The next Alaska Sisters in Crime meeting will be on Tuesday, May 13th so join us for A NIGHT ON THE CRIME BEAT with Sheila Toomey who talks about her beat as the Anchorage Daily News crime reporter.

 Join us at the Northrim Bank Building first floor conference room at 3011 C Street from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. The entrance is on the A street side (facing Wal-Mart) and has free parking.    

We'll have a book swap, so bring your books to share with the group.

Project Updates

Authors to the School: Author Donna Moore is coming from Scotland in October for a visit to Aniak for the 2008 Authors to the Schools program. We will be planning a reception when she arrives and will email everyone the time and location. Look for that in September.

Anthology Project - A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN: MYSTERY AUTHORS EXPLORE ALASKA. Alaska Sisters in Crime has freelance writer and editor Deb Vanasse working with us on the anthology for the Authors to the Schools 2001 and 2007 programs.  We're working at contacting teachers, students, community hosts, librarians, and others to invite them to submit a narrative about their author visits. Deb is coordinating the permissions for photos and printing of the stories. Timeline:  May 1 deadline for community submissions; Aug 1 deadline for complete manuscript. Dana Stabenow will be writing the introduction and doing the final edit for the book. Watch for more details online on the AKSinC website and online social network.

Oh, Wow! Here are some opportunities you won't want to miss!

Youth Writing Project -- We'd like to have you help coordinate a youth writing project for next fall with Girl Scouts and other youth groups. Interested? Write to info@aksinc.org and we'll send you the details. 

2009 Inaugural Alaska State Mystery Convention, which we hope will become an annual event. We'll also be coming up with name, themes, and work to have the Authors to the Schools program coordinated immediately after this convention for authors who are interested and attend the convention. We're thinking small - not another Bouchercon or Left Coast Crime, but a State convention with a cap of no more than 200 registrants, low registration fees to make it affordable, and 2-3 days maximum. Intrigued? Contact us if you're interested in working on the preliminary planning and have ideas. We also hope to establish some annual Alaska mystery awards to give recognition to our homegrown authors and those contributing to the genre. What do you think? Email: info@aksinc.org

Summer Reading Club - We'll have a book swap at the May meeting and are encouraging members who wish to meet as a small group to discuss mysteries and crime fiction over the summer, to set it up in May and we'll post the meetings on the website if others want to attend.