JANUARYS THROUGH THE EARLY YEARS by JoAnne Lucas

 JoAnne Lucas was one of the founding members of the San Joaquin chapter of Sisters in Crime. She wrote this for one of our newsletters. (Karen Besecker organized that first group who met in a restaurant to talk about organizing.)

1995 

We started as a group in April, so no January meeting. (Gotcha!)

1996  Karen Besecker, our founder,  was president. Faye Gaul, a member and private investigator the speaker. Author Bridget McKenna talked about getting into a good critique group and what to look for, what to watch out for. Win/Win (later known as the William Saroyan Writers’ Conference) announced their 6^th Writers’ Conference that year.

1997  Lunch at the Daily Planet. In the Poison Pen newsletter Karen Besecker wrote, “In 1997 I resolve to . . . spend more time actually writing and less time fretting over the fact that I haven’t written more.”

   Sound familiar to you authors out there? Some things just never change, even 18 years later.

   And, we got some press from the then Northwest Neighbors newsletter. Yea for us!

1998  Kate Anderson was president. Various members wrote about their first Bouchercon experience, held in Monterey the previous November.

   A note in Random Shots says, “On each January 19^th, from 1949 on, a mysterious figure would arrive at the graveyard of Westminister Church in Baltimore, Maryland to place a bottle of Cognac and three red roses on the grave of Edgar Allen Poe. The identity of the stranger has never been revealed.”

     Guess we’ll have to wait ‘til the 19^th this month to see if someone has picked up the torch that faltered.

     So, let’s get our own torch going and have a spectacular New Year.

Watch for the announcement of the January meeting, coming soon!