The Versatility of Crime Fiction – Yulia Mevissen
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

The beginnings of crime narrative are tied to real criminal cases and the judicial system in the 18th and 19th century. Focusing on exemplary works from the history of European crime fiction, the talk discusses the origins of crime fiction as a genre, its enormous versatility, and, in particular, the connection between restoring law and order in a criminological sense and restoring social and moral order.

Yulia Mevissen studied German Philology and History at Humboldt University in Berlin. She completed her doctorate at the Research Training Group “Literary Form. History and Culture of Aesthetic Modeling” at the University of Münster, Germany, and is now a Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Her research interests include: 17th and 18th century poetics and history of knowledge; genre theory; theories of literary emotion; epistolary novels; letter culture; gallantry. She regularly teaches a class on European crime fiction.

Author Idol
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

Send the first two pages of your double-spaced manuscript with your name removed as an attachment to mwane@stephendrogers.com for a chance to have your words read aloud by a professional reader and critiqued by our panel of agents:

Lori Galvin, Aevitas Creative
Michelle Richter, Fuse Literary
Katharine Sands, Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency

Reading will continue until two of the three agents indicate that they would stop reading, after which the agents will discuss their reaction to the pages.

Publishing Trends in 2023 and What to Watch – Jane Friedman
It’s often said that the pandemic has accelerated changes already underway in business, and that’s proven especially true for book publishing. Even though the industry is often considered slow and not as susceptible to technological change (and print just enjoyed its most robust sales in more than a decade), it’s been a transformative time for the business of books. Jane Friedman will discuss current book sales trends in the United States, the rise of BookTok and its importance to book sales, the DOJ vs PRH suit and what we can take away from the 2022 trial, trends in digital audio, and more.

Wednesday, March 8, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

“You Can’t Handle the Truth: What Prosecutors Want Crime Fiction Writers to Know About the Actual Law.”

Wednesday, February 8, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

Award Winning Librarian and former Ohio Assistant Attorney General Karl Colón spends an hour sharing and answering your questions about actual law and procedure, and writing it right.

How to Write a Page Turner – Jordan Rosenfeld
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

Happy, nice people living easy lives make for boring stories. To keep a story taut, and to hold readers’ attention, you must learn to write with page turning tension. Tension in novels, stories, and even memoirs is like the connective tissue that allows muscles to attach to bones, and thus flex their might. It’s the heart of conflict, the backbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It requires opposing forces—characters and circumstances moving in opposition to each other in a variety of ways, at the scene level, and at the plot level. In this workshop you’ll learn to understand essential kinds of opposing forces to write page-turning stories.

Invitations to the December in-person meeting, Wednesday, December 14, have been included in the newsletter.

Reminder that we don’t meet in November due to Crime Bake.

FBI: True or False? – Jerri Williams
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

Retired FBI agent and author Jerri Williams is on a mission to show the public who the FBI is and what the FBI does. Through her books, blog, and true crime podcast, FBI Retired Case File Review, she debunks myths and misconceptions about the FBI found in books, TV, and movies.