We at Sisters in Crime are bursting with pride that Colorado Chapter President, Rhonda Blackhurst, has won the Excellence in Arts Award – Master of Literary Arts from the Brighton Cultural Arts Commission. Congratulations, Rhonda!
She started her first novel writing over 30 years ago. Rhonda always loved reading a good mystery, and that became the genre in which she chose to write.
Like the Queen of Crime herself, Agatha Christie, Rhonda authors “cozy mysteries” which she describes as mysteries “one would feel comfortable having one’s grandmother read with no gratuitous sex or violence.”
Thus far, Rhonda has had ten books published: seven in the Melanie Hogan cozy mystery series, a short story, two romantic suspense novels Finding Abby and Abby’s Redemption, a standalone called The Inheritance and a non-fiction story.
She is currently working on a series called The Spirit Lake Mysteries as well as a mystery short story “From the Darkness.” Rhonda created a publishing company, Lighthouse, that has a cover designer, an editor, a formatter, as well as beta readers. She attends many writing workshops and enjoys book signings and talks.
Because of Brighton’s vibrant and growing cultural arts community, the Cultural Arts Commission created the Excellence Awards to celebrate individuals and groups within Brighton who are cultural arts champions.
These champions were recognized with the Excellence in Arts Awards on February 9 at Eagle View Adult Center.
Sisters in Crime – CO member, Margaret Mizushima has announced the upcoming release of STANDING DEAD, her eighth Timber Creek K-9 Mystery. The Timber Creek K-9 books are police procedurals. Each adventure contains a combination of K-9 cops, veterinary work, and family relationships as well as a murder case to investigate and solve.
In this episode, the case for Deputy Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo becomes personal when Mattie’s mother vanishes without a trace. After a dead man is found tied to a standing dead pine in the beetle-killed forest near Timber Creek, Mattie is forced to play cat and mouse with a killer.
In a last-ditch gambit, she goes undercover into the killer’s lair to try to save her mother—or die trying. STANDING DEAD can be found wherever books are sold and is available for preorder now. The book releases March 7th.
Margaret Mizushima is the author of the award-winning and internationally published Timber Creek K-9 Mysteries. Active within the writing community, Margaret serves as past president for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, was elected the 2019 Writer of the Year by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and is also a member of Northern Colorado Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Women Writing the West.
The Lefty Awards Are Back! This year’s Left Coast Crime Convention’s annual banquet and awards presentation takes place on Saturday, March 18, at the El Conquistador Resort in the Oro Valley of Tucson, Arizona.
Left Coast Crime is an annual mystery convention sponsored by mystery fans, including readers as well as authors. This LCC celebration takes place first quarter of the year in Western North America. Conventions have been held from Anchorage to El Paso, from Denver to Hawaii.
The convention honors writers in these categories:
Best Humorous Mystery Novel
Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bruce Alexander Memorial)
Best Mystery Novel
Best Debut Mystery Novel
These are the nominees for 2022 awards:
Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel
Ellen Byron, Bayou Book Thief (Berkley Prime Crime)
Jennifer J. Chow, Death by Bubble Tea (Berkley Prime Crime)
A.J. Devlin, Five Moves of Doom (NeWest Press)
T.G. Herren, A Streetcar Named Murder (Crooked Lane Books)
Catriona McPherson, Scot in a Trap (Severn House)
Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel (The Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books set before 1970)
Dianne Freeman, A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder (Kensington Books)
Catriona McPherson, In Place of Fear (Severn House)
Wanda M. Morris, Anywhere You Run (William Morrow)
Karen Odden, Under a Veiled Moon (Crooked Lane Books)
Ann Parker, The Secret in the Wall (Poisoned Pen Press)
Iona Whishaw, Framed in Fire (Touchwood)
Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel
Erin E. Adams, Jackal (Bantam Books)
Eli Cranor, Don’t Know Tough (Soho Crime)
Ramona Emerson, Shutter (Soho Crime)
Meredith Hambrock, Other People’s Secrets (Crooked Lane Books)
Harini Nagendra, The Bangalore Detectives Club (Pegasus Crime)
Rob Osler, Devil’s Chew Toy (Crooked Lane Books)
Jane Pek, The Verifiers (Vintage Books)
Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel
Kellye Garrett, Like a Sister (Mulholland Books)
Laurie R. King, Back to the Garden (Bantam Books)
James L’Etoile, Dead Drop (Level Best Books)
Gigi Pandian, Under Lock & Skeleton Key (Minotaur Books)
Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities (Minotaur Books)
How to Find the Agent, Wow the Agent, Sign with the Agent.
Agent hunting got you down? Bewildered in the wilds of publishing? Get the scoop from winners in our chosen trade with the Citrus Crime Writers (CCW) event on February 12. Scheduled for this Zoom session are some of CCW’s traditionally published authors who know all too wall about the travails of getting an agent—and how to deal with them.
Listen to their stories and how they learned the hard way. Join Martha Geaney (Star O’Brien Mystery Series), Nancy Cohen (Bad Hair Day Mysteries), Ruth Owen (Romance Writers of America), Charlotte Hunter and S. K. Golden as they inform and entertain us about their agent experiences.
About the Authors
Nancy J. Cohen writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. Titles in this series have been named Best Cozy Mystery by Suspense Magazine, won the RONE and Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, placed first in the Chanticleer International Book Awards and third in the Arizona Literary Awards.
Ruth Owen has published ten novels in the contemporary and historical romance field with Random House. The Romance Writers of America (RWA) selected her novel, Taming the Pirate, for its prestigious Maggie Award, and her novel, Someone to Watch Over Me as one of the RWA’s Top Ten Books of the Year. In addition, she received ten (10) Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards for her works.
S.K. Golden is the author of the Pinnacle Hotel cozy mystery series.
For all you hard-boiled and horror readers! Shannon Lawrence and the Colorado chapter of Horror Writers of American sponsor an up-close- and- personal tour guided by with Colorado’s El Paso County Coroner and Medical Examiner, Dr. Leon Kelly. Tour scheduled for TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2023 AT 7 PM.
Voters selected Dr. Kelly in 2022 to serve once again as coroner of El Paso County. El Paso County has the only on-site Forensic Toxicology lab in Colorado. Two on-site forensic toxicologists routinely perform toxicology studies for many other Colorado Counties. Six full time deputy coroners, a histologist and one office administrator also staff the office.
Dr. Kelly is a nationally respected board-certified forensic pathologist. He’s served as coroner the last four years and as deputy coroner for years before that. Beyond his involvement in suspicious deaths, Dr. Kelly has led efforts to combat teen and veteran suicide, the opioid crisis, and now a fentanyl epidemic.
He has generously agreed to do a Q&A and a tour of the Coroner’s Office. No charge to attend. Bring your writing implements to take notes and plenty of questions! Now’s your chance! Sign up now.
Valerie Webster and Driven: A Rita Mars Thriller in the spotlight via Author of the Day interview.
Make your next book club event an author event with a writer who’s lived the cases, developed the crime fighting technologies. Contact Valerie Webster today.
