LITERARY SALON ONLINE: Karen Dionne & Tori Eldridge: August 27

Literary Salon Online

When: Thursday, August 27, Noon PDT

Who: Karen Dionne & Tori Eldridge

Where: RSVP for Zoom login instructions

This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.

Zoom info will be sent when you register.
There will be a waiting room before admittance, so be sure to include your name with your email.
Space limited, as this will be an interactive salon. 

Send RSVP to janet @ mysteryreaders.org

Karen Dionne

Karen Dionne is the USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novel The Marsh King’s Daughter published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in the US and in 25 other languages. Her next psychological suspense, The Wicked Sister, has just been published from G.P. Putnam’s Sons in the US and Little, Brown in the UK August 4, 2020. Karen enjoys nature photography and lives with her husband in Detroit’s northern suburbs.

Tori Eldridge

Tori Eldridge is the author of The Ninja Daughter, nominated for the Anthony, Lefty, and Macavity Awards for Best First Novel and named one of the "Best Mystery Books of the Year" by The South Florida Sun Sentinel. The second book in her Lily Wong series, The Ninja’s Blade, releases on September 1st. Tori has short stories published in several anthologies and a narrative poem in the inaugural reboot of Weird Tales magazine. She holds a 5th degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninjutsu and has traveled the U.S. teaching ninja arts and women’s self-protection.  

Send RSVP to janet @ mysteryreaders.org

NAOMI HIRAHARA LITERARY SALON: Sunday, August 25

Upcoming Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA

When: Sunday, August 25, 3:00 p.m.

Who: Naomi Hirahara

Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)

This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.

Space is limited. Venue address sent with acceptance.

Please make a comment below with your email address.

Naomi Hirahara

Naomi Hirahara writes about the lives of the Nisei and Kibei (Americans of Japanese descent), many of whom lived through the catastrophe of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or were detained in interment camps in the United States during World War II. Stories of the Nisei (Japanese Americans born in the United States) and Kibei (Japanese Americans born in the United States who later removed to Japan) incorporate members of Hirahara's own family: her "father, Isamu … [was] born in California, but was taken to Hiroshima, Japan, as an infant. He was only miles away from the epicenter of the atomic-bombing in 1945, yet survived." Naomi's mother, Mayumi, or 'May,' was born in Hiroshima and lost her father in the blast."

Hirahara is known to a broader audience through her mystery fiction: novels featuring a septuagenarian Nisei gardener named Mas Arai. As in her nonfiction, Hirahara uses elements drawn from both her personal his

tory and her research. "Mas is inspired by my father," she told Hartlaub, "who also happens to be a gardener and an atomic-bomb survivor." Arai has become popular among readers and critics alike, and the author has featured him as an unlikely sleuth in a series of stories that, as with her nonfiction, help reveal the inner workings of Japanese-American society to readers. She also writes the Officer Ellie Rush series.

Iced in Paradise: a Leilani Santiago Hawai'i Mystery is her latest mystery: Leilani Santiago is back in her birthplace, the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i, to help keep afloat the family business, a shave ice shack. When she goes to work one morning, she stumbles across a dead body, a young pro surfer who was being coached by her estranged father. As her father soon becomes the No. 1 murder suspect, Leilani must find the real killer and somehow safeguard her ill mother, little sisters, and grandmother while also preserving a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend in Seattle. (Prospect Park Books)

To RSVP,  make a comment below with email address or send DM.

HALLIE EPHRON: Lit Salon 8/21

Upcoming Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA

When: Wednesday, August 21, 7:00 p.m.

Who: Hallie Ephron

Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)

This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.

Space is limited. Venue address sent with acceptance.

Please make a comment below with your email address.

Hallie Ephron

HALLIE EPHRON (http://hallieephron.com) is the New York Times bestselling author of eleven suspense novels that reviewers call “deliciously creepy” and “Hitchcockian.” Her books are rooted in reality, and it’s no coincidence that her new novel, Careful What You Wish For, is about a professional organizer married to a man who can’t pass a yard sale without stopping.

She is a five-time finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (Writers Digest Books) was an Edgar Award finalist. For twelve years she wrote an award-winning crime-fiction book review column for the Boston Globe. Her Never Tell a Lie was made into a Lifetime movie. A popular speaker and writing teacher, Hallie lives near Boston with her husband.

