July Meeting

Wednesday
July 8, 2009
7 p.m.
Borders Books and Music
91st & Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Pepper Jaso

Investigator Pepper Jaso will talk about Scams and How to Protect Yourself. Pepper is an investigator for the Economic Crimes Unit and was Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe‘s Trial Assistant when he was an Assistant District Attorney building the unit. She has a paralegal degree from JCCC.

Join us for dinner before the meeting at 5:30 at Macaroni Grill, across the parking lot from Borders.

June Meeting

Wednesday
June 10, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Borders Books & Music
91st & Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Suzanne Arruda

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Every crime story needs a bad guy! Our June speaker will be Suzanne Arruda, president of the Border Crimes chapter of Sisters in Crime and author of five mysteries set in 1920s Kenya, featuring main character Jade del Cameron, animal wrangler, photojournalist and neophyte pilot. Suzanne will talk about creating villains in mysteries.

Suzanne’s novels include Mark of the Lion, Stalking Ivory, The Serpent’s Daughter, The Leopard’s Prey, and Treasure of the Golden Cheetah, which will be published in September 2009.

Dinner
We meet at 5:30 at Romano’s Macaroni Grill before the meeting (just south of Border’s in the same shopping center). Please join us. Ask for the Partners in Crime table. No reservations required, and the restaurant gives us separate checks.

May Meeting

Wednesday
May 13, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Borders Books and Music
91st and Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Mary Stephenson

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Mary Stephenson has been practicing criminal law for the past 14 years, including 8 years as an assistant district attorney in Johnson County and the past 6 years as a criminal defense attorney in Miami County. She’ll talk on some of the highlights of being both a prosecutor and a defense attorney and a few of her more interesting cases.

Newsletter
Partners in Crime also puts out a great newsletter full of recommendations and reviews of recent mysteries. Our latest issue has a nice list of historical mysteries, a list of Miss Zukas books by Jo Dereske (featuring an intrepid librarian), local scams to be aware of, and a description of the arrest of the month.

Author Event
Author Lee Child will talk about his new book, his life, his work, answer audience questions and he will autograph copies of his new book purchased from Rainy Day Books.
7 p.m.
Tuesday
June 2, 2009,
Unity Temple on The Plaza—Sanctuary
707 W 47th Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64112

Admission Package: $27.00 plus Tax, includes from Rainy Day Books, One (1) Stamped Ticket, One (1) Guest Ticket (if needed) and One (1) Copy of Lee Child’s new book, Gone Tomorrow (Hardcover), to be autographed after the author presentation.

Visit the Rainy Day website for more details.

Rainy Day is finalizing details for fall appearances by Michael Connelly and Sue Grafton, please watch our web site for additional details.

We’re on Meetup.com!

Our very smart president, Jill Draper, has registered Partners in Crime on Meetup.com. Go to our Meetup page to register, find out who else has registered, and see who has said they’re definitely coming to our April 8 meeting.

April Meeting

Wednesday
April 8, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Borders Books and Music
91st and Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Thomas Fox Averill

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Tom Averill, award-winning author and Writer-in-residence and Professor of English at Washburn University in Topeka, will talk about his novel, The Slow Air of Ewan McPherson, with an additional discussion on plots and plotting.

Tom won the O. Henry Award for his short stories. His story collections include Ordinary Genius, Seeing Mona Naked, and Passes at the Moon. He has written two novels, Secrets of the Tsil Cafe and The Slow Air of Ewan McPherson, as well as numerous poems and articles. Tom helped to found and was the first director of the Washburn Center for Kansas Studies. He has edited several books and, as his alter ego, William Jennings Bryan Oleander, is a commentator on Kansas Public Radio at the University of Kansas.

March Meeting

Wednesday
March 11, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Borders Books and Music
91st and Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Suzanne Lieurance

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Kansas City author and writing coach Suzanne Lieurance will present “Taking the Mystery Out of Freelance Writing.” Suzanne is the author of over twenty books, both fiction and nonfiction, including Shoeslaces, School Projects for Pennies, The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, and her latest middle grade historical novels, The Locket and The Lucky Baseball. She has written hundreds of articles, essays, and columns and as The Working Writer’s Coach uses her broad knowledge of the publishing industry to help other writers develop their own careers. Suzanne has created websites to help writers in different genres and broadcasts several weekly internet radio shows on writing. Suzanne will give us tips on making a living as a freelance writer.

Contest
The Kansas Author‘s Club, District 2, is now accepting entries for the 2009 Annual Writing Contest. The contest is open to all writers and includes four prose categories and four poetry categories. Closing date for entries is March 31. Further information is available at www.kansasauthors.org under “Districts” then “District 2 News” then click on “2009 Writing Contest.”

February Meeting

Wednesday
February 11, 2009
7:00 p.m.
Borders Books and Music
91st and Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Nicolette Bennett

Visitors Welcome. Please join us!

Attorney Nicolette Bennett will speak on Deadbeat Parents. She’ll talk about legal requirements and how offenders are apprehended. Ms. Bennett works for the Kansas Department of Social Services and Rehabilitation Services. She is the manager of twenty-seven other SRS attorneys.

