Online Event: Women’s National Book Association

Join Mitzi Szereto, Cathy Pickens, and me for a free online event on April 15th at noon. We will chat about writing and researching true crime. I can’t wait! Register HERE

April 15th – Women Writing True Crime

By Brianna Cool

Friday, April 15th, 2022

Women Writing True Crime with Mitzi Szereto, Joan Renner, and Cathy Pickens

12 pm / PT

FREE Virtual Event

A panel discussion featuring Mitzi Szereto, editor of The Best New True Crime Stories series, and her contributors Joan Renner and Cathy Pickens from her new book release, The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime

Topics to be discussed include:

  1. True crime and how writing it is different from other genres.
  2. True crime and its appeal to women writers and readers.
  3. Individual approaches to true crime.
  4. Writing responsibly and ethically.
  5. How to catch the editor’s eye.
  6. Researching and getting the facts right.

***

Mitzi Szereto (mitziszereto.com) is an author and anthology editor whose books encompass multiple genres, including those in her popular true crime franchise The Best New True Crime Stories, to date the volumes Partners in Crime; Crimes of Passion, Obsession & Revenge; Well-Mannered Crooks, Rogues & Criminals; Small Towns; and Serial Killers. She has the added distinction of being the editor of the first anthology of erotic fiction to include a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She’s appeared internationally on radio and television and at literature festivals, and has taught creative writing around the world. In addition to having produced and presented the London-based web TV channel Mitzi TV, she portrays herself in the pseudo-documentary British film, Lint: The Movie. The sixth volume in her true crime series, The Best New True Crime Stories: Unsolved Crimes & Mysteries, will be published in September 2022. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MitziSzereto.

Joan Renner, writer, social historian, and true crime expert, is the author of The First with the latest: Aggie Underwood, the Los Angeles Herald, and the Sordid Crimes of a City. She contributed to the Los Angeles Times bestseller LAPD ’53, written by James Ellroy and Glynn Martin. She has appeared in a previous volume of The Best New True Crime Stories. Joan lectures on historic Los Angeles crime and appears on true crime TV shows and podcasts. She is currently writing a book for University Press of Kentucky about Los Angeles during the Prohibition era.

Cathy Pickens (cathypickens.com) has written crime fiction, starting with the award-winning Southern Fried (St. Martin’s), and a regional historic true crime series, starting with Charlotte True Crime Stories (History Press). The latest is Upstate South Carolina True Crime Stories. She’s served as national president of Sisters in Crime, on Mystery Writers of America’s national board, and as true crime columnist for Mystery Readers Journal. A lawyer and former college professor, she also wrote CREATE! Developing Your Creative Process (create-update.com), works with prison inmates, and coaches writers and others in creativity workshops. Her work has appeared in a previous volume of The Best New True Crime Stories.

Film Noir Friday–Sunday Matinee: Murder With Pictures [1936]

Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is MURDER WITH PICTURES [1936] starring Lew Ayres and Gail Patrick.

Enjoy the film!

TCM says:

Stanley Redfield, defense lawyer for racketeer Nate Girard, who has been accused of murdering a man named Cusick, is murdered during a press party held to celebrate Girard’s acquittal. Among the suspects are two newspapermen, Phil Doane and I. B. McGoogin, and Meg Archer, a mysterious woman who appeared in town shortly after Girard’s release. Free from suspicion is ace news photographer Kent Murdock, who was in a nearby apartment arguing with his showgirl fiancé, Hester Boone, when the murder took place.

ENJOY THE MOVIE!

Film Noir Friday: The Chase [1946]

Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is THE CHASE [1946] starring Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, Steve Cochran and Peter Lore.

Enjoy the film!

TCM says:

Returning a lost wallet gains unemployed veteran Chuck Scott a job as chauffeur to Eddie Roman, a seeming gangster whose enemies have a way of meeting violent ends. The job proves nerve-wracking, and soon Chuck finds himself pledged to help Eddie’s lovely, fearful, prisoner-wife Lorna to escape. The result leaves Chuck caught like a rat in a trap, vainly seeking a way out through dark streets. But the real chase begins when the strange plot virtually starts all over again…

The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime–Live Facebook Event

Please join me at Mitzi Szereto’s Facebook page on Saturday, February 12 at 2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern, 10pm UK, 11pm CEST, and Sunday 9am AEDT, for a special livestream event for “The Best New True Crime Stories: Partners in Crime.” I’ll be chatting with editor Mitzi Szereto about my story, THE WAGES OF SIN: THE BALLAD OF MARGIE AND DALE.


Find out more about the book at: https://mitziszereto.com/the-best-new-true-crime-stories…/

Film Noir Friday: Private Detective 62 [1933]

Welcome. The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open. Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat.

Tonight’s feature is PRIVATE DETECTIVE 62, starring William Powell and Margaret Lindsay.

TCM says:

In France, United States State Department employee Donald Free is caught trying to steal French state papers and is deported. Because of the publicity, Donald is released from his government job and has a hard time finding another because jobs are scarce during the Depression. One day, he walks into the Peerless Detective Agency, run by the incompetent and crooked Dan Hogan. Hogan does not have customers and Donald does not have a license, so Donald proposes a partnership. 

Enjoy the movie!