Sisters In Crime Event

Augie's Quick Post

This weekend was the ALA Convention, located at the Anaheim Convention Center, in Anaheim, California. Working the Sisters In Crime booth was phenomenal, there were Librarians from all the world.

Also there I met Authors form Calgary, Canada; Alabama; Texas; California; Illinois; New York; Pennsylvania; Arizona; Ohio; Massachusetts; Utah; Maine; etc. In attendance were 2012 Alex Awards winners; Newberry Award winners, 2012 Bouchercon Nominees; New York Bestsellers, Romance Book of the Year winners, RITA Awards, Library Best winners; etc. There were also advanced copies of books given away with future release dates.

Some of the speakers and performers at the event this year were; Dan Rathers, John Irving, Chris Collier, Rebecca MacKinnon, Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart), Clifford (the Big Red Dog), JR Martinez, Jodi Picoult and Samantha VanLeer, Molly Raphel, Farmer Jason, also The Rock Bottom Remainders with appearance from Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Amy Tan, Scott turow, Mitch Albom, James McBride, Roy Blount, Jr., Matt Groening, Stephen King and Greg Iles, Roger McGunn of the Byrds joins the band as special musical guest.

At the SinC booth many of the 3000 writers in the organization donated books to be given out in raffles, these include Oak Tree Press books donated by Sunny Frazier, Acquisition Editor. Everyone was appreciative for the generous donations of authors who could not be there.

Here is a list of names of writers who attended and worked the SinC booth Friday, June 22 through Monday June 25^th   

Above pictured: Tammy Kaehler, Denise Hamilton and Darrell James. Judy Howard and Maggie Sefton

Members of Sisters of Crime who donated their time:

Frances Dean McNamara, Laurie Stevens, Gail Meredith, Carole Sojka, Mae Woods, Terri Nolan, Lisa Brackman, Morgan St James, Cynthia Highsmith-Hooks, Sheila Lowe, Marion Rosen, Pamela Samuels Young, Robyn Gant, Jan Burke, Deborah Coonts, Mary Augusta Thomas, Jeri Westerson, Aileen Baron, Sun Ann Jaffarian, Augie Hicks, Darrell James, Denise Hamilton, Elizabeth Stevens, Maggie Sefton, Tammy Kaehler, Barbara Bibel, Kathryn Johnson, Leonard Goldberg, Judy Howard, Robert Fate, Bruce Cook, Anissa Malady, Barbara Fister. As you can see not all SinC members are females.

Thanks also to Mary Boone and Doris Ann Norris, Librarian Liaison for Sisters In Crime from Bowling, Ohio who hosted the booth.

What is Sisters In Crime?

The mission of Sisters In Crime is to promote the professional development and advancement of women crime writers to achieve equality I the industry.

Who belongs to SinC?

Authors, yes, but also readers and librarians; women and men; anyone who loves crime fiction.

Welcome John Brantingham and Scott Creley

Augie’s Quick Post

          Today we welcome back John Brantingham who is a Poet, Short Story Writer, Mystery Writer, full-time Professor of English and Creative Writing at Mt San Antonio College, a member of the Long Beach, Calif. Poetry Festival, And Scott Crely who is a Poet as well as a Professor of English at Whittier College. Both men are involved with the Mt SACWriters’ Weekend Venue and now I understand that there is a new endeavor.

Augie: Welcome John, oh hey Scott

John: Thank you so much for interviewing us.

Scott: Hey Augie

Augie: First of all John, you carry a lot on your plate, besides staying on top of more than one hundred students in a semester. How are you able to juggle so much and still have a personal life?

John:  It isn’t easy. The truth is that there are very few days when I’m not working on one thing or another, but the great thing is that so much of what I do I love. If I had all the free time in the world, I would write and read and do nothing else, but much of what I am doing is related to the literary community. It also doesn’t hurt that my personal life is tangled up in my work. My friends are generally students and colleagues, and what we like to talk about is writing.

Augie: I understood at our last interview September 2011, you spoke of an exciting project that you, Scott Creley, Elder Zamora and your gorgeous wife Ann will be bringing to the San Gabriel Valley in West Covina, The San Gabriel Valley International Literary Festival.

John:  Yes, we’re going to have a literary festival in West Covina in February of 2013. It’s going to bring in people from all around Los Angeles, the country, and the world, and it’s going to highlight the work of people living in the San Gabriel Valley. We have a lot of talent here, but often there is no place to showcase our work, so people feel that they need to travel someplace else. However, there is as much artistic genius and beauty in the San Gabriel Valley as anywhere else. It simply hasn’t been fostered in the way that it could be. So the idea is to bring the kind of literary festival here that we’ve seen in the big cities around the world. I am so excited about the festival right now. We’ve been doing a lot of behind the scenes kind of work so far, but we’re going to start recruiting and advertising soon.

Augie: John that is fantastic, I hope to be a part of this history making event, you are so right there is much talent just outside our doors. I understand that there have been donations from different venues who have aided you in this venture. I do not want to call it an event, for this is not a one time, is this correct?

John: There has been some, but we’re going to need much more. That’s our greatest need. After all, the more money we have, the more people we can bring in.

 Scott: Unfortunately, it's expensive to get people to the festival, make sure they have somewhere to stay, and pay their speaking fee.  This is to say nothing of all the practical costs of running a large event.  It's worth the big cost, but we will need every cent we can get.

In regards to your other question, it’s absolutely not a one-time event. We are hoping to do this yearly and we have readings and events throughout the year. You can check these out by going to the Facebook page for the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival and to sgvlitfest.com

Augie: Tell us about the City involvement, how were you able to raise the funds for the building.

Scott: West Covina has been extremely supportive of the event.  They're providing a venue and making inroads to getting human involvement.  We won't go into the boring details, but we're helping West Covina with program advertisement and promotions, and they're helping us to put on the event in City Hall and its surrounding environs. 

Augie: Scott, since the City of West Covina is involved this implies that the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival holds a non-profit status?