Events

Book Chat: Peg Brantley and Sandra Murphy

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

On May 25th, 11:30AM-1:45PM at the University of Denver’s Knoebel Institute for Healthy Aging, Professor Emerita Dr. Barbara Kreisman chats with Sisters in Crime – CO author Peg Brantley about her book Trafficked. The audiobook narrator, fellow Sisters in Crime – CO member Sandra Murphy, will also be there.

For full details on the event, click the link here.

Three young women, girls really. Your neighbor? Your daughter? You?

It happens here, not just “over there.”

Caught up in a cruel system fueled by lust and money, all three must find the courage within themselves to survive. And Mex Anderson must come to terms with his own loss and face his own demons head on—or he might not have the strength to save them.

Award winning author Peg Brantley brings us another story that inspires thought and conversation. Asked to comment on TRAFFICKED, Peg says it’s her hope that one day this novel will go from the contemporary thriller category to historical.

At the back of the book is a resource section for those who need it, and for those who wish to make a difference.

Event: May 2023 Book Club

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

You are cordially invited to attend Sisters in Crime-Colorado Book Club. We meet once a month via Zoom. Come ready to chat with the author and other readers! If you don’t have a chance to read the book, that’s quite all right. We discuss craft, publishing and other subjects too. Everyone is welcome! Book club is free and open to the public. For specific dates please see the schedule at sistersincrimecolorado.org/book-club

PLEASE NOTE:  Sisters in Crime-Colorado members can get the link to the Zoom meeting on the chapter groups.io listserv. Non-members may request the meeting link by emailing  

sistersincrimecolorado(at)gmail(dot)com

May 17th, 10 am

May’s selection is Charred: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery by G.P. Gottlieb

Alene Baron is dealing with frustrated employees, closed schools, and a homeless man who harasses customers outside the door of her café. Then, two dead bodies turn up in the burned remains of buildings owned by the husband of Alene’s best friend and pastry chef, Ruthie. Both bodies are wearing jackets that once belonged to Ruthie and crumbled in the pockets are the café’s distinctive wrappers. At the same time, Alene’s uncle, a convicted felon, has resurfaced after disappearing for 22 years. It’s all too much for the owner of the Whipped and Sipped Café.

www.gpgottlieb.com

Chapter Meeting: Great Characterization: more than description & Murder in the Kitchen

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

Quarterly Chapter Meeting/Event: June 3, 2023

Lone Tree Library, 10055 Library Way, Lone Tree, Colorado 80124 (303-791-READ)

Also Via Zoom; (Information on how to join the presentation will be posted in the Sisters in Crime-Colorado Groups.io members listserv.)

Please note: Chapter meetings are a member only benefit. You can learn more about us and our chapter here: https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/join/

To request more information, please use our contact form: https://sistersincrimecolorado.org/connect/

PROGRAM/SCHEDULE

9:30 am – 10:00 am   Welcome, Announcements

10:00 am – 12:00 pm   Great Characterization: more than description by Ann Dominguez

We’ve all read a book where the writer’s introduction of a character takes our breath away. We’ve also all sat at our computers, wondering how to say “She had gray hair. She was as tough as nails and didn’t care how many balls she busted before breakfast,” in a more engaging way.

You already have the world’s most fascinating character in your head, but we’re going to figure out how to make the reader sit up and say, “Wow! How did she do that?”

12:00pm – 1:00 pm   Lunch (brown bag or visit nearby restaurants)

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm   Murder in the Kitchen by Fran Gleason and Dr. Gleason

Whether you’re a cozy writer or a thriller-writer, we all need ways to bump off that unsuspecting victim or bad guy. Believe it or not, your chef’s knife is not the only way. Toxins abound in some everyday foods around you that our speaker, Chef Fran Gleason, will expose, which could become a dastardly way to off your character. Her son, Dr. Gleason will address side effects and add his own thoughts to Murder in the Kitchen.

RVSP on our Meet-Up Page or through our Groups.IO Listserv

The Zoom login information will be posted in the chapter’s groups.io listserv.

About the Presenters:

Ann Dominguez is a writer and practicing physician.  Her medical adventures have taken her from Chicago to Haiti, Guatemala, and Thailand.  The Code, the third book in her Kate Deming Suspense series, was released in October 2022.  Her writing has appeared in JAMA, Venn Magazine, Medical Economics, and The Well. She writes about medicine, mothering, and the liminal spaces where what we know has been stripped away.  Someday she hopes to finish a cup of tea before it gets cold.

Fran Gleason holds an Associate of Applied Science Culinary Arts degree from the Art Institute of Colorado, Denver, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2007 at the age of 50. She owned Mealtime Matters, LLC, a Personal Chef business in Colorado Springs from 2007-2013, where she provided weekly meals for her clients.

Fran started volunteering as a Chef Educator for Share Our Strength Cooking Matters Program in 2007 and continues that volunteer position today. She was given a Leadership Award and was inducted into the No Kid Hungry/Share Our Strength Hall of Fame in 2013.