Read Hallie's essay on "Finding My Way to Crime Fiction" on Mystery Fanfare

To RSVP, send an email to janet @ mysteryreaders (dot) org

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Upcoming Literary Salons: Mark your Calendar

August 25: Naomi Hirahara, 3 p.m. Berkeley
September 18: Mark Coggins & Reece Hirsch

CARA BLACK & LIBBY HELLMANN: Lit Salon in Berkeley Thursday 8/1

Upcoming Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA

When: Thursday, August 1, 7:00 p.m.

Who: Cara Black, Libby Hellmann

Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)

This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.

Space is limited. Venue address sent with acceptance.

Please make a comment below with your email address.

Cara Black

Murder in Bel-Air, the riveting 19th installment in Cara Black's New York Times bestselling Parisian detective series, entangles private investigator Aimée Leduc in a dangerous web of international spycraft, post-colonial Franco-African politics, and neighborhood secrets in Paris’s 12th arrondissement.

Cara Black is the author of nineteen books in the New York Times bestselling Aimée Leduc series. She has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, and her books have been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son and visits Paris frequently.

Libby Hellmann

Libby Fischer Hellmann left a career in broadcast news in Washington, DC and moved to Chicago 35 years ago, where she, naturally, began to write gritty crime fiction. Thirteen novels and twenty short stories later, she claims they’ll take her out of the Windy City feet first. She has been nominated for many awards in the mystery writing community and has even won a few. More at http://libbyhellmann.com.

Her novels include the now five-volume Ellie Foreman series, which she describes as a cross between “Desperate Housewives” and “24;” the hard-boiled 4-volume Georgia Davis PI series, and four stand-alone historical thrillers set during Revolutionary Iran,  Cuba, the Sixties, and WW2. Her short stories have been published in a dozen anthologies, the Saturday Evening Post, and Ed Gorman’s 25 Criminally Good Short Stories collection.

To RSVP, send an email to janet @ mysteryreaders (dot) org

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Upcoming Literary Salons: Mark your Calendar

August 21: Hallie Ephron, 7 p.m. Berkeley
August 25: Naomi Hirahara, 3 p.m. Berkeley

KAY KENDALL & TERRY SHAMES: LIT SALON IN BERKELEY 6/12

Upcoming Literary Salon in Berkeley, CA

When: Wednesday, June 12, 7:00 p.m.

Who: Kay Kendall, Terry Shames

Where: RSVP for venue address (Berkeley, CA)
This is a free event, but YOU MUST RSVP to attend.
Space is Limited. Address of venue sent with acceptance. 
Please make a comment below with your email address

Kay Kendall

Before Kay Kendall began to write books, she was an award-winning international public relations executive, working in the US, Canada, the Soviet Union, and Europe. She has graduate degrees in Russian history and was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Because of her degrees in Russian history, Kay often brings Cold War elements into her tales. She takes great pains in her books to get historical settings and details right—no anachronisms allowed.

Kay Kendall has written three historical mysteries. Her second book, Rainy Day Women (2015), won for best mystery and best book at Killer Nashville in August 2016. It is the second in her Austin Starr mystery series. The first was Desolation Row (2013), published by Stairway Press. Her latest mystery, After You’ve Gone, is an Austin Starr prequel. Kay and her husband live in Houston, Texas. They’ve rescued abandoned pet bunnies for twenty years and currently have three rabbits and a bemused spaniel.

Kay is president of the Southwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and is a member of the national board of MWA.

Terry Shames

Terry Shames writes the award-winning, critically acclaimed Samuel Craddock series, set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas. From an early age, Terry Shames wrote stories based on the small town in Texas where her grandparents lived, a fictional version of the town that sparked her imagination. 

Her mysteries have been finalists for numerous awards, including The Strand Critics Award, The Lefty Award, and the Macavity Award. A Killing at Cotton Hill won the Macavity for Best First Mystery, 2013. The Necessary Murder of Nonie Blake won the RT Reviews Critics Award for Best Contemporary Mystery of 2016. The latest in the series is A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary. 

Raised in Texas and a University of Texas alum, Terry has lived in Berkeley, CA for many years. She is a member of the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. 

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Be sure and RSVP to janet @ mysteryreaders (dot) org
 

Lise McClendon Literary Salon: June 6

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an evening Literary Salon in Berkeley (CA) with mystery author Lise McClendon.

