MEMBERS

Officers:

Martha Reed, President
reedme36@verizon.net
Martha works as an Internet Media Coordinator for a large mutual fund company. Her short fiction has appeared in Pearl 26, Spinetingler Magazine, and Mysterical-e, and her Nantucket Mystery novel THE NATURE OF THE GRAVE won a 2006 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Honorable Mention for Mid-Atlantic Best Regional Fiction. She is currently working on a second novel in the Nantucket series and spends her remaining time renovating a Victorian home in Aspinwall, PA. Please visit her website: marthareed.com to view sample chapters and interactive links to her published work.

Annette Dashofy, Vice President
www.annettedashofy.com
www.annettedashofy.blogspot.com
adashofy@yahoo.com
Annette is a Yoga instructor who writes, striving to be a writer who teaches Yoga. Her agent currently has two of her veterinary mystery novels under submission in New York. Her short fiction has been published online at Spinetingler Magazine and Mysterical-E, including A SIGNATURE IN BLOOD which was a 2007 Derringer Award finalist. She is currently working on a rural police procedural which illustrates that crime in the country is every bit as deadly as its city counterpart.

Gina Sestak, Treasurer
Gina is a highly unsuccessful fiction writer who lives surrounded by unsold manuscripts. Her published work includes two non-fiction books on legal topics (which she co-authored), articles, and poetry. When not reading, writing, walking, folk dancing, doing yoga, or interpreting dreams, she shares her home with two large tomcats and earns her living as a lawyer for a public utility company.

Sylvia Foil, Secretary
Sylvia was born in New Orleans and left there after high school to attend Northwestern. Most of her early adult life was spent in the Chicago area, for which she still carries much affection. She has been a faculty member in the Communication Studies Dept at California University of Pennsylvania for 17 years and is currently Chair of that department. She teaches classes in film, media criticism as well as commercial, news, and drama writing. In addition to Sisters in Crime, she is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and Pennwriters.

Members:

Mary Ann Aug

Sharon Benedetti
Sharon is an IT consultant who travels the U.S. for work and loves to travel to exotic places for fun. She has worked as a certified massage therapist, spoken at conferences on angels and spirituality, and is a former journalist for a small town paper. Sharon occasionally lectures to adult education students on fiction writing fundamentals and technique. Sharon and her muses are at work on a first novel.

Tory Butterworth
Tory works in mental health during the week and uses writing to maintain her mental health on weekends. Her nonfiction work-in-progress explores the origins of compulsive eating. She is also working on a psychological suspense novel that takes place in a corrupt mental hospital.

Kristine Coblitz
Kristine is a freelance writer and technical magazine editor. Her writing has appeared in Detective Mystery Stories, Scavenger's Newsletter, and Kidz 'n Communities Magazine. She is currently working on her second manuscript, a domestic thriller set within the rock music and nightclub scene. She lives just north of Pittsburgh with her husband and dog.

Cathy Moffat Corn
Cathy is a retired RN and has worked as a massage therapist for the past 15 years. Massage exposed Cathy to worlds beyond the mainstream, so her novels are paranormal mystery/adventure and deal with angels, witches, fairies, and crystal balls.

Mike Crawmer
During the day, Mike writes and edits for a large Pittsburgh-based consulting firm. In his free time he devises crimes and piccadillos for his amateur sleuths, Greg and Andre; bicycles wherever the road takes him; tries to read one poem every day; plays at gardening; writes the occasional feature for the local gay publication; and volunteers for two organizations. His favorite authors change over time and have included Poe, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Wilkie Collins, Christie, Sayers, Simenon, Margaret Atwood, David McCullough, and T.C. Boyle.

Lisa Curry
Lisa works part-time as PR director for a community access television station and part-time as a freelance catalog copywriter. Her work has appeared in a variety of corporate publications, newspapers, and magazines, as well as in three CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL anthologies. Lisa's as-yet-unpublished medieval mystery won first place in the Pennwriters Novel Beginning contest and second place in the historical category of the RWA Daphne du Maurier Award for Mystery/Suspense. She lives with her husband, two sons, two dogs, two cats and two turtles. She is secretary of Pennwriters and is currently working on a contemporary mystery.

Rebecca Drake
www.Rebecca-Drake.com
rebecca@rebecca-drake.com
Rebecca is a former journalist, freelance copywriter, and technical writer who turned to crime fiction to escape the label of soccer mom. Her first novel, DON'T BE AFRAID, a thriller published by Pinnacle, will be available September 2006. She's busy working on a second domestic thriller.

Kathleen George
georgeke+@pitt.edu
www.kathleengeorge.net
Kathleen teaches theatre at the University of Pittsburgh where she has directed many plays for the mainstage and the Three Rivers Shakespeare Festival. She is the author of a short story collection, THE MAN IN THE BUICK, and two novels, TAKEN and FALLEN. She is married to writer Hilary Masters.

