Nominations from the floor completed the slate of officers
which was approved unanimously. The new officers will be:
President Marilyn Victor
Vice President Kathy Spexet
Treasurer Lori Lake
Secretary Kim Reis
Newsletter editor Bill Fietzer
Web maven Charity Tahmaseb
Remember to renew your membership with the national
organization on your own either through their mailing or on their website. Dues
for the national are $40. Once you have done that, you can pay your local dues
of $10. The local chapter is no longer collecting and paying national dues for
members.
A motion was made and approved to purchase the monthly book
for the vice president since he/she needs to read it in order to lead the group
discussion.
Rich Thompson brought information about National Novel
Writing Month. Participants long into the group’s website to log their daily
words and send a manuscript at 50,000 words to get a certificate. The idea is
to write quantity and worry about quality later.
Several of our upcoming meeting dates have been adjusted
due to events at the store or holidays. The January and February meetings will
be the second Tuesday, and the April meeting will be the first Wednesday.
Our book for the month was Mark Gimenez’s The Color of
Law. Discussion was lively and involved more readers than we usually get. The
book for next month is Amen Corner by Rick Shefchik. Bring ideas for future
reads.
The speaker for the evening was Sandy Folio, a local
Private Investigator. She said she fell into the work because she is naturally
nosey. She hired on with a mentor and once she got her 6000 hours of
investigative experience she got her own license. She spoke about the kinds of
cases she works on, what info she can get online, and who she typically works
for.
The October meeting will be the second Tuesday, October 9th, due to a book
signing at
Once Upon a Crime on our regular night. The speaker for that meeting will be
talking
about financial crimes.
Sisters in Crime offers grants for participation in the bookseller conferences.
It was
suggested we participate in next years Midwest Bookseller Association
conference.
Volunteers would be needed to man the table, hand out bookmarks/free stuff. Lori
and
Joanne volunteered for this committee.
Marilyn reminded us that elections will be held in November. Some of the current
board
members do not plan to run again. Consider accepting a position, or nominating
someone
else.
Due to some past glitches, we are considering having everyone renew their own
national
membership. The only dollars collected locally would be for local membership.
More
info to come later.
Marilyn invited anyone interested to move to the French Meadow restaurant after
the
meeting. This will allow the store to close up by 8:30 and conversations to
continue as
long as we want.
The book for this month was Desert Wives by Betty Webb. It is about a female
private
investigator, polygamy, and child abuse.
Our speaker for the evening was Gene Leatherman from the Minnesota Bureau of
Criminal Apprehension. He has been a street cop, an undercover narcotics
investigator,
and now works in homicide. He spoke about some recent cases, cooperation between
agencies, and answered many scary questions from the audience.
1. Old Business: Our only order of Old Business dealt with the party we are
planning for this fall to honor Minnesota book writers. The Board was thinking a
cost of about $10-$15 apiece from each member who wanted to participate with the
difference subsidized by the association's treasury, but some of the venues
under consideration are pricier than that.
Example: Mezzagiorno's in South Dale costs $25 per person with a $1000
minimum guaranteed for the event. The Bloomington Country Club is similarly
priced. Pat Dennis announced that she would place a questionnaire in the next
issue of the newsletter asking how much members were willing to pay if they
could count on a $10 per person subsidy from our treasury.
2. New Business:
• Pat Dennis announced that one of our members, Jude Urbaniak, finally got her
first book published after almost giving up after 25 years of effort. Her agent
obtained a three-book contract for her. Her first reading will be held at Wild
Rumpus in Linden Hills on Saturday, May 5th.
• We need to decide on what books we're going to read for the fall. Please bring
your recommendations to our next meeting.
3. Guest Speaker: Our guest speaker, Troy (He doesn't want his last name
publicized), spoke about his 20 plus year career as a private investigator and
undercover agent for the Pinkertons, the FBI, and Vance International. Born in a
suburb outside of Boston, he received his B.A. degree in criminal justice from
St. Mary's University before starting his career as a private investigator in
"cases nobody wanted to touch" in and around the Boston area.
After a year and a half of this with 98% closure on 75 such cases, he took a
job with Pinkerton International in Nashville where he did undercover work to
expose the selling of drugs and automatic firearms in the corporate workplace.
After several years with them, he took a job doing much the same thing for the
FBI which he considers "the best time of my life." He moved on to Minnesota,
intending to work more regular hours as a beat cop, but wound up doing
undercover work for the Pinkertons again until he joined Vance International
where he did protection and security work for celebrities, corporate executives,
and politicians.
Currently a stay-at-home dad for his 15 month old daughter, he regards his
criminal justice career in a mixed light. He really enjoyed the challenges of
his work life "because it changes every day." But he also laments the 40-60 work
weeks, the absences from home for weeks at a time, and the over abundance of
paperwork and documentation these cases required. He adds that the "real world
is much crazier than you read in a book."