When: Wednesday, June 6, 1 p.m. (note the early time)

Where: Berkeley. RSVP by making comment below with your email
 
Lise McClendon is the author of five books in the Bennett Sisters mystery series. The series begins with Blackbird Fly; the latest is The Frenchman. That novel spawned a bonus novella ‘written by’ the main character, Merle Bennett, a gothic mystery called Odette and the Great Fear. The next installment releases this summer. She wrote two mystery series, the Alix Thorssen and Dorie Lennox mysteries set in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and World War II-era Kansas City (The Bluejay Shaman; One O’clock Jump). She also writes stand-alones as Rory Tate. Jump Cut is a romantic thriller set in Seattle; PLAN X is a Shakespearean thriller featuring a Montana policewoman.

Her short story, Forked Tongue, is featured in the 2017 anthology, The Obama Inheritance, edited by Gary Phillips. In 2015 she released (as Thalia Filbert) the darkly comic culinary thriller she wrote with four other well-seasoned crime writers, Beat Slay Love: One Chef’s Hunger for Delicious Revenge.

Traditionally published for many years, Lise now runs a small press with her fellow author, Katy Munger: Thalia Press. A former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, she lives in wilds of Montana near Yellowstone National Park and online at lisemcclendon.com.

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Upcoming Literary Salons (more to come)

June 13: Terry Shames & James Ziskin
July 12: Cara Black
September 26: Lisa Brackmann

Gregg Hurwitz Lit Salon: September 11

Join Mystery Readers International for a Literary Salon with award winning author Gregg Hurwitz on Wednesday, September 11, 7 p.m. in Berkeley, CA. Please leave your email address in a comment below for address and to RSVP.

Gregg Hurwitz is the critically acclaimed, New York Times and internationally bestselling author of twelve novels, most recently They’re Watching, You’re Next, The Survivor and Tell No Lies. His books have been nominated for numerous awards, shortlisted twice for best novel of the year by International Thriller Writers, nominated for CWA’s Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, chosen as feature selections for all four major literary book clubs, honored as Book Sense Picks, nominated for the Galaxy National Book Award, and translated into twenty two languages.

Gregg has written screenplays for or sold spec scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television (including ABC’s “V”) for various networks. He is also a New York Times Bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin). He has published numerous academic articles on Shakespeare, taught fiction writing in the USC English Department, and guest lectured for UCLA, and for Harvard in the United States and internationally. In the course of researching his thrillers, he has sneaked onto demolition ranges with Navy SEALs, swum with sharks in the Galápagos, and gone undercover into mind-control cults.

Gregg's lastest novel is TELL NO LIES 
Daniel Brasher has always been something of a disappointment to his old-money aristocratic San Francisco mother. Daniel left his high-paying job as a money manager to marry his community organizer wife and work at a job he loves, leading group counseling sessions with recently paroled ex-cons. Now he’s ready to move on and start a private practice.  But before he leaves, he finds an envelope in his department mailbox—one intended for someone else that was placed in his slot by accident. Inside it is an unsigned piece of paper, a note that says only “admit what you’ve done or you will bleed for it. you have 'til november 15 at midnite.” The deadline has already passed and the person to whom the envelope was addressed was brutally murdered. But this first warning is only the beginning.

Hurwitz grew up in the Bay Area. While completing a BA from Harvard and a master’s from Trinity College, Oxford in Shakespearean tragedy, he wrote his first novel. He was the undergraduate scholar-athlete of the year at Harvard for his pole-vaulting exploits, and played college soccer in England, where he was a Knox fellow. He now lives in L.A. where he continues to play soccer, frequently injuring himself.

Kenneth Wishnia: Lit Salon April 18

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an evening with mystery author Kenneth Wishnia in Berkeley, CA on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. To receive address info and to RSVP, please include your email address in a comment below.

Kenneth Wishnia’s novels include 23 Shades of Black, an Edgar and Anthony Award finalist; Soft Money, a Library Journal Best Mystery of the Year; and Red House, a Washington Post Book World “Rave” Book of the Year. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Queens Noir, Politics Noir, and elsewhere. His latest novel, The Fifth Servant, has been nominated for the “Premio Letterario Adei-Wizo” by the Italian chapter of the Woman’s International Zionist Organization. 

From Ken's Website:

Kenneth Wishnia was born in Hanover, NH  to a roving band of traveling academics. He earned a B.A. from Brown University (1982) and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from SUNY Stony Brook (1996). He teaches writing, literature and other deviant forms of thought at Suffolk Community College in Brentwood, Long Island, where he is a professor of English.

