May 3 Meeting Announcement

Hello Sisters and Brothers in Crime.

Cozy mystery writer Cheryl Peyton will be guest speaker at our monthly meeting on May 3rd discussing how she conducts research and develops characters for her novels.

The daughter of a writer and editor of Christian young adult books, Cheryl grew up in the Chicago western suburb of Glen Ellyn. When she was a child, her mother, would read to her from manuscripts with a blue editing pencil in hand. While reading, her mother would give her literary advice, like, "Don't ever use passive verbs."  At the age of six, the future mystery writer had no idea what her mother was talking about, but, nevertheless, promised she never would.

In addition to her mother’s early influence, Cheryl has had diverse careers that have shaped her writing experience, including social work, interior design, and paralegal work. As a writer, she’s drawn from these various positions and the diverse people she has met in imagining her plots and colorful characters.
In 2012, Cheryl co-founded the Authors Guild of Tennessee to bring together local authors, both traditional and self- published, to help market their books. The group has now grown to over 40 members that represent more than 150 titles.

Cheryl lives with her husband in a lake and golf community southwest of Knoxville in East Tennessee where they share their  home with their Havanese dog, Cody.  You can learn more about Cheryl and her books at: facebook.com/cheryl.peyton.3.

The monthly Upstate SC SinC meeting will take place Thursday, May 3, at The Runway Café, 21 Airport Rd, Greenville, SC.  Be there at 6:15 p.m. to meet the Cheryl and enjoy chapter fellowship. Supper should be served at 6:30. Cheryl’s talk will begin after new and old business at about 7 p.m. Both dinner and the meeting are open to the public.

In order for the Runway Café to speed service, dinner orders must be emailed by noon the day of the meeting. If you can't dine with us, we would still like to know you plan to attend so we can be sure you have a seat. If possible, please join us for dinner as our dinner orders help to ensure we can book our meeting room for free. To see the special menu for our group, go to the Advance Order Menu on our blogspot page, make your selection and e e-mail your order to Ellis Vidler at ellisvidler1@gmail.com.

If you place an order and do not attend or fail to cancel by noon, you will be charged for the meal. And like always, we'll enjoy it.

Sincerely,

Sally Handley, President, Upstate SC Chapter, SinC

Minutes from April 5, 2018 Chapter Meeting

28 members and guests enjoyed the festivities at our April 5^th meeting of the Upstate Sisters in Crime. Our illustrious president Sally Handley brought the meeting to order with lots of new business. First, a new mystery book club co-sponsored by our group and Fiction Addiction bookstore in Greenville has begun. The club meets the 2^nd Wednesday of the month at 10 a.m. at Fiction Addiction, and our own Linda Lovely is leading the discussions for the first three months. The first three books/three months are devoted to mysteries with amateur sleuths. Contact Linda or the bookstore for details!

Sally also reminded us she is coordinating the formation of critique groups. If you would like to be in a critique group, e-mail Sally and she will facilitate new groups. Dianna Manley asked about Beta readers, and Sally the magnificent agreed to help any of us looking for Beta reader partnerships find each other also. Again e-mail Sally and she’ll try to hook you up with other like-minded authors in our group.

Also in new business, the Clemson Public Library’s Spring Author Showcase is on May 20^th and the library has openings for more local authors if anyone is interested. Contact the library directly for more info.

Charles Duke reminded us the Golden Doughnut short story contest sponsored by Writers Police Academy is underway. See the Writers Police Academy website for details on entering.

And finally under new business, Elisabeth Eldering announced that the Columbia chapter of Sisters in Crime is hosting guest speaker Elaine Vietts in June. More details will follow on that!

Sally then turned the meeting over to Eliis Vidler, who introduced our guest speaker Mike Cox. But first we heard from Mike’s wife, Heather Newton (author of Under the Mercy Tree) about the Flatiron Writers Room that offers writing seminars up in North Carolina. Check out the website for some professional development ideas!

And finally we got to hear our guest. Mike Cox, who worked as a trauma nurse for 30 years, and is now a hospice nurse. Amazing stores and details, and as always our group had loads of interesting and intriguing questions. We learned much about emergency room procedures and the kinds of injuries trauma nurses see.  Thank you, Mike!

Join us the first Thursday evening of each month at the Runway Café in Greenville. Our meetings are enjoyable, educational, and you can get dinner, too! Yay!

Respectfully submitted,

Cindy Blackburn, chapter secretary