Most frustrating to him and to other undercover professionals is how they are
portrayed in the movies. Unlike Hollywood, he advises fiction writers never to
have their detectives cock their guns while sneaking up on the villains in a
crime scene. The loud noise would give them away.
4. Everyone applauded our speaker. President Marilyn Victor reminded everyone
before leaving that the book for discussion at our June meeting is Victoria
Houston's Dead Angler and adjourned the meeting at 8:25.
President Marilyn Victor received the treasurer’s report
from Bobbye Johnson. The current total in the account is $846.24.
Marilyn wanted to know if we were interested in having a
party for local award winners like we did last year. Soba’s is no longer open
but Pat Dennis offered to look into a place and costs and report back next
month.
Author news for the Sisters in Crime Docket needs to be in
before the April 10th publication deadline.
Rich Thompson’s debut book Fiddle Game will be released in
January 2008 by Poisoned Pen Press.
The book for this month was Watch your back! By Donald
Westlake. Those who had read it described it as a “delightfully goofy” caper
mystery. The protagonist is John Dortmunder who is a criminal genius but
everything he attempts goes wrong. Donald Westlake also writes under the pen
name Richard Stark but those books are entirely different. His book Payback was
made into a movie with Mel Gibson.
Books for future meetings:
May – Gentleman’s game by Greg Rucka
June – Dead Angler by Victoria Houston
Our speakers for the evening were Alison Aten and Brian
Farrey, publicists from Midnight Ink which publishes 8-10 mystery books each
year. They spoke about an author’s platform, including their website, blog,
myspace, and contacts. Who they know and the knowledge they can bring with them
is important in promoting their book. They talked about the publication process
they use and their schedule for promotion. We were even treated to ARC’s of Mark
Terry’s book The Devil’s Pitchfork.
Bill Fietzer was acting president
in Marilyn Victor’s absence.
Michael Mallory made a contact at
Midnight Ink who is willing to speak at one of our meetings. He will coordinate
with Marilyn on which month.
Don’t forget the Write of Spring
on March 24 at Once Upon a Crime. Almost forty authors are slated to attend.
The book of the month was Jar City
by Arnaldur Indradison. Great noir, social commentary, and the ethics of
collecting medical information into massive databases made this book notable for
those who read it. Recommended.
Our guest for the evening was Dr
Connie Fletcher. What, might you ask, does an English professor from Loyola have
to offer to our group? Connie is an expert in interviewing. She had valuable
tips on how to get “anyone” to speak to you and tips to maximize your time with
resources. For those of us who aren’t writers, the information was useful in
other settings such as job interviews or social gatherings.
Vice President Bill Fietzer filled in this month for ailing
President Marilyn Victor.
Pat Dennis had copies of the latest newsletter available
for anyone who needed one.
We are looking for speakers for April through June.
Michael Mallory asked if there was interest in someone from the publishing
industry. He has a possible contact.
The book for this month was Hard Truth by Nevada Barr. It
dealt with kidnapping, cults, and brain washing. Those who read it recommended
it and felt it stood well on it’s own for those who are new to this author.
Books for future meetings:
March – Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason
April – Watch Your back! by Donald E Westlake
May – A Gentleman’s Game by Greg Rucka
June – Dead Angler by Victoria Houston.
Our speaker for the evening was Jeff Washinger with
National Fire Protection. He is a fire inspector.
Jeff spoke about some of the legalities of arson and talked
about how he determines the cause of a fire. We listed some of the reasons a
person might resort to arson and discussed the ways firemen are portrayed on
television.
Jeff’s services are generally contracted by insurance
companies when there is in excess of $100,000 damage. He recounted two recent
local cases where his evidence helped solve arson investigations even brought
attempted murder charges.
Marilyn Victor and Michael Mallory’s ARC of Death Roll is
out. Pat Dennis and Michael have short stories in a new Minnesota Crime Wave
anthology called Resort to Murder.
Books for future meetings:
February – Hard Truth by Nevada Barr
March – Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason
April – Watch Your Back! by Donald E Westlake
May – A Gentleman’s Game by Greg Rucka
June – Dead Angler by Victoria Houston
Our book for this month was Blood Ties by Lori
Armstrong. Many liked it after getting past some issues with the beginning of
the book. Some had also read the second book in the series.
Our speaker for the evening was John McCullough from the
Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force and the Retailers Protection Association.
He presented information on how criminals use simple
methods to obtain access to legitimate account or check codes. They also obtain
a victim’s personal information by stealing their mail or mugging and using it
to create fake checks. He showed how easy it is to create multiple victims in
buyer and seller and walk off with large amounts of money leaving victims
without any means of compensation.
If you weren’t paranoid before the meeting, you definitely
were when it was over.