Joining Fran in her talk and PowerPoint presentation is her son, Dr. Gleason, who is the Director of Mercy Medical Center’s Emergency Department in Durango.

Event: April 2023 Book Club

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

You are cordially invited to attend Sisters in Crime-Colorado Book Club. We meet once a month via Zoom. Come ready to chat with the author and other readers! If you don’t have a chance to read the book, that’s quite all right. We discuss craft, publishing and other subjects too. Everyone is welcome! Book club is free and open to the public. For specific dates please see the schedule at sistersincrimecolorado.org/book-club

PLEASE NOTE:  Sisters in Crime-Colorado members can get the link to the Zoom meeting on the chapter groups.io listserv. Non-members may request the meeting link by emailing  

sistersincrimecolorado(at)gmail(dot)com

April 19th, 10 am

April’s selection is Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima

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.

www.margaretmizushima.com

Upcoming Release: Defcon by Michele Packard

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

Sisters in Crime-CO member Michele Packard is pleased to announce the upcoming release of her latest book Defcon in her AESOP thriller series. Defcon releases April 7th.

America’s top operative, Matti Baker, is launching an all out war in this fast-paced, psychological, political thriller.

There is one quality that is unique to the human species…GREED.

Baker is enlisting the help of the President and her team in this fight against individual and corporate conspiracies and greed as they target her for the destruction of a virus that could solve the world’s health concerns. Baker is sacrificing all and doing what others are unwilling to do. The target is on her back. No more cancer, no more diabetes…if she can stay alive long enough to reproduce her genesis. She’s serving justice.

Freedom comes at a cost and the payment is Matti Baker as she launches her own version of DEFCON.

The countdown has started.

DEFCON is a multi-layered, heart-pounding, realistic thriller in the ongoing AESOP series.

Amazon: DEFCON

Stories on Stage – Denver Noir Featuring Sinc-CO Members

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

An upcoming Stories on Stage performance will feature stories from Denver Noir read by professional actors. Four stories from the 14-story collection will be read, including our own Sisters in Crime-CO members Cynthia Swanson and Francelia Belton! Other Denver Noir contributors featured are Manuel Ramos and Mathangi Subramanian.

The performance is on Sunday, April 2 at 2:00 pm at Su Teatro theater in Denver. It will be recorded and can also be viewed online. 

Francelia and Cynthia will be there. The Bookies will be on hand to sell copies of Denver Noir and other books by the contributors. 

More info and tix are at www.storiesonstage.org

New Release and Book Launch: A Cold Case of Conscience by Helen Starbuck

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

Sisters in Crime-CO member Helen Starbuck’s new book A Cold Case of Conscience releases this month. It’s Book Four in the Annie Collins Mysteries. Join her for a Zoom launch party on March 8th at 6:30 pm MST. RVSP by DM on Facebook: Helensstarbuck or Instagram: Helenstarbuck_author or email her at helens.pashley@gmail.com.

What happens when a conscience goes cold?

Annie Collins wants to unofficially review cold cases for Denver Homicide Detective Alex
Frost. But solving them isn’t easy, like the arson death of a man known for his predatory
behavior toward women. There are no suspects, no witnesses, and no one who is sorry that he’s
gone.

Annie can’t resist the pull of a recent murder that may be connected to an old cold case. Annie
and Frost aren’t sure if the two cases are connected, and the person who knows the answer isn’t
talking.

Angel Cisneros, Annie’s husband, is struggling to recover after their brush with death, and his
ability to tolerate the repercussions of her involvement with Frost is at an end. Annie may be
forced to choose between helping Frost or concealing what she’s doing from Angel—something
she’s never done.

Book Signing: Kathleen Donnelly

/ Sisters in Crime-Colorado

Colorado authors, Kathleen Donnelly and Scott Graham, are excited to team up for a fun event at the Boulder Bookstore, Wednesday March 15th at 6:30 p.m.

Donnelly will discuss the first book in the National Forest K-9 series, Chasing Justice, and give a sneak peek into her next National Forest K-9 book, Hunting The Truth, releasing September 26, 2023. In Chasing Justice, former marine Maya Thompson swears she’ll never work with dogs again. But when she returns home to Colorado and accepts a job with the U.S. Forest Service, fate brings K-9 Juniper into her life just as another tragedy unfolds.

Graham will talk about his latest release, Saguaro Sanction, Book 8 in his National Park Mystery Series releasing March 7, 2023. When Janelle Ortega’s cousin from Mexico is found brutally murdered at a remote petroglyph site in Saguaro National Park, Janelle and her husband, archaeologist Chuck Bender, are drawn deep into a threatening web of hostility and deceit stretching south across the US-Mexico border and back in time a thousand years, to when the Hohokam people thrived in the Sonoran Desert.

For tickets go to: GrahamDonnellyBBS.eventbrite.com