Pomodoros and Chocolate: Motivation and Productivity for the Writer

Saturday, January 26, 2019, 11 a.m.

Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore, 7419 Madison St., Forest Park, Illinois

Sisters in Crime national vice-president (and SinCC chapter member) Lori Rader-Day leads an interactive session on tips and tools for improving your writing productivity, keeping yourself motivated, and getting the help you need to finish your next project. Bring a notebook and pen, your calendar, and your best idea for building discipline and making and meeting goals. Free and open to the public.

Lori Rader-Day

Mary Higgins Clark Award- and Anthony Award-winning author of

 The Black Hour (2014), Little Pretty Things (2015), The Day I Died(2017), and Under a Dark Sky (2018)

Annie Hansen returns to Centuries & Sleuths with her second Kelly Clark Mystery  Bean in Love.

  Kelly Clark is making quite a comeback in her hometown of Geneva, IL after her divorce. She’s in love, her relationships are solid, and her finances are back on track due to her sister’s generous offer to live rent free in the apartment above Chocolate Love, a favorite hang-out in the Historic District. When Kelly’s sister, Nikki, decides to expand her Chocolate Love empire by opening a new coffee shop, Bean in Love, the Clark family pulls together to help.

As the local fall festivals kick into high gear, trouble comes blowing into town with rumors of a local ghost causing real trouble in town. When a beloved local dies at the Geneva History Center under suspicious circumstances, Kelly and Nikki are called on to figure out what happened. Could a ghost from the past really have a hand in the death? Things get complicated when the sisters face an unexpected pregnancy, a surprise proposal, and a possible foreclosure. All of the stress makes Kelly question if she is really moving on with her life or if she’s just fooling herself. After all, Kelly’s been in love and it ended horribly. Could it really be better for her this time around?

Patricia Skalka returns to Centuries & Sleuths with her second Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery, Death at Gills Rock.

Dave Cubiak is back, and this time he’s the new sheriff in town

After tracking a clever killer in Death Stalks Door County, park ranger and former Chicago homicide detective Dave Cubiak is elected Door County sheriff. His newest challenge arrives as spring brings not new life but tragic death to the isolated fishing village of Gills Rock. Three prominent World War II veterans who are about to be honored for their military heroics die from carbon monoxide poisoning during a weekly card game. Blame falls to a faulty heater but Cubiak puzzles over details. When one of the widows receives a message claiming the men “got what they deserved,” he realizes that there may be more to the deaths than a simple accident.

Investigating, Cubiak discovers that the men’s veneer of success and respectability hides a trail of lies and betrayal that stems from a single, desperate act of treachery and eventually spreads a web of deceit across the peninsula. In a dark, moody tale that spans more than half a century, Cubiak encounters a host of suspects with motives for murder. Amid broken dreams, corruption, and loss, he sorts out the truth. Death at Gills Rock is the second book in Patricia Skalka’s Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery series.

11/15     SUN        1:00 PM: Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter Meeting

                                Guest speaker will be former undercover cop Fran Marrocco.

Halloween Party … Members bring your scary ghost stories!

"Your last night time visit to "Bachelors Grove"!

"How attractive is "Resurrection Mary"?

"Can you really see the "Devil Baby of Hull House" in its center front second floor window?

Title: The Black Hour

Author: Loria Rader-Day (Ms. Rader-Day will be here for the discussion.)

Book Synopsis: For Chicago sociology professor Amelia Emmet, violence was a research topic--until a student she'd never met shot her. He also shot himself. Now he's dead and she's back on campus, trying to keep up with her class schedule, a growing problem with painkillers, and a question she can't let go: Why?  All she wants is for life to get back to normal, but normal is looking hard to come by. She's thirty-eight and hobbles with a cane. Her first student interaction ends in tears (hers). Her fellow faculty members seem uncomfortable with her, and her ex--whom she may or may not still love--has moved on. Enter Nathaniel Barber, a graduate student obsessed with Chicago's violent history. Nath is a serious scholar, but also a serious mess about his first heartbreak, his mother's death, and his father's disapproval. Assigned as Amelia's teaching assistant, Nath also takes on the investigative legwork that Amelia can't do. And meanwhile, he's hoping she'll approve his dissertation topic, the reason he came to grad school in the first place: the student attack on Amelia Emmet. 

Together and at cross-purposes, Amelia and Nathaniel stumble toward a truth that will explain the attack and take them both through the darkest hours of their lives.

Topic: T.B.A.

8/8/15  MEETING CANCELED FOR 8/22/15 

SinCC Chapter Meeting

Saturday, May 30

11 am - 12:30 pm

at Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore

7419 West Madison

Forest Park, IL 60130

708-771-7243

COP TALK     

with Sgt. Adam Henkels

Our presenter will be Sergeant Adam Henkels who is a 23 year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. He is currently penning the new “Ask a Cop” for the MWAMW’s Clue’s newsletter. This will be an open forum where he will answer any questions our member have about the department, police procedures, and what it's like to be a cop. Bring your policing and law enforcement questions!