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Taking the Mystery Out of Writing a Mystery
January 27 at 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm PST
Join mystery writers Maria Barrs (ML Barrs), Roxanne Dunne, and Jeffrey Briggs for a panel discussion covering all aspects of writing mystery fiction. There will also be a drawing for free copies. Topics include:
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- Types of mystery stories (i.e., cozy, suspense, thriller, amateur sleuth, etc)
- Developing characters and plots
- Outlining vs “pantsing”
- Editing and being edited
- Our experience with agents
- Getting published
- Getting Reviews
- Marketing
Maria Barrs:   The oldest girl in a family of thirteen children, Maria dropped out of high school and ran away from home at age fifteen. Homelessness and minimum wage jobs quickly grew old. She earned her GED, graduated college, married, and had two children, while launching a career in TV news. She started as a reporter, then moved into management and ran television newsrooms in markets large and small. She led teams covering everything from terrorist attacks and devastating storms like Katrina to major elections and sports. She moved on to become General Manager of a TV station before deciding what she really wanted to do is write mysteries. Her first, Parallel Secrets, was released in September 2023, and she’s hard at work on its sequel, Parallel Lies.
Roxanne Dunn:  Author of Murder Unrehearsed, Murder Undetected, and soon-to-be-released Murder Richly Deserved, Roxanne Dunn has studied writing in Paris and Seattle. She is working on her fourth mystery, Murder of a Quiet Man. A retired physical therapist, grandmother, foodie, fanatic about good chocolate, and a private pilot, she lived aboard an old wood motor yacht for seventeen years. In her dreams, Roxanne is a pianist of renown, an acceptable watercolor artist, and a globe-trotting yogini.
Jeffrey D. Briggs is the author of two Waterfront Mysteries featuring Martha Whitaker – OUT OF A COLD DARK SEA and WITHIN A SHADOWED FOREST. The former liveaboard sailor has combined two of his great passions—boats and books—in his Waterfront Mystery series. Book three in the series is scheduled for publication in 2024. Jeffrey is a former journalist, editor, and carnival barker. He has taught writing to reluctant college freshmen, speaks frequently to enthusiastic readers around the country, and learned much about research while writing about biomedical research for the Mayo Clinic, where he got to preview all his future diseases. Jeffrey has an MA in English from the University of Denver and is a member of Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Rochester Literary Guild.
