DATE: September 12, 2020 

VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Writing While Black 

An informative and entertaining program about what a career spanning 40 years in the publishing industry looks like from the African American perspective.  Sandra Kitt and Laura Castoro will share their professional experiences; the positive, the astonishing, and some quite funny moments.  And a few incidents that reveal what it means to be a minority in the industry.

SPEAKERS: Sandra Kitt and Laura Castoro 

Sandra Kitt has published more than 40 novels and novellas. Her ground-breaking 1995 release, THE COLOR OF LOVE, received critical acclaim from USA Today and was optioned by HBO and LIFETIME from a script she authored. She was nominated for an NAACP Image Award, and presented with the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award. Sandra holds an MFA. She has designed cards for UNICEF, and illustrated books for the late writer, Dr. Isaac Asimov. She served as the Managing Director of the astronomy and astrophysics library collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Sandra was an Adjunct Instructor in Getting Published, and Fiction Writing for fifteen years. WINNER TAKES ALL, an April 2021 release, is the first book in a trilogy from Sourcebooks.

Laura Parker Castoro, a USA Today bestseller author, has published 46 books under various names.  She has written in multiple genres and has been published by multiple mainstream publishers such as Simon and Schuster, Harlequin, and Kensington. EVERYBODY LOVES RAMON was her first venture into E-publishing.  It was nominated for a “Readers’ Choice Award” and the “Frankfurt Book Award” for E-publishing. Her most recent foray into writing is a six-book, one novella Romantic Suspense Series entitled K-9 RESCUE with St. Martin’s Press under the name D. D. Ayres. Internationally, she is published in 14 languages, including (in addition to the common ones like Italian and German) Swedish, Polish, Dutch, and Icelandic. 

Laura is active in literary circles. Recently, she served as president and long-time board member of Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, AR, a nonprofit writers residency program. Laura has been a frequent featured speaker at numerous conferences and workshops including Thrillerfest, Bouchercon, and Iceland Noir. Laura was inducted into the Arkansas Writers’ Hall of Fame in 2005. Her awards include twice selected as a “Literary Lion” by the Southwestern Bookseller’s Association and several “Reviewers Choice” awards from Romantic Times.  Her release, IMPETOUS, won the New Jersey Writers Golden Leaf Award for best historical romance of 1995.  TIGER IN THE RAIN won the 1995 national Readers’ Choice Award for best long contemporary romance. She has been recently honored by Romantic Times with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovative Writing.

TIME:
12:00-12:20: Virtual mingling
12:20-12:40: Chapter business meeting
12:45-2:00: Presentation 

REGISTRATION: 

Sign up in advance for a Zoom account.

Scroll down and fill in the virtual meeting form.

A link and password to join the meeting will be sent the week of the meeting.

There will not be a charge to attend.

Until further notice, the FMWA virtual meetings are open to FMWA and invited guests only.

PLEASE REGISTER BY September 10th!

NEXT VIRTUAL MEETING:  Saturday, October 17, 2020

FMWA VIRTUAL LUNCHEON MEETING 

DATE: August 15, 2020 

VIRTUAL PROGRAM: Undercover Drug Investigations 

This presentation will cover aspects of the laws that apply to drug distribution and the names of various street units that enforce the statutes. It will address the impact of social media and how a drug buy develops using both the detective and an informant to make the purchase.

The tools available to detectives during long investigations will be reviewed. These include search and arrest warrants, phone taps, and the “drug kingpin laws.” Also discussed will be the obtaining and placement of a locating device. Writers who wish to have a drug component in their story will obtain a grasp of undercover and long term investigations.

SPEAKER: Ken Dye 

Ken started his law enforcement career with the St. Louis County Police Department in 1972.  He served 13 years including 5 years as an undercover narcotics detective.  During this period, he infiltrated major drug organizations and is featured in an episode of the Netflix series “Deep Undercover,” episode 23 or season 2, episode 5. Ken also served as a homicide detective and deputy commander of the Intelligence unit. He took a corporate position in Chicago in 1984 and finished his law enforcement career with the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority as the administrator for the statewide Metropolitan Enforcement Groups and Narcotics Task Forces. Ken has written 4 books involving crimes and stories about cops and bad guys in the St. Louis, MO area.  He is a new member of MWA and looks forward to participating in FMWA events.

TIME:

12:00-12:20: Virtual mingling

12:20-12:40: Chapter business meeting

12:45-2:00: Presentation

REGISTRATION:

Sign up in advance for a Zoom account.

Send name and email address to fmwaboard@gmail.com. If attending by phone, send name and phone number.

A link and password to join the meeting will be sent the week of the meeting.

There will not be a charge to attend.

Until further notice, the FMWA virtual meetings are open to FMWA and invited guests only. Members, if you’d like to invite a guest, please send their full name and email address to David Wind.

NEXT VIRTUAL MEETING:  Saturday, September 12, 2020