Dinner
We meet at 5:30 at Macaroni Grill before the meeting. Please join us. Ask for the Partners in Crime table. No reservations required. The restaurant gives us separate checks.

Coupons
Everyone who attends the meeting receives a 20% coupon off all mysteries. You don’t need to be a member to attend the meeting or receive a coupon.

Membership
Please tell others about Partners in Crime. Until the last several years, we had large crowds, but they have dwindled—although our last two meetings were well attended. We need new members and new ideas if we are to continue as a chapter. Please submit your ideas for members, speakers, or publicity to anyone on the board and tell your friends, neighbors, and co-workers about Partners in Crime.

If you know a member who is not getting meeting reminders, please let me know his/her correct email. If you want to be removed from the list and not receive the Partners in Crime newsletters or meeting reminders, contact Marie at rmcgerules@msn.com and Bobbie at bsmith1900@aol.com , and we will remove your name. If you have a friend who is interested in joining and wants to receive a newsletter or a reminder to try out the group, let us know his/her email address.

Dues
Local dues are $10.00. To join, see Treasurer Lisa Harkrader or take a local membership application from the blue folder, complete it, and give it and your check to one of the officers or mail it to Lisa. National memberships applications are also available.Visitors Welcome—please join us!

January Meeting

Wednesday
January 14, 2009
7:00 p.m
Borders Books and Music
91st & Metcalf
Overland Park, KS
Speaker: Norm Ledgin

Visitors Welcome—please join us!

Norm Ledgin will speak about his bestselling book, Diagnosing Jefferson: Evidence of a Condition that Guided His Beliefs, Behavior, and Personal Associations. Described as a “forensic biography,” Diagnosing Jefferson examines Thomas Jefferson, one of the United States’ most brilliant presidents and his many behaviors that match the Asperger’s Syndrome diagnosis. A second book, Asperger’s and Self-Esteem, published in 2002, has been translated for distribution in France.

Norm Ledgin was born Passaic, New Jersey, and holds degrees in journalism and political science from Rutgers University. In the early 1950s, his protests against the nuclear arms race and for civil rights led to Ledgin being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In his long and varied career, he has worked as a journalist, journalism professor, traffic safety manager, and newspaper editor and publisher. The parent of an autistic son, Ledgin is a nationwide speaker on autism, often with Dr. Temple Grandin, NY Times best-selling author of Animals in Translation. He is now semi-retired in Stanley, Kansas.

The meeting begins at 7:00 pm, but members and others are welcome to join us at 5:30 pm at the Macaroni Grill, across the parking lot from Borders.

New Officers
A new year means a new slate of Partners in Crime officers. These members have agreed to serve for 2009:

President: Jill Draper
Program Director: Marie Gerules
Treasurer, Web Maven, and Publicity Chair: Lisa Harkrader
Meeting Reminder Chair: Bobbie Smith
Booking Agent (Bookie for short): Janice Campbell

Upcoming Meetings
February 11, 2009
Our speaker is not yet confirmed, but we promise the program will be terrific.

March 11, 2009
Suzanne Lieurance, The Working Writer’s Coach, will speak about how to become a working freelance writer.

April 8, 2009
Thomas Fox Averill, award-winning author and Writer-in-residence and Professor of English at Washburn University in Topeka, will speak about his writing.

November Meeting

Wednesday
November 12, 2008
7:00 p.m
Borders Books and Music
91st & Metcalf
Overland Park, KS
Speaker: Bill Ouseley

Visitors Welcome—please join us!

Bill Ouseley is a retired Supervisor of the Organized Crime Squad, Kansas City Field Division after a 25-year career with the FBI. He spent over 20 years in fighting organized crime activity. He will speak about his new book Open City: True Story of the KC Crime Family 1900-1950 and have copies of his book to autograph. See http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/764788.html.

Book Synopsis
A riveting new biography about organized crime in Kansas City, Open City documents an era that continues to hold great fascination for history buffs as well as lovers of mystery and drama. It relates the roots of the secret crime societies of southern Italy and Sicily. When they arrived in Kansas City, they became known as the Black Hand. From modest beginnings, the development of the criminal outfit is traced through Prohibition, its alliance with the Pendergast Machine, the roaring 20s and the birth of La Cosa Nostra. The story is told by a man who chose a career to fight the crime families of Kansas City. William Ouseley, who at one time held the position as Supervisor of the Organized Crime Squad, then spent years researching the rest of the stories and facts that led the city to be known as a center for organized crime activity in the first half of the twentieth century. The book that could be a novel is amazing in its detail. Many of these stories have never been published.

August Meeting

Wednesday
August 13, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Borders Books & Music
91st & Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas
Speaker: Marie Gerules 

Marie Gerules, one of the founders and first presidents of Partner in Crime, is a former skip tracer and debt collector. Marie will discuss Elderly Fraud.

Dinner
Join us for dinner at the Macaroni Grill at 5:30 PM before the meeting. Reservations are not required. Ask for the Partners in Crime table. The restaurant gives us separate checks.