This event doesn't happen until June of 2009--but there's a great break in the registration price for those registering before September 30 this year.

PSWA’s (Public Safety Writers Association) annual conference is being held in Las Vegas, June 18-21, 2009 at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino. The conference is open to anyone writing crime and mystery fiction or non-fiction, technical writing for public safety magazines in print or online, or anyone interested in writing. Registered attendees may offer a suggestion for a presentation or panel. There is no-restriction as to who can serve on a panel.

Steve Scarborough, a Forensic Scientist with over 30 years experience in Law Enforcement with Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.an accomplished technical writer and the author of several books, will give a presentation on “Writing Forensics Right.” http://www.steve-scarborough.com/

Tim Dees, Editor-in-Chief of LawOfficer.com, after serving in law enforcement, he was the first editor-in-chief at Officer.com before joining Elsevier Public Safety and LawOfficer.com in January 2008. His work has been published in nearly every major law enforcement magazine. His topic for the conference will be: Writing for the New Media.

Fire Fighting and Arson, Presenter: Dave Doust


What Makes Your Characters (and you) Tick – how handwriting reveals motivations

Sheila Lowe is a court-qualified forensic handwriting expert. She has a degree in psychology and provides expert testimony in forensic cases, as well as behavioral profiling through handwriting analysis. Her writing career covers a wide range, from the best-selling non-fiction books, Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, and Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis, to articles for legal and other magazines. She writes the Forensic Handwriting Mystery series (Penguin’s Obsidian Mysteries), featuring handwriting expert, Claudia Rose.

www.sheilalowe.com
www.claudiaroseseries.com - Poison Pen, an award-winning mystery featuring a handwriting expert.


We’re delighted to announce the addition of Betty Webb as our keynote speaker at Saturday’s lunch. Betty is the author of the prize winning and much acclaimed, hard-boiled Lena Jones books, which are based on stories she covered as a reporter, include Desert Noir, Desert Wives, Desert Shadows, Desert Run and Desert Cut. Her much softer Gunn Zoo series will debut in December with The Anteater of Death. Currently a creative writing teacher at Phoenix College, Betty is a member of National Federation of Press Women, Mystery Writers of America, and the Society of Southwest Authors. Her topic is: "From Hard-boiled to Darn Near Cozy, and Why I Dunnit." http://www.bettywebb.com

and

Victoria Heckman, Friday’s Keynote luncheon speaker will talk about "The Journey Is Everything" or "Where The Hell's The AAA When You Need It?" about the journey to becoming a writer and how it parallels our own life journeys.

Victoria Heckman is the author of the K.O.'d in Hawaii mystery series trom Pemberley Press
& Writer's Exchange. Kapu, A Coconut Man Mystery of Ancient Hawai'i, 2008 from Seven Sisters Publishing http://www.victoriaheckman.com

Logistics of Writing: How to gear up and rev up you writing productivity. A system to layer on top of your present way of writing. A practical series of step that will show you how to switch into a proactive approach of generating work.

Presenter: Sarah Cortez

The poetry of Sarah Cortez (“How to Undress A Cop”, Arte Público, 2000) brings the world of street policing to the reader in a way that poet-reviewer Ed Hirsch describes as “nervy, quick-hitting, street-smart, sexual”. Winner of the 1999 PEN Texas Literary award in poetry and other juried designations, Ms. Cortez is much in demand as a creative writing teacher. One of her poems was chosen for the nationwide Poetry in Motion program and many others have been anthologized. One of her poems was designated as an “Honorable Mention” in the 2007 Texas Poetry Calendar (Dos Gatos Press, Austin) by noted poet Kathleen Peirce. Ms. Cortez has edited “Urban-Speak: Poetry of the City” (University of Houston, CMAS, 2001) and “Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their Lives” (Arte Público, 2007), an anthology of short memoir written by young men and women reflecting the diversity of growing up Latino in the U.S. This anthology was recently awarded the 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award for being “an exceptional book promoting understanding of diverse cultures.” Ms. Cortez has been a police officer since 1993. Currently, Ms. Cortez is co-editing with Liz Martinez two fiction anthologies: one for Arte Público Press of Latino mystery writers, and the second for Akashic Press (Brooklyn) on Indian Country Noir, and a collection of non-fiction writing by law enforcement (active or retired).


Authors may bring their books for sale. PSWA will keep 10% to help defray the cost of the conference and for the scholarship fund.

Sunday, at 3 p.m. will be a joint booksigning for all the authors at Cheescake and Crime bookstore in Henderson.

Some surprises are being planned, so keep watching the PSWA website: http://policewriter.com

There is a price break for members and for non-members registering before September 30th.

Membership is open to anyone in any of the public safety fields or writing or interested in writing for or about them.

Marilyn
http://fictionforyou.com