MWA NorCal Mystery Month: SETTING!!

October is Mystery Month! Mystery Writers of America NorCal presents a host of special events starting today!

Wednesday, October 13

SETTING: Locked Rooms to Hot Air Balloons – Crafting the Perfect Setting and Making It Real
Via Zoom; advance registration required
5 PM Pacific Time

Setting: 1) the place and conditions in which something happens or exists; (2) the time, place, and conditions in which the action of a book, movie, etc. takes place; and (3) the rooms, painted backgrounds, furniture, etc., that are used for a scene in a movie or a play. Join us, on Zoom, as we dive into the world of backdrop and scene. What’s the context for the action of our characters? With a (literal) world of options how do we pick the best setting for our characters, and how do we assure readers step into the places we create? Setting should encompass more than just place—it is what imbues our stories with mood and ambience.

Moderator: Daisy Bateman is a mystery lover, cheese enthusiast, and world-renowned expert in Why You Should Buy That. Her educational background is in molecular biology from Caltech and UC Berkeley, and in what passes for normal life, she works in biotech.

Panelists:

• John Billheimer holds an engineering Ph.D. from Stanford University and for thirty years was Vice President of a small consulting firm specializing in transportation research. He has investigated such diverse topics as commuter lane performance, mobile phone safety, drunk driving countermeasures, DMV service, video surveillance, and motorcycle safety
• Mark Coggins has earned two degrees and a Phi Beta Kappa Key from Stanford University and has worked for a number of Silicon Valley computer and venture capital firms, including Netscape Communications and Hewlett Packard Company. His books have been nominated for the Shamus and the Barry crime fiction awards and have been selected for best of the year lists compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press and Amazon.com, among others.
• Margaret Dumas writes books about smart, funny women who are trying to figure things out in the San Francisco Bay Area. Occasionally they fall in love. Occasionally they solve a murder.