Upcoming Meetings
March 11th Online Meeting
The March meeting of the Rocky Mountain MWA will feature a program presented by award winning author DP Lyle, MD. Please join us for networking, fun, education, and inspiration via Zoom on March 11, starting at 6:30 p.m. MST. Members will receive the link and password by email, groups.io, and our newsletter. Non-members, please send an email to chapterpres@rmmwa.org to request access.
Program:
Poison—The Perfect Murder Weapon?
Let’s talk about poisons, toxins, and drugs.
- What is a poison?
- Are medical drugs good and poisons bad? Or are they one and the same?
- How are poisons delivered to avoid detection?
- How do a medical examiner and a toxicologist determine if a poison is involved in a suspicious death?
- Did a poison or drug cause or contribute to the death? Is it always clear?
- What are some common poisons, and how do they work?
Speaker Bio:
DP Lyle is an Amazon #1 Bestselling author whose 22 books include the Samantha Cody mystery series, multiple thriller series featuring Dub Walker, Jake Longly, and Cain/Harper, and the Royal Pains media tie-in series. Lyle has also written nonfiction books on forensic science and mystery writing, and has served as story consultant to fellow novelists and to screenwriters for television series including Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Cold Case, House, Pretty Little Liars, and more.
Lyle has won both the Macavity and Benjamin Franklin awards, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Shamus, Scribe, and USA Today Best Book awards.
With Jan Burke, Lyle was the co-host of Crime and Science Radio, and hosts the podcast series Criminal Mischief.
For more information visit http://www.dplylemd.com.
Meeting Agenda:
6:30-7:00 Networking, Introductions, and News
7:00-7:15 Mystery Minute by ZJ Czupor
7:15-8:15 or so: Program featuring our guest speaker
After Party: Stay after the program to mingle and visit.
Special Announcements
Announcing the RMMWA 2020 6-Word Mystery Winners!
The winners of the 2020 RMMWA 6-Word Mystery Contest have been revealed!
Entrants submitted brief tales in five different categories. Finalists were selected by an esteemed panel of judges, and winners by a vote of the RMMWA chapter membership.
Overall winner:
Smooth talking lothario found tongue tied.
by Sue Hinkin
Read on for the finalists and winners in each category:
RMMWA Member
News and Notes
What Rocky Mountain MWA Means to Me
by Donnell Ann Bell
As a writer hailing from Colorado Springs, I belonged to Pikes Peak Writers, and found myself surrounded by fantasy and science fiction aficionados. Nice people, wonderful, in fact, even if they were a little out of this world. As a romantic suspense and mystery author, I wanted to invest my time and dollars with a like-minded group that could educate me further. Over the years, RMMWA has fulfilled that objective and more. I have found the programs, camaraderie, and professionalism exceptional. read more…
February 2021 Mystery Minute
by ZJ Czupor
The Inventor of the American Police Procedural and More
Salvatore Albert Lombino (1926-2005) was born in East Harlem, New York, the son of a postal worker. He served as a radar man on a destroyer in the Pacific after World War II and to avoid boredom began writing short stories. They were all rejected by pulp magazines.
After his stint in the Navy, Lombino graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hunter College in New York City where he majored in English. As he was beginning to establish his writing career, he was also newly married and with a growing family. He took a series of jobs in 1950 to make ends meet. He worked as a lobster salesman, substitute teacher, and as an executive editor for the Scott Meredith Literary Agency.
While at the agency, he began selling crime, adventure, westerns, and fantasy stories to pulp magazines under several pseudonyms such as S. A. Lombino, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, Richard Marsten, D. A. Addams, and Ted Taine.
He said, “Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me.”
An editor convinced Lombino he could sell more work if he changed his name. In those days, there was a conceived prejudice against writers with foreign names. So, at the age of 26, he legally changed his name to Evan Hunter. read more…