, ESPECIALLY if you’re staffing the booth. This can be color or black and white. We noted last year that the festival attendees did not realize that the folks who were manning the booths were the actual authors of the books.
- I have no problem with folks dropping off their books at my home. I live at 7520 Moon Rock Rd., ATX, 78739. That’s in the Circle C area south of town. If you need some help getting the books to me, please call me at 713-962-9992 or email me at kpgresham (at) aol (dot) com.
- Thank you to all for your work in helping with this great P.R. event for both our authors and our Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas Chapter! K.P.Gresham
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“They said love made you strong, but in Louise’s opinion it made you weak.
It corkscrewed into your heart and you couldn’t get it out again,
not without ripping your heart to pieces.”
― Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn
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Boerne Book Festival: Table for HoTXSinC Authors
THE BOERNE BOOK FESTIVAL – OCTOBER 6, 2018 – 10:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.
We have been invited to share in Boerne’s rich literary tradition. HoTXSinC WILL HAVE A TABLE AT THEIR BOOK FESTIVAL. We are asking for volunteers to work either of two shifts: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Please contact Fran Paino at franpaino.com if you can volunteer for either or both shifts. Booksellers must be present at the HoTXSinC table in Boerne to sell their books. Standard rules apply: Sellers must be current members in both local and national levels.
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that can construct a world that makes sense.”
― Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum
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For Members Only: A Fun Short Ghost Story Contest
All who are interested in writing a ghost story, please submit no later than September 9, to Noreen Cedeño at noreenm74 (at) yahoo (dot) com, or Fran Paino at fpaino (at) gmail (dot) com.
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A truth is what it is.
A lie, a thought out deception more brutal than a truth could ever be.
~ Charlotte Armstrong
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“He was born a politician.
No, Ursula thought, he was born a baby, like everyone else.
And this is what he has chosen to become.”
― Kate Atkinson, Life After Life
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The Word on Our Members
Nancy G. West’s THE PLUNGE, the first Aggie Mundeen Lake Mystery, will be released in October 2018.
“THE PLUNGE infects readers with the threat of looming disaster and the helplessness of being swept along by an untamable force. Do survivors really survive if disaster changes them forever?
“THE PLUNGE, a Lake Mystery, takes Aggie in a new direction.”
Nancy says, “In honor of first responders who save so many lives in a disaster, my royalties from sales of THE PLUNGE will go to the Texas National Guard and the 100 Club.
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Manning Wolfe joined BookPeople’s crime fiction coordinator Scott Montgomery and Hopeton Hay for a live in-studio interview about her latest legal thriller, GREEN FEES, on Sunday, June 27, on KAZI 88.7 FM. More information on GREEN FEES is available at http://manningwolfe.com/breaking-news-green-fees-is-live. They also did their crime fiction picks of the month with Molly Odintz, associate editor of crimereads.com, joining them by phone from New York.
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“Do not tell secrets to those whose faith and silence you have not already tested.”
― Kate Atkinson, Life After Life
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Who’s Blogging?
Noreen Cedeño – “Just Google It?”
Dave Ciambrone – “The Missing Audience”
K. P. Gresham – “Research the Business, Baby!”
M. K. Waller – “Seven”
Nancy G. West – “Aggie Reports: Nancy’s Summer Dilemma”
Manning Wolfe – “The Drama of the Law: What’s the Origin of the Legal Thriller?”
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what I would put in my bottom drawer. I would put my sisters.”
― Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum
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Opportunities
QUOTH THE RAVEN – Call for Submissions
“With the recent closing of Black Mirror Press, their planned anthology celebrating the works of Poe sits orphaned. After giving this situation a great deal of thought, and discussing it with our partners and staff, we at Camden Park Press have decided that the efforts of the authors who have been working on stories for the past several months should not be wasted, and Black Mirror Press’ efforts in inspiring the project and motivating the authors to create their own, re-imagined versions of Poe’s work need not be in vain. To that end, we are now opening submissions for Quoth the Raven, a contemporary re-imagining of the works of Edgar Allan Poe.”
Find more information at Camden Park Press, “Quoth the Raven.”
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MICKEY FINN: 21st Century Noir – Call for Submissions
“An annual anthology of hardboiled and noir crime fiction to be released each fall beginning in 2020, Mickey Finnwill pick up where the three-volume Fedora anthology series left off, pushing hard against the boundaries of crime fiction. Contributors will be encouraged to push their work into places short crime fiction doesn’t often go, into a world where the mean streets seem gentrified by comparison and happy endings are the exception rather than the rule.
“The ideal submission will be approximately 5,000 words—less than 3,000 is likely too short, more than 8,000 is likely too long. Originals only. No reprints.
“The first Mickey Finn is scheduled for release fall 2020.”
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Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible – Call for Submissions
“Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible will be presented by Parnell Hall and published by Wildside Press in time for Malice Domestic 31, which will take place May 3 – 5, 2019. . . Mystery Most Edible: ‘Mystery Most Edible’ means that the story must have a significant gastronomic or culinary aspect.”
