I have been enjoying the Desert Sleuths Zoom meetings so much that I went ahead and officially joined, as well as joining Sisters in Crime, their parent organization. For those who don’t know, SinC is devoted to promoting women authors in the crime/mystery field. Membership is open to all, and you do not need to actually be an author to join — fans are welcome too. Since I am a published author, I was able to join as a Professional member. More on this below.
At last night’s meeting I asked if anyone else had written a story based on the RV park ideas from last month’s meeting, and only one had, and that was not a mystery. So it looks like editors will not be inundated with dozens of similar stories.
The speaker last night was author James L’Etoile, who used to be a corrections officer. He told us what it was really like inside a prison. And, as he pointed out, learning did not require a felony conviction.
Since I am trying to be more active in the writing community, I have also sent in a membership application to the Mystery Writers of America. I had to register as an Associate member — to be a full member you have to have earned above a certain amount. For short stories the threshold is fairly low ($200), but I have not reached that yet. But getting there; if I can win the Mysterious Photograph Contest five more times, that would do it. 😉
That’s all for now.