My Journey of Passion: Debra Goldstein – April 14 at 7:00 pm

Debra Goldstein sums up her journey in a phrase: “How I traded in my lifetime judicial appointment to follow my passion to write.” She always wanted to be a writer, but her father advised her to have a practical career, so she applied to law school instead. By age 36 she’d become a federal judge, one of the youngest in the US. But she still longed to write—so she started to write crime fiction in hours she could carve out from her judicial career and raising a family. When she started getting novels and stories published,  she had to decide whether she could keep on following both paths or had to choose between them.

Judge Debra H. Goldstein writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (Three Treats TooMany, Two Bites Too Many, One Taste Too Many). She also authored Should HavePlayed Poker and IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories and novels have been named as Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Silver Falchion finalists. Debra serves on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and is president of SEMWA. She previously was on Sisters in Crime’s national board and president of SinC’s Guppy Chapter. Find out more about Debra at https://www.DebraHGoldstein.com .

Writing the Criminal Mind: Michael Arntfield – March 10 at 7:00 pm

Psychopathy, suspectology, criminal investigative analysis ( aka offender profiling): how do these practices become believably actualized in the written word to create realistic and compelling villains and antagonists in crime stories? Why do the criminals often become the characters that resonate most with readers? This session offers a crash course for existing and aspiring writers on how to craft believable and enduring villains in both crime fiction and true crime literature.

Dr. Michael Arntfield is an Associate Professor of criminology and cold case research at Western University, a former police detective, and the author of over 15 books, including three true crime Amazon top sellers. A recurring subject matter expert and host for a variety of true crime series now airing internationally, he has served as a visiting professor and/or guest lecturer at universities and collages around the world as well as the FBI Academy in Quantico and the Canadian Police College in Ottawa. His forthcoming book, How to Solve a Cold Case, will be published by HarperCollins in 2022.

Website / TED Talk

Busy Writer’s Guide to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram: Julie Rowe – February 10 at 7:00 pm

Join romantic thriller author Julie Rowe as she dissects and discusses the effective use of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by authors in today’s rapidly changing publishing marketplace. Topics include:

• Why bother? What social media streams do for authors.
• Setting up your Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram profile/page.
• Dos and don’ts
• Content is king, where to find yours
• Following the right people and attracting the right followers.
• What to post/tweet to sell books without having to ask people to buy
• Create engaging graphics to wow your followers
• Timing your posts
• Scheduling apps and why you need them
• Other useful apps
• Hashtags

Julie Rowe’s first career as a medical lab technologist in Canada took her to the North West Territories and Fort McMurray, Alberta, where she still resides. She loves to include medical details in her romance novels, but admits she’ll never be able to write about all her medical experiences because, “Fiction has to be believable”. Julie writes romantic suspense and romantic thrillers. Her most recent titles include Hell & Back book #5 of the Outbreak Taskforce series and Trapped with the Secret Agent book #1 of the Trapped with Him series. You can find her at www.julieroweauthor.com , on Twitter @julieroweauthor or at her Facebook page: www.facebook.com/JulieRoweAuthor

Planning Your DIY Book Publicity Campaign – November 11 at 7:00 pm.

Beverly Bambury has been doing book publicity and marketing for 9 years. You will hear all about her publicity process from researching review venues, to seeing her query letter template in action, to finishing out your campaign. Then she will walk you through her proven social media networking tips. Finally, you will learn the truth about whether authors should blog or not. Prepare to take lots of notes!

More information can be found at her website at https://www.beverlybambury.com (note that the website is in the middle of a hosting transition so some parts may not work).

Members will be emailed the Zoom link to join the meeting each month. If you’d like to check us out before joining, you can attend one meeting for free. Please email treasurer@capitalcrimewriters.com for the link.

Our next meeting will be on September 9, 2020, at 7:00 pm

Welcome back to another year of Capital Crime Writers! Things are going to be a bit different this fall. Due to COVID-19 and the need to maintain physical distancing, CCW will not be having in-person meetings until further notice. Instead we’ll be going on-line. Members will be emailed the Zoom link to join each month.

If you’d like to check us out before joining, you can attend one meeting for free. Please email treasurer@capitalcrimewriters.com for the link.

Our first speaker for the fall is Eric Brier. He is studying linguistics at Carleton University and is also in the military reserves. He is familiar with several languages and has experience in translation. Earlier during the pandemic he was sent by the military to help translate for Canadians being repatriated from Wuhan China/China.

Eric will be talking about some of the logistics of working in a quarantine zone. And he will also share interesting and occasionally humorous stories.