Mystery Making Event on March 6

SW Florida Reading Festival Mystery Making March 6, 2021.

You might be wondering what a mystery making event is. Well, let me explain…

Mystery Making is the brainchild of Sisters in Crime New England, a writers organization of which I’m a member. Back when we writers made live presentations, mystery making events were primarily conducted in libraries. A panel of four writers would work with an audience to create a brand-new mystery.

In a mystery making event, members of the audience suggest:

  • Character names
  • The plot and the setting (including time period)
  • Who the unsuspecting victim of foul play is
  • Who the villain is
  • What the motivation for the dastardly deed is

Nowadays, we’re conducting these events virtually and on March 6, Sisters in Crime New England (SinCNE) will be joining our sisters from the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter at the SW Florida Reading Festival. The Florida Gulf Coast Chapter’s booth at the festival includes recorded and live events.

Four of our chapter’s board members will present a live Mystery Making event from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, March 6. Join Lisa Lieberman, Lorraine Sharma Nelson, Tonya Price, and me. Registration information will be available soon.

Main Stage Event

Here is a video of a Main Stage event, Noir at the Bar, hosted by the Lee County Library System. Click the link or image to launch the video.

Save the date for Noir at the Bar, a main stage event at the Southwest Florida Reading Festival.

More Information

The SW Florida Reading Festival runs from March 1 to 13, is free, and involves the following types of activities:

  • Author panels
  • Author presentations
  • Book selling
  • Live author meet-and-greet sessions

Children’s programs air at 6 p.m. and adult programs air at 7 p.m. Featured authors appear in virtual online booths on Saturdays. More information and registration for the event can be found online here.

When the registration URL is available for Linda’s mystery making event on March 6, it will appear here.

Missing My Parents

Show my parents at their 40th anniversary party

50 years ago today I moved into the house where I’m living now. This anniversary is poignant and I’m missing my parents.

I was 14 years old when my family moved here and it was my parents’ “new” house. I knew I’d never see my friends again (we moved 30 miles) and I thought my life was over. (True to the friends part, false to the life being over part.)

Well, my parents are gone but the house is here and it is “new” once again. Life took me on some wild rides and deposited me at an unexpected destination. I’m missing my parents, but find much comfort in being in their home. It’s redecorated (no more flowered wallpaper, thank goodness!) and reflects my personality. But I kept one item in each room that belonged to one or both of my parents.

My parents’ presence remains, emotionally and physically. Appreciate your parents. They might not be perfect, but they’re far more important to you than you could possibly imagine.

P.S. Before (Mom’s dining room) and after (my office). If you ever attend one of my webinars (or a Zoom call) you’ll see her bookcases in the background.

Mystery Making with Sisters in Crime New England

Advertising the February 10th Mystery Making Event
Hosted virtually by the Barrington Public Library

Join my writer friends at me at Mystery Making with Sisters in Crime New England. I am (and have always been) active in a number of writers organizations–and never more so than since joining Sisters in Crime New England (SinCNE).

Mystery Making is the brain child of SinCNE. It involves a panel of four writers who create a brand-new mystery novel, on the spot. Members of the audience suggest character names and other story elements for us to use.

In the past, we hosted these events live and in-person, but the virtual events are just as much fun. Join Edith Maxwell, Sarah Smith, Tonya Price, and me on Tuesday, February 10 from 7 to 8 p.m. to plot a mystery!

Registration ends at 9 a.m. on the day of the event, so register now. Visit the Barrington Public Library for more information or to register.

Advertising the SinCNE mystery making event on February 10

The organization lists future events on its website. My next Mystery Making with Sisters in Crime New England takes place on March 6, along with fellow writers Lisa Lieberman, Lorraine Sharma Nelson, and Tonya Price. Join us at the Florida Gulf Coast Sisters in Crime Southwest Florida Reading Festival.

Insuring Cannabis Businesses – Issues and Problems

Illustrate a cannabis plant

Insuring cannabis businesses can be problematic. During the course of the past two years, I’ve written several new insurance continuing education (CE) online and webinar courses for my client, A.D. Banker & Company. One of the most recent webinars is Insuring Cannabis Risks.

The course is the brainchild of inquiries submitted by individuals who attended a free monthly webinar I co-host with A.D. Banker vice president, Pam Reihs. During each 1-hour Insurance Trends Webinar, Pam and I talk about insurance topics of current relevancy. How to insure cannabis businesses is always at the top of the list. Questions we often receive are:

  • Why isn’t cannabis/marijuana legal in all the states?
  • In what states IS marijuana legal?
  • What about hemp, that’s legal, isn’t it?
  • Why is it so hard for cannabis businesses to establish relationships with banks and credit card companies?
  • What insurance companies write insurance for cannabis businesses?

The insurance CE webinar answers these and other questions for licensed insurance professionals. I recently wrote two blog posts for A.D. Banker that summarizes the most important information contained in the course. So, for you insurance and non-insurance people alike, feel free to visit those blog posts:

Check back as I provide ongoing updates about this evolving insurance marketplace. To register for the insurance CE webinar, click here. You can find my insurance webinar schedule here.

Winning and Losing–and Temper Tantrums

Even if your parents didn’t teach you anything about winning and losing , when you attended school you learned:

Winning and Losing: What not to do…

  1. Lying on the ground, stomping your feet, and wailing at the top of your voice was a lousy, ineffective blackmail scheme.
  2. Punching Johnny in the nose because he made fun of the way you swung the baseball bat was a better way of being benched than becoming a home run hitter.
  3. Badmouthing those who weren’t as smart and talented you were did not earn you the spot as most popular. In fact, it didn’t earn you any spot on the Most Mentionables.

I only tried #1, above, once. FYI, pulling it in the grocery store and watching my mother scoot down the aisle and pretend I wasn’t her 5-year-old was both illuminating and humbling.

Life’s Lessons about Winning and Losing

Life teaches us many lessons, many of which are repeated often throughout our lifetimes. One of those lessons is this: we can’t always have what we want. When we can’t get what we want, we have several choices, among them:

  • Keep doing what we’re doing, without changing our methods or attitude.
  • Change our methods of trying to achieve what we want.
  • Change our attitude and accept that we can’t have what we want–either in this moment, or ever.

We should keep these lessons and choices in mind as the national political process progresses. No matter the outcome of this year’s presidential election, some people will feel they’ve won and others will feel they’ve lost.

In reality, none of us will truly lose and some of us surely will not get what we want. Always remember that life is a cycle. Spring turns into summer, fall transitions into winter. Presidents come and go.

We can stomp our feet, wail in grief, attack the people who did get what they want. We can use our words to spew our disappointment disrespectfully. In the long run, though, childish behavior won’t make anyone feel better. It certainly won’t change the fact that we didn’t get what we wanted.

Moving forward…

I hope and pray that we, as a country and as individuals, can move forward without focusing on winning and losing after the election is decided. I hope that if we feel we “won,” we can do so without gloating. I hope that if we feel we “lost,” we can do so without exhibiting spiteful behavior.

I also hope and pray that we will begin working together.

It is impossible for a country with more than 300 million people to have unanimous consent. But it is possible for us to all act like grownups and do what we can to make our lives, and this country, better. If we are unable to make changes in this cycle, we always have another opportunity to so in the next cycle.