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“If they would all sleep all the time
she wouldn’t mind being their mother.”
― Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
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“Men had no purpose on earth whereas
women were gods walking unrecognized among them.”
― Kate Atkinson
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Selected Sites
The Evolution & Devolution of Sales: Why Your Books Aren’t Selling
BOOKS WE CAN’T WAIT TO READ: TBF’S 2018 BOOK PREVIEW
What Editing My Ten-Year-Old Novel Taught Me About Writing
THE STATE OF THE THRILLER: A ROUNDTABLE
On Semicolons and the Rules of Writing
The Saturday Writing Post — on perseverance
FAMILY AND FIREARMS: AN INTERVIEW WITH ACE ATKINS
From Kim Komando
From The Passive Voice
Amazon’s Curious Case of the $2,630.52 Used Paperback
On Amazon, Fake Products Plague Smaller Brands
How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country
Controversial Fair Use Copyright Ruling Faces Appeal
Accounts See Follower Numbers Drop After Fake-User Purge
Top Five DIY Book Layout Mistakes
On Semicolons and the Rules of Writing
Chihuly and his Art: Who is the True Creator?
Too Busy for a Book Club? Join an Online Version
Author Income Surveys Are Misleading and Flawed—And Focus on the Wrong Message for Writers
Print Unit Sales Rose 2% in First Half of 2018
FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOUR MYSTERIES: AN INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN ABBOTT
10 Reasons Book Reviews Still Matter
How to Be a Better, More Efficient Editor of Your Own Writing
Neat stuff from the article above:
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*“Fiction had never been Jackson’s thing.
Facts seemed challenging enough without making stuff up.
What he discovered was that the great novels of the world were about three things – death, money and sex. Occasionally a whale.”
― Kate Atkinson, Started Early, Took My Dog
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HOTSHOTS! Wants You
HOTSHOTS! welcomes reviews and articles written by members. Query kathywaller1 (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Subscribe to HOTSHOTS!
You can receive notification each time HOTSHOTS! is published.
- Go to https://sinc-heartoftexas.com/posts and enter your email address in the box on the right sidebar.
OR Ask Kathy to register for you. kathywaller1 (at) gmail (dot) com
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My father, whose hobby was collecting secondhand cricket books,
came back from a book fair one day
with a copy of ‘The Body In The Library.’ ~ Sophie Hannah
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No Lo Contendere
Members, send news to kathywaller1 (at) gmail (dot) com. Include both past and upcoming events. Include pictures if you have them.
Also send head shots and a list of your book titles/short story titles to Kathy for the HOTXSINC author page.
And send titles/authors of books (articles, websites, blogs) you’ve read or are reading, and that you recommend to other Sisters in Crime.
HOTSHOTS! welcomes reviews and articles written by members. Email kathywaller1 (at) gmail (dot) com.
Dr. David Ciambrone is a retired aerospace and defense company executive, scientist, professor of engineering, and a forensics consultant and is now a best-selling, award-winning author living in Georgetown, Texas with his wife Kathy. He has published twenty-one books, four non-fiction, two (2) textbooks for a California university, and fifteen mysteries and has new mysteries in work.
If you don’t already know, you can deduce from my opening that I (again like many other writers) am insecure in the profession. We feel like frauds. We wrote a book and got it published, but maybe it was a fluke. Can we ever do it again? I’ve written and gotten ten of them published, but I always wonder if I can do it again. A conference is a chance to be with other people who are just like me. People who write and wonder if we’re real writers. Neurotic, interesting people.
Kaye George, national-bestselling and multiple award-winning author, writes several mystery series: Imogene Duckworthy humorous mysteries, Cressa Carraway musical mysteries (Barking Rain Press), People of the Wind Neanderthal mysteries (Untreed Reads), and, as Janet Cantrell, Fat Cat (Berkley Prime Crime cozies). The third cozy, Fat Cat Takes the Cake, and the second Cressa Carraway novel, Requiem in Red, were published in April, 2016. The second People of the Wind, Death on the Trek, came out in June, 2016. Her short stories appear in anthologies, magazines, and her own collection, A Patchwork of Stories. The anthology, Murder on Wheels, with the Austin Mystery Writers, recently became a Silver Falchion Winner. She now lives in Knoxville, TN, where she also reviews for Suspense Magazine. 
Dixie Evatt will represent author Meredith Lee in a panel discussion, “Marketing, Schmoozing, and Building Connections as a Writer,” at the Writers’ League of Texas’ Third Thursday meeting, on July 19, 2018. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.
Manning Wolfe’s 
Meredith Lee (aka Sue Meredith Cleveland and Dixie Lee Evatt) will be at The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio (
GREEN FEES, the third in my Texas Lady Lawyer legal thriller series, will be published on June 21, 2018.
Patricia Flaherty Pagan
Meredith Lee, aka Sue Meredith Cleveland and Dixie Lee Evatt, were guest speakers at the 
Manning Wolfe’s second novel, MUSIC NOTES: TEXAS LADY LAWYER VS L.S. BARON was released November 24.
