- April 22, 2021. 7-9 p.m., Central Time Zoom.
- All about crime scene cleaning with our Texas-Based speaker, Erick McCallum, founder and CEO of https://www.cleaningguys.com We threw this exceptional meeting open to all who would like a glimpse into the good, the bad, and the ugly of the aftermath of crime.
- Ex policeman McCallum turned a carpet cleaning business into a multi-million dollar empire complete with franchisees in states from Texas to Missouri. He holds patents for equipment he has invented himself, machines powerful enough to suck up tons of rotten fish when a lake overflowed into a stream–which dried up–and left a huge mess on a golf course. He explained their protective measures and told us all about cool, warm, and hot zones. People from all across the U.S. and Canada were spellbound for an hour.
Category: Past Events
SinC loves its meetings and social events. See what fun we have!
Tone and Tighten
- Thursday March 25, 2021 from 7-9 p.m. Founder of My Two Cents, editor Meghan Pinson’s interactive workshop:
- Tighten and Tone for Novelists
- Learn how to find and fix the flabby parts of your writing. In the first half of class, we’ll identify the most common types of flab and talk about why they’re so boring. In the second half, we’ll workshop a work in progress and make it lean & strong. Bring paper & pens or laptops — come ready to rewrite!
Christmas Cracker Killing
- A Christmas to Die for
- Sisters in Crime 2020 Virtual Holiday Mystery Party on December 19, 2020
- Sarahlynn, Paul, Fedora, Gary, John, Janet, Linda, Mary, and Mary Lou had a fabulous time discovering the virtual killer of the cracker factory nabob.
- Paula Kracker – Socialite and wife of the deceased. (Sarahlynn)
- Still trying to act as the perfect host despite her recent loss, Paula has an eye for fashion and has picked the most fabulous jewelry to make the most of her “mourning” black number.
- Phil Stockins – Columnist for International Geographical. (John)
- Eloquent and persuasive, Phil is a remarkable wordsmith who knows how to dress well for a dinner party and looks extremely dapper.
- Gaye Garland – Interior Designer (Janet)
- With an eye for colour and texture, Gaye is pleasing on the eye and her accessories are exceptionally coordinated.
- Rudolph Snose – Wine Merchant (Gary)
- Full of bon viveur as well as Beaujolais, Rudolph may have austere taste in clothing – but he really goes to town on his ties.
- Holly Sprig – Racehorse breeder (Mary)
- With refreshing country style, Holly has an attractive figure whatever she wears, but really brushes up well when invited out.
- Frankie Incense – Musical Conductor. (Fedora)
- Used to wearing conductor’s tails, Frankie dresses incredibly formally for any dinner gathering – and looks extremely chic because of it.
- Candy Cane – Actress (Laine)
- Desirable and delectable in anything she wears, Candy looks almost good enough to eat.
- Robin Redbreast – Retired MI6 operative. (Paul)
- Still suave and sophisticated, Robin just loves his electronic gadgets.
- Dee Coration – Wedding Planner (Mary Lou)
- With a handbag that contains every conceivable item – Dee is a woman with means, and a fabulous sense of style.
- Sy Lentnite – Merchant Navy Captain. (Linda)
- With nautical bearing, Sy Lentnite always ensures she looks ship-shape at any gathering.
Member Books
Congratulations to members’ new books in 2019.
Hooks and Anchors with Bria Quinlan
October: 10/22, 7-9 p.m.
Do you want to suck readers in immediately and keep them reading?
Are you tired of hearing that your action-packed open started too slowly OR that your slow burn was “hard to get into”?
Are you using mental movies to destroy reader exhaustion and keep those pages turning?
Want to make every scene open fresh and hot and ready to roll?
RITA finalist author Bria Quinlan will cover all of this and more in Hooks and Anchors.
Hurt in the ER
September: 9/24 7-9 p.m.
How to Injure Your Characters
Chicago-based emergency nurse Brian Cuocci, MSN RN CEN will answer questions and share stories of his life at work. Brian works in a Level I trauma center in the Chicago area. He’s a Certified Emergency Nurse and Certified Adult/Adolescent Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner.
Virtual Perfect Page Party!
Thursday July 23 from 7-9 p.m.
Instructions for joining are in the July newsletter.
- July: Thursday, July 23 at 7:00 p.m. Zoom Perfect Page Party
- Meet us over Zoom for a wacky but wonderful Perfect Page Party (If you don’t have a perfect page, get busy and write one. If you don’t have a best page, send your second best, or third—or any old page at all so long as you’ve written it yourself.) Send your page to SinCStLouis@gmail.com with the title “Perfect Page.” Be sure to include “Send to” and your email in order to receive your Phrases of Praise. Attached to this newsletter is a sample and your first installment.
- I will send these to members for PRAISE. No snarks or downers, please. We all love to hear praise—but more important for writers—we need good news for our promos, back covers, and ads. Gleaning 3-7 word phrases for the authors to use is one goal.
- The other is to analyze the ingredients that make pages sing. That leads to the final goal of making our own pages worthy of climbing the bestseller charts.
- At the meeting, we can read our pages and collect our Phrases of Praise. And yes, vote to decide who wins the Perfect Page Prize.
- Fedora – your hostess for Greater St. Louis’s SinC’s Perfect Page Party!
Escape Room!
- Thursday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m. Zoom meeting
- Spy Apprentice Digital “Escape Room” Adventure. We’ll see how good we are at solving a mystery together!
Congratulations to Laura Schmidt and Fedora Amis. The St. Louis Writers’ Guild just brought out their 100th Anniversary Anthology. Two of our own Sisters in Crime have stories included. Laura Stewart Schmidt called hers “The American Dream.” It’s about a poet with a surfeit of really rotten luck. Fedora Amis wrote “To Build a better Coffin.” It’s about a man in 1871 St. Louis who has a peculiar fixation. Care to guess the nature of his fetish?
Our First Zoom Meetings
Congratulations to Laura Schmidt and Fedora Amis. The St. Louis Writers’ Guild just brought out their 100th Anniversary Anthology. Two of our own Sisters in Crime have stories included. Laura Stewart Schmidt called hers “The American Dream.” It’s about a poet with a surfeit of really rotten luck. Fedora Amis wrote “To Build a better Coffin.” It’s about a man in 1871 St. Louis who has a peculiar fixation. Care to guess the nature of his fetish?
| Happy May Day, Siblings! May Day, mayday, SOS …—… We had our first Zoom chapter meeting last week, and it went very well. We had 13 attendees for Paul Boal’s cybersecurity talk. If you missed the talk, here’s a link to Paul’s slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1D5i0-R2FovtJg9gbqFZ5pXEnhpkAYJr-3yTed_-3Ax0/edit?usp=sharing Our May meeting was also held via Zoom. Thursday, May 28, from 7-9 p.m. Retired Chief of Security at Purina Mike Rhoades discussed surveillance, cameras, and internet security. |
Never Enough Security
Thursday May 28 from 7-9 p.m.
Our May meeting will be held via Zoom. The meeting will be Thursday, May 28, from 7-9 p.m. Retired Chief of Security at Purina Mike Rhoades will discuss surveillance, cameras, and internet security–and possible flaws in the systems.
Congratulations to Laura Schmidt and Fedora Amis. The St. Louis Writers’ Guild just brought out their 100th Anniversary Anthology. Two of our own Sisters in Crime have stories included. Laura Stewart Schmidt called hers “The American Dream.” It’s about a poet with a surfeit of really rotten luck. Fedora Amis wrote “To Build a better Coffin.” It’s about a man in 1871 St. Louis who has a peculiar fixation. Care to guess the nature of his fetish?