By Linda Sandsmark
Special to San Leandro Times
Three local mystery writers will present a free discussion about the writing process and the publishing industry at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 31 in the San Leandro Main Library.
Featured authors Camille Minichino, Ann Parker and Hailey Lind use their professional experience to create stories about amateur sleuths. Everyone is welcome to join the panelists as they share insider stories as entertaining as their novels.
“It’s great fun,” says Parker. “We like to talk to groups, in libraries or homes. We bring along show-and-tell items and chat about why we write what we write, what kind of research we do, how we got published, and then we bounce questions back and forth between us.”
Minichino and Parker are both scientists who work for the Lawrence Livermore Lab. Minichino, who holds a doctorate in physics, lived in San Leandro for over 20 years before moving to Castro Valley in 2002.
She has created eight entertaining mysteries with titles inspired by the periodic table of elements. These begin with “The Hydrogen Murder” (the first element) and continue through “The Oxygen Murder” (the eighth element).
“The alphabet of science seemed like a good idea when my first book came out in 1997. I couldn’t believe nobody else had thought of it,” says Minichino.
“I started out with hydrogen, and once I did that, I was kind of committed. Now I just have to find something criminal about the next element,” she jokes.
Ann Parker lived in San Leandro for many years, attending Roosevelt Elementary and Bancroft Middle School. She graduated from San Leandro High in 1970 and then went on to U.C. Berkeley.
Both her parents were from Colorado, and the family visited so often that it was like a second home. Parker became fascinated with Colorado’s Silver Rush, which she says parallels California’s recent Silicon Valley dot-com era. Her books about the real mining town of Leadville include “Silver Lies” and “Iron Ties.”
“Boom times are also times of social turmoil, when people come rushing in from everywhere in the world,” she says. “My grandma lived in Leadville. Everyone thought they could get rich during both the silver boom the dot-com times, but of course that doesn’t really happen. I had a lot of fun examining this in my books.”
Hailey Lind is actually a pen name for two sisters who write books together: Oakland artist Julie Goodson-Lawes, and her sister, Carolyn Lawes of Norfolk, Virginia. Carolyn is an historian with a doctorate from University of California, Davis.
Their books are written through the unusual method of sending outlines, plots and chapters back and forth via the Internet for the other to read and edit. Their mysteries, such as “Shooting Gallery” and “Feint of Art,” deal with art forgery and theft.
“I make a living as an artist, painting murals and faux finishes in some of the ritziest homes in San Francisco and beyond,” says Julie, who will appear at Saturday’s event. “I take many of my stories from real life.”
The name Halley Lind was chosen from family history.
"Apparently we're related to Jenny Lind, the famous opera singer,” says Julie. “Too bad neither of us can carry a tune.”
A growing community of mystery writers, booksellers and readers nationwide holds conventions and conferences every few weeks in different locations. Minichino says there is a new book trend within the mystery genre, called ‘craft mysteries.’ These focus on hobbies such as quilting, needlepoint, or even soap-making, to name a few. In fact, Minichino has started a new series called “The Dollhouse Mysteries,” based on dollhouses and miniatures.“I go to dollhouse and craft fairs to promote the books,” she says. “It’s as much about marketing and promoting as writing. I really love that part, going to libraries and bookstores and answering questions.”