Deadly Plots
Our Mystery Anthology
Who would believe that this grandmotherly sweet-looking sextet
could put together a book of blood-curdling
mysteries? Seated around the table
are (left
to right) Helen Goodman, Wendy Greene,
Dorothy
O'Neill, Nancy Gates, Diane Berry,
and Ellen
Hunter.
Deadly Plots, one of two WGOT books published in 2002,
is an anthology of short mystery stories
by members of the Mystery Writers'
Group
(The second book was also an anthology,
"Freedom's
Heroes," stories of World War II, Korea
and
Vietnam by 59 Guilford County veterans.
Both books are now into second editions).
Printed in September, 2002, "Deadly Plots"
is edited by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter
and has
already surpassed its breakeven point.
The
six mystery writers responsible for
the book
held a reception and book-signing on
Sunday,
September 22 at Stadler Place Clubhouse
to
introduce the book to the public.
Deadly Plots was featured at the most recent
Cape Fear Crime Festival and the authors served on various panels.
The book's length is 150 pages with nine
short stories. The price is $10. To
order
through the mail, enclose a check for
$10
plus $3 shipping and handling charge
(Total
$13) made out to "WGOT" at P.O. Box
9731,
Greensboro, NC 27429. Allow two or
three
weeks for delivery. The book is also
available
at Greensboro area libraries and bookstores.
Two of the stories are award winners.
"Emmett
and Kelly," by Nancy Gotter Gates,
won first
place in the Sleuth Fest Short Story
Contest,
1999. "Stealing Sailing," by Wendy
Greene,
was awarded Honorable Mention in the
Elizabeth
Daniels Squire Mystery Contest, 2002.
The six contributors are:
"Hit and Run," by Diane Lambright Berry. Sam and Sarah Short, proud new owners
of a detective agency called "Short
Investigations,"
solve the hit-and-run murder of a Raleigh
restaurateur so skillfully, the police
and
even their client are surprised. Diane
Berry
teaches creative writing through the
United
Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County.
She has studied writing at East Carolina
University and Duke University, and
is a
past board member of the NC Writers'
Network,
and a former steering committe member
of
the Carolina Crime Writers' Association.
She has attended the Harriette Austin
Writers'
Conference at the University of Georgia,
the Wildacres Writers' Workshop in
the NC
mountains, various NC Writers' Network
State
Conferences, and Malice Domestic in
Washington,
DC. She also contributed two short
stories
to the WGOT children's anthology, "Candle in the Attic." She is currently writing a mystery series
about the characters featured in the
mystery
anthology.
"Emmett and Kelly," by Nancy Gotter Gates. When an accomplished high-wire walker
falls to his death from his practice
rig,
Alice Penry suspects foul play, even
though
the police call it an accident. A
second
story by Gates in the mystery anthology
is
titled "Writer's Plot," revolving around a creative writing student
who wonders why her fellow calssmate
dropped
out of the course and out of sight.
Gates
has had twenty-four short stories published
in regional and national magazines,
along
with dozens of poems and articles.
Her mystery
novel, "Squall Line", was a finalist in St. Martin's Malice
Domestic Contest in 1998. "Emmett and Kelly" won first place in the 1999 Sleuth Fest
Short Story Contest. She is a board
member
of Writers' Group of the Triad, and
is the
facilitator of WGOT's Mystery Group.
She
has also completed a mystery novel
set in
Florida, "A Stroke of Misfortune".
"Double Take," by Helen Goodman. A slothful woman's greed leads her to
commit a callous act, but an infestation
of roaches tips off the police. A
second
story by Goodman is titled "Mrs. Skinner." Despite Mrs. Skinner's blazing furnace,
the secrets in her basement are bone
chilling.
Helen Goodman, a native of Michigan,
is currently
a resident of Winston-Salem. Her articles
have been published in Reminisce and Alive magazines. She is a contributor to Our Words, Our Ways,, a North Carolina history textbook published
by Carolina Academic Press. Her short
stories
and poetry appear in several anthologies.
She collaborated on the script for
the award-winning,
historical outdoor drama, "Ripple in
the
River," about a ghost town in North
Carolina's
Anson County. In addition, she has
written
a historical novel and three mystery
novels.
"Stealing Sailing," by Wendy Greene. A mother and son liberate a sailboat only
to discover they are harboring a troublesome
stowaway. Wendy Greene holds a Ph.D.
in
English from Indiana University. She
teaches
at Guilford Technical Community College.
She has studied creative writing at
Wildacres
and at Duke University. Her poems
have appeared
in the Piedmont Literary Review and in The Windless Orchard. New poems will appear in a forthcoming
collection, Lines from a Near Country. Her love of sailing is often a theme in
her poetry and prose. "Stealing Sailing"
won Honorable Mention in the Elizabeth
Daniels
Squire Mystery Contest, 2002. She
is completing
a mystery novel tentatively titled
Produce His Body.
"Moving Day," by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter. A historic preservationist is hired to
relocate an 1850 Greek Revival house,
unaware
that the structure conceals a most
unusual
artifact. Hunter has a second story
in the
anthology, titled "Justice Takes a Holiday." The plot: Attorney General Ann Kelly
thinks she'll sneak in a bit of vacation
at a national crime convention, but
when
a corrupt district attorney drops dead
in
his chocolate mousse, Ann is on the
job.
Ellen Elizabeth Hunter has combined
a passion
for historic preservation with a love
of
mystery and humor to create a series
set
in Wilmington, NC's Historic District.
She
has studied creative writing at New
York
University and at Duke University.
She is
a member of the National Trust for
Historic
Preservation, the Wilmington Historical
Foundation,
Writers' Group of the Triad, and Carolina
Crime Writers.
"The Rock and the Rhododendron," by Dorothy P. O'Neill. A beautiful, young aquatic performer takes
a fatal plunge at a lakeside resort,
but
guest, Leigh Cutler, doesn't believe
it was
an accident. Dorothy P. O'Neill is
the author
of "Double Deception, her first mystery novel, published in 2001
by Avalon Books. The sequel, Fatal Purchase, will be released shortly. She is presently
writing the third book in this series,
tentatively
titled Ultimate Doom. In addition, she has had four romance
novels published by Avalon. Her poetry
and
light verse have appeard in Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, and other national magazines. Her weekly
humor column was a feature in the Staten
Island Register for eight years.