Mary Alice Gorman
www.mysterylovers.com
Mary Alice and her husband Richard Goldman own the Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Western Pennsylvania's center for crime and mystery. She is a regular book columnist for Mystery Scene Magazine . Mary Alice's skills as a teacher, organizer, fundraiser, career counselor, and advocate have made for a perfect career in bookselling.

Susan Gottfried
Susan Helene Gottfried doesn't write mysteries or thrillers; she writes rock and roll fiction. Being odd man out is oddly inspiring; visit her at www.westofmars.com and http://westofmars.blogspot.com. Her book reviews are posted at www.FrontStreetReviews.com.

Edie Haines

Kathryn Miller Haines

kathrynmillerhaines at mac dot com

www.kathrynmillerhaines.com

When she's not working in the library system at the University of Pittsburgh, Kathryn performs with and co-manages Mystery's Most Wanted and is an award-winning playwright. She's the author of the Rosie Winter Mystery Series, set in the theatre community of World War II New York. The first book, The War Against Miss Winter, was released in June, 2007. The second in the series, The Winter of Her Discontent, will be released in June, 2008.

Pat Hart
Pat works as a marketing consultant and freelance writer specializing in business-to-business communications. Pat recently finished her first novel, GO FISH, a murder mystery set in Pittsburgh's advertising industry, and is seeking a literary agent. Currently, Pat is working on a literary memoir titled "Don't Touch the Dragon Boogers."

Lois Lamanna

Debra Lee
www.debralee.net
Debra is the mother of two grown sons. She shares her home in the central part of Pennsylvania with her husband, Richard and several felines. Debra is a member of Pennwriters, Sisters in Crime, and Epic.

Lisa Lepovetsky

Rhonda Marks

Nancy Martin
www.NancyMartinMysteries.com
nancy@nancymartinmysteries.com
Nancy is the author of the bestselling Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series. In her 26-year career, she has published 45 novels in four genres--romance, historical, suspense, and mystery. She is also one of the Book Tarts on www.TheLipstickChronicles.typepad.com.

Brian Mullen

Janice Palko

Cynnie Pearson

Brenda Roger
www.edithsingerhandbags.com
Brenda is a handbag designer, museum educator, and lifelong sewer. She is currently working on a mystery with a sewing protagonist. Brenda is a graduate of Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa. She lives in Murrysville, Pa., with her husband and two English Springer Spaniels, one of which is a rescue dog from www.MAESSR.org. Brenda wrote an essay about her obsession with sewing patterns that will be published in an upcoming edition of Threads Magazine.

Krista Santora

Judy Schneider
www.franticwoman.com
Judy is the co-author of THE FRANTIC WOMAN'S GUIDE TO LIFE, a practical guide packed with hints, tips, and tricks to help busy women survive in today's hectic world. It's published by Warner Books.

Lila Shaara

Kathy Shoop

Susan Spencer-Smith

Sandy Stephen
Sandy is a member of Pennwriters, Sisters in Crime and Mysterywrights, a writer’s critique group. She has worked as a technical writer/editor and with a Master’s Degree in Art History taught at local colleges and universities. She completed several novels, including the first in a culinary series about a personal chef and also a suspense thriller (which took third place in the Pennwriters’ great beginnings contest). She is currently working on a new suspense novel. Several of her short fiction pieces have been published online. Sandy lives in the North Hills with her husband and their two kitties.

Heather Terrell

www.thechrysalisbook.com/

Heather Terrell is a lawyer with more than ten years’ experience as a litigator at two of the country’s premier law firms and for Fortune 500 companies. She is a graduate of Boston College and of the Boston University School of Law. She lives in Pittsburgh. Her first novel, The Chrysalis, was released in 2007. Her second, The Map Thief, will be released in August, 2008.

Judith Evans Thomas
www.judithevansthomas.com
jetset.judith@gmail.com
Judith is a journalist and author. Her celebrity interview column "Overheard" and lifestyle column "JET Set" have appeared monthly in Pittsburgh Magazine since 2003. She is also the co-author of 30 books in the Born To Shop travel series published by Bantam Books. She is currently at work on a mystery series.

Joyce Tremel
www.joycetremel.com

joyce@joycetremel.com
Joyce Tremel works for the Township of Shaler Police Department located just north of the City of Pittsburgh. She holds a second degree blackbelt in Taekwondo and volunteered as a trainee instructor for two years. She is a member of Mysterywrights (a critique group), and a member of Pennwriters. Joyce is a former Vice-President of the Mary Roberts Rinehart chapter of Sisters in Crime. She has written for several publications including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Pennwriter, the FBI Bulletin, and the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police magazine.

Jan Yanko