Brewster Ladies' Library: Mystery Making Workshop with Sisters in Crime, New England

In this interactive workshop, four mystery authors representing different sub-genres, including cozy/traditional and thriller/suspense, will brainstorm on their feet to create a brand new mystery using suggestions provided by the audience. Fun, fast-paced, and fascinating, this improv game offers important insights into mystery writers’ minds and the conventions of the genre.

About the Authors

Frances McNamara grew up in Boston where her father was Police Commissioner in the 1960s. A graduate of Mount Holyoke and Simmons College she had a career as a librarian in automated systems. Working for OCLC in Ohio she wrote scenarios for an amateur mystery night group in Granville OH. While working at the University of Chicago, she published the Emily Cabot Mysteries with Allium Press of Chicago. Death on the Homefront, the eighth of these historical mysteries set in Chicago was published in December 2020, and the series will extend into the 1930's. In addition to the next Emily Cabot mystery, she has developed a second historical mystery series, the Nutshell Murder Mystery series, set in Boston, and based on the life of Frances Glessner Lee, Mother of Forensic Science. The first book in the series, Molasses Murder in a Nutshell was published in 2022.

Leslie Meier's books draw heavily on her experience as a mother of three and her work as a reporter for various weekly newspapers on Cape Cod. Her heroine, Lucy Stone, is a reporter in the fictional town of Tinker's Cove, Maine, where she lives in an old farmhouse with her restoration carpenter husband Bill and four children. Leslie usually writes one Lucy Stone mystery every year. There are twenty-five books in the Lucy Stone Mystery series. Leslie has also written Holiday Anthologies with Joanne Fluke, Fern Michaels, Barbara Ross and Lee Hollis.

Lorraine Sharma Nelson grew up globally but now calls the United States home. In addition to being a writer, Lorraine is also a wife, a mom, an avid sci-fi geek, a travel bum, film noir nut, Tai Chi fanatic, and coconut cupcake lover. Lorraine currently has fifteen short stories published in horror, fantasy, crime, and sci-fi anthologies, and has won two sci-fi awards. She is the 2022 President of Sisters in Crime New England, and a UNICEF USA New England Regional Board member. Website: www.lorrainesharmanelson.net; Twitter: twitter.com/loneriter; Instagram: instagram.com/lorrainesharmanelsonauthor/

Susan Santangelo, author of the Baby Boomer Mysteries, has been a feature writer, drama critic and editor for daily and weekly newspapers in the New York metropolitan area, including a stint at Cosmopolitan magazine. A seasoned public relations and marketing professional, she produced special events for Carnegie Hall's Centennial. In addition to being a member of SinC and SinCNE, she is a member of the Cape Cod Writers Center, International Thriller Writers, and reviews mysteries for Suspense Magazine. She divides her time between Cape Cod, MA, and the Florida Gulf coast, and shares her life with her husband Joe and two English cocker spaniels: Boomer and Lilly.