Ken’s novels have been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, and have made Best Mystery of the Year lists at Booklist, Library Journal, and The Washington Post. His short stories have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Murder in Vegas, Long Island Noir, Queens Noir, Politics Noir, Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail, and elsewhere.

His most recent novel, The Fifth Servant, was an Indie Notable selection, one of the “Best Jewish Books of 2010” according to the Association of Jewish Libraries, a finalist for the Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery Award, and winner of a Premio Letterario ADEI-WIZO, a literary prize awarded by the Associazione Donne Ebree d’Italia, the Italian branch of the Women’s International Zionist Organization.

He is married to a wonderful Catholic woman from Ecuador, and they have two children who are completely insane.

Sara J. Henry Literary Salon March 7

Join Mystery Readers Norcal for an evening with Award Winning author Sara J. Henry at 7 p.m. March 7 in Berkeley, CA. To RSVP and directions, leave a comment with your email.

SARA J. HENRY is the author of the award-winning Learning to Swim. She was a newspaper sports editor in the Adirondacks and has been a book and magazine editor, freelance writer, and webmaster. A native of Tennessee, she also lived in Ontario and Florida, and now calls southern Vermont home.

Henry’s second novel is A Cold and Lonely Place:

Freelance writer Troy Chance is snapping photos of the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival ice palace when the ice-cutting machine falls silent. Encased in the ice is the shadowy outline of a body—a man she knows. One of her roommates falls under suspicion, and the media descends. Troy’s assigned to write an in-depth feature on the dead man, who, it turns out, was the privileged son of a wealthy Connecticut family who had been playing at a blue collar life in this Adirondack village. And the deeper Troy digs into his life and mysterious death, the murkier things become. After the victim’s sister comes to town and a string of disturbing incidents unfold, it’s clear someone doesn’t want the investigation to continue.

“Henry follows up her award-winning debut novel, Learning to Swim, with a strong second effort also featuring freelance reporter Troy Chance….Featuring a strong cast of female characters and a measured pace, this sophomore novel also perfectly conjures the lure of living in a small and beautiful mountain town during a bitterly cold winter. Featuring an independent and immensely likable lead, riffing on the complicated nature of friendship, and boasting a solidly plotted mystery, this may well appeal to fans of Gillian Flynn.” –Booklist.

“At the start of Henry’s haunting follow-up to her Agatha-winning debut, Learning to Swim, reporter Troy Chance stumbles onto what could be the story that changes her career – as well as several lives. Adding considerably to the compulsively readable mystery that unfolds…is Henry’s bone-deep sense of this terribly beautiful place.” —PW

Read the First Four Chapters Here

D.P. Lyle: Lit Salon July 19 in Berkeley

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for a return appearance of Award-winning Author, Lecturer, and Story Consultant, D.P. Lyle., M.D.. Intrigued by forensics? CSI? Writing a mystery? This is your opportunity to learn more  crime scene investigations, thriller and mystery writing, and much more. You won't want to miss this Literary Salon!

When: Thursday, July 19, 7 p.m.
Where: Private Home, Berkeley, CA
RSVP by leaving a comment with your email address

D. P. LYLE 

Writing: Non-fiction:

MURDER & MAYHEM; FORENSICS FOR DUMMIES

FORENSICS & FICTION; MORE FORENSICS & FICTION

HOWDUNNIT: FORENSICS

ABA FUNDAMENTALS: UNDERSTANDING FORENSIC SCIENCE

Writing: Fiction:

The Samantha Cody thriller series--DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND and DOUBLE BLIND)

The Dub Walker Thriller series -- STRESS FRACTURE; HOT LIGHTS, COLD STEEL, RUN TO GROUND

The Royal Pains media tie-in novels: ROYAL PAINS: FIRST, DO NO HARM, ROYAL PAINS: SICK RICH

In addition to his own writing, D.P. Lyle has worked with many novelists and with the writers of popular television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Peacemakers, Cold Case, House, Medium, Women’s Murder Club, 1-800-Missing, The Glades, and Pretty Little Liars.

Doug Lyle was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama where his childhood interests revolved around football, baseball, and building rockets in his backyard. The latter pursuit was common in Huntsville during the 1950’s and 60’s due to the nearby NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.

After leaving Huntsville, he attended college, medical school, and served an internship at the University of Alabama; followed by a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas at Houston; then a Fellowship in Cardiology at The Texas Heart Institute, also in Houston. For the past 35 years, he has practiced Cardiology in Orange County, California.