How to Write a Mystery

Join SDWF host Anastasia Hipkins and listen in on a conversation between Lee Child, Laurie R. King, Neil Nyren, and Frankie Y. Bailey about How to Write a Mystery, based on the new handbook of the same name from Mystery Writers of America. Edited by multi-award-winning NYT bestselling authors Lee Child and Laurie R. King, How to Write a Mystery “helps authors navigate the ever-shifting publishing landscape—from pacing, plotting, and the business side of publishing, to the current demand for diversity and inclusivity across all genres, and more.” 

Featuring

• Lee Child, New York Times bestselling and multi-award-winning author of the Jack Reacher series, editor of How to Write a Mystery;
• Laurie R. King, New York Times bestselling and multi-award-winning author of twenty-seven novels, co-editor of How to Write a Mystery;
• Neil Nyren, former EVP, associate publisher, and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, where he edited the work of (among others) Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Carl Hiaasen, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, and Jonathan Kellerman; and
• Frankie Y. Bailey, PhD, professor in School of Criminal Justice (SUNY Albany) and author of five novels and numerous short stories

Event Sponsor: Sally Buffington, author of A Place Like This

Meet the Speakers

Anastasia Zadeik Hipkins is a freelance writer, editor, and writing coach. She regularly performs in narrative non-fiction showcases, including So Say We All’s VAMP and the San Diego Memoir Showcase, and her work has appeared in The Literary Vine Review and Shaking the Tree.
Having received a BA in psychology from Smith College, Anastasia worked for an international neuropsychological research firm before and while raising her children, living overseas from 1991-2000. After returning stateside, she and her family settled in the San Diego area where, over the last nineteen years, she has volunteered and served as a board member for a variety of nonprofit organizations dedicated to health, education, and the arts. She currently lives in Mission Hills with her husband and empty-nest rescue dog, Charlie.

Previously a television director, union organizer, theatre technician and law student, Lee Child is the author of the bestselling Jack Reacher series.

Laurie R. King is the NYT bestselling author of eighteen Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novels, five Kate Martinellis, two Stuyvesant-Greys, five standalones, various short stories and novellas, and edited a number of anthologies and nonfiction works. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate, and is a Baker Street Irregular.

Neil Nyren retired at the end of 2017 as evp, associate publisher, and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and is the winner of the 2017 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Among the writers of crime and suspense with whom he has worked are Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, John Sandford, C.J. Box, Robert Crais, Carl Hiaasen, Daniel Silva, Jack Higgins, Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follett, Jonathan Kellerman, Ed McBain, and Ace Atkins. He now writes about crime fiction and publishing for CrimeReads, The Big Thrill, The Third Degree, BookTrib, and Publishers Weekly, among other publications.

Frankie Y. Bailey, PhD is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice University at Albany (SUNY). She studies crime history, and crime and mass media/popular culture and material culture. She is the author of five mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Lizzie Stuart and two police procedurals novels featuring Albany police detective Hannah McCabe. For more information see her website.
Also visit Albany University