California Crime Writers Conference

I will be attending the California Crime Writers Conference in Southern California in June. This conference for writers of the crime/mystery genre is held every two years and this is the first chance I’ve had to attend it since moving back to Southern California. It took place in 2015 just before I moved, and in 2017 I had to pass because of attending my 55^th high school reunion in Honolulu.

I’ll be on a panel titled Cozies on the Edge: Meeting and Subverting Reader Expectations. This is a subject I’m looking forward to exploring with fellow authors Mary Marks, Frankie Bow, Jennifer Chow and moderator Leslie Karst. I write primarily amateur sleuth mysteries, but mine are on the cozy end of the spectrum. Supposedly with cozies, there are three rules: no sex, no swearing and no on screen violence. I violate two of these three rules with geezer sex and some cussing. Most cozies feature young women protagonists whereas many of my mysteries have older characters. Also, I have one geezer-lit mystery with paranormal elements. I had one publisher turn it down because they didn’t publish paranormal novels.

I write what I enjoy reading and writing, that’s why many of my mystery novels have older characters. And besides, I started writing later in life at the age of fifty-six.

Geezers and geezerettes rule.