Edgar Symposium Schedule

Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 Location: Roosevelt Hotel – Second Floor – Sutton Suite 45 E 45 St at Madison Avenue

Preliminary Schedule

8:30 - 8:50: Registration

8:55 – 9:00: Welcome – MWA’s Executive Vice President – Greg Herren

9:00 – 9:50 Shell Game - In the time of alternate facts, how much fact checking must you do for non-fiction?

Moderator: Alex Segura (At-Large Director - MWA National Board) Panelists: Karen Abbott (2020 Best Fact Crime Nominee – The Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder that Shocked Jazz-Age America, Crown) Axton Betz-Hamilton (2020 Best Fact Crime Nominee -The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity, Hachette Book Group - Grand Central Publishing) John Billheimer (2020 Best Critical/Bio Nominee – Hitchcock and the Censors, Uni Press of Kentucky) Maureen Callahan (2020 Best Fact Crime Nominee – American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century, Penguin Random House - Viking) Peter Houlahan (2020 Best Fact Crime Nominee - Norco '80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History, Counterpoint Press) James Polchin (2020 Best Fact Crime Nominee Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall, Counterpoint Press)

10:00 – 10:50 If I Die Tonight - Six nominees discuss how to build suspense and maintain reader interest

Moderator: S.J. Rozan (2-time Edgar Award winner; 2002 Best Novel and 2003 Best Short Story) Panelists: Edwin Hill (2020 Sue Grafton Memorial Nominee – The Missing Ones, Kensington Books) Gigi Pandian (2020 Sue Grafton Memorial Nominee – The Alchemist’s Illusion, Midnight Ink) Alan Parks (2020 Best Paperback Original Nominee – February’s Son, Europa Editions – World Noir) Marcie Rendon (2020 Sue Grafton Memorial Nominee – Girl Gone Missing, Cincos Puntos Press) Leah Thomas (2020 Best Young Adult Nominee – Wild and Crooked, Bloomsbury Publishing) Susan Vaught (2020 Best Juvenile Nominee - Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse, Simon & Schuster Children’s Books - Paula Wiseman Books)

11:00 – 11:50 Down the River Unto the Sea - The importance of place and mood to a crime novel.

Moderator: Laurie R. King (MWA Northern California Chapter President) Panelists: Corey Ann Haydu (2020 Young Adult Nominee – Eventown, Katherine Tegen Books). William Lashner (2020 Paperback Original Nominee – Freedom Road, Thomas & Mercer) Catriona McPherson (2020 Mary Higgins Clark Nominee – Strangers at the Gate, Minotaur Books) Abir Mukherjee (2020 Best Novel Nominee – Smoke and Ashes, Pegasus Books) Lara Prescott (2020 Best First Nominee – The Secrets We Kept, Penguin Random House – Alfred A. Knopf John Vercher (2020 Best First Nominee – Three-Fifths, Polis – Agora Books)

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch Break (On Your Own)

1:00 – 1:50 Bluebird, Bluebird - Creating characters that the reader can relate to

Moderator: Susan Breen (Susan Breen is the author of the Maggie Dove mystery series. Her stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen magazines.) Panelists: Susan Alice Bickford (2020 Best Paperback Original Nominee – Dread of Winter, Kensington Books) Barbara Bourland (2020 Best Novel Nominee – Fake Like Me, Hachette Book Group - Grand Central Publishing) Greg Howard (2020 Best Juvenile Nominee – The Whispers, Penguin Young Readers - G.P. Putnam’s Sons BFYR) Jonathan Moore (2020 Best Paperback Nominee – Blood Relations, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - Mariner Books) Hank Phillippi Ryan (2020 Mary Higgins Clark Nominee – The Murder List, Forge Books)

2:00 – 2:50 The One That Holds Everything - Six nominees discuss the merits of plotting, outlining or pantsing it.

Moderator: Nora McFarland (At-Large Director – MWA National Board of Directors) Panelists: Carol Goodman (2020 Mary Higgins Clark Nominee — The Night Visitor, HarperCollins - William Morrow) Angie Kim (2020 Best First Nominee – Miracle Creek, Farrar Straus and Giroux – Sarah Crichton) Livia Llewellyn (2020 Best Short Story Nominee – “One of These Nights” Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers, Akashic Books) Kirsten Tranter (2020 Best Short Story Nominee – “The Passenger,” Sydney Noir, Akashic Books Emma Rowley (2020 Mary Higgins Clark Nominee – Where the Missing Go, Kensington Books) Laura Tucker (2020 Best Juvenile Nominee – All the Greys on Greene Street, Penguin Young Readers - Viking BFYR)

3:00 – 3:50 How Does He Die This Time? - What types of murders are over-done, and how can you keep writing about murder/crime fresh?

Moderator: James L’Etoile (James L’Etoile uses his twenty-nine years behind bars as an associate warden in a maximum-security prison, a hostage negotiator, and director of California’s state parole system to influence in his novels, short stories, and screenplays.) Panelists: Linda Castillo (2020 Sue Grafton Memorial Nominee – Shamed, Minotaur Books) Elly Griffiths (2020 Best Novel Nominee – The Stranger Diaries, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) Adam O’Fallon Price (2020 Best Paperback Original Nominee – The Hotel Neversink, Tin House Books) Lisa Sandlin (2020 Best Paperback Original Nominee– The Bird Boys, Cinco Puntos Press ) Lauren Wilkinson (2020 Best First Nominee – American Spy, Random House)

4:00 – 5:00 From the Writer’s Desk - Oline Cogdill (2013 Raven Award winner) interviews our 2020 Grand Master, Barbara Neely

Cost: $95 members, $125 non-members - with a $15 retroactive discount for those who join Mystery Writers of America within 30 days after Symposium. Registration closes on Friday, April 17, 2020.

You may also pay online via the MWA Store - https://mysterywriters.org/store-2/ Please sign up at: https://mysterywriters.org/2020-edgar-symposium/

PLEASE include the below information with your reservation and check or credit card information. We accept Visa, MasterCard and American Express. You may also make your reservation via our website by using the MWA store. Please note that the check is for the Symposium and make it payable to: Mystery Writers of America, 1140 Broadway, Suite 1507 New York, NY 10001

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