Using What You Know (and What You’d Like to Know) to Write a Mystery with Sisters in Crime

Been a housewife? A domestic worker? Single parent? Lived in a creepy old house? You think your life's been boring–but exciting plots can be buried in your own experience. In this discussion, audience members will find the clues to the novel only they can write.

The majority of Steve Liskow’s fifteen published novels and stories use song titles for their titles, and several of his works are built around or reference music, usually rock or blues, but occasionally jazz or baroque. He started playing folk, blues, and rock on guitar soon after the Beatles invaded America. He was a disc jockey on his college radio station for two years, and played guitar in two bands, and, years later, on the world premiere of a musical play in theater. He still performs at various open mic sessions, and is also teaching himself to play piano. One of his novels, The Kids Are All Right, was a finalist for the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America. Six of his titles feature detective and wannabe rock'n'roller Chris Woody Guthrie. His short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly and several anthologies. "Hot Sugar Blues'' was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Short Story from the Mystery Writers of America, and he has won the Black Orchid Novella Award twice.

Carol Orange has worked in the art world for more than twenty years. She began as a research editor on art books in London and later became an art dealer in Boston. She has an MBA from Simmons University and worked as a marketing manager at the Polaroid Corporation. Along with concert pianist Virginia Eskin who played Chopin’s music, she read excerpts from George Sand’s novels in three salons at the French Library in Boston. Her short story “Delicious Dates” was included in Warren Adler’s 2010 short story anthology. Another story, “Close Call,” appeared in the Atherton Review, Volume 02. A recent article, “7 Great Heist Novels recommended by an Art Dealer” was published in Crime Reads. Her debut novel A DISCERNING EYE takes off from the tragic robbery at the Gardner Museum.

Program courtesy of our Summer Reading Sponsors