Writing Is Murder
PUBLIC SAFETY WRITERS CONVENTION
By: Diane Kratz
I’ve just returned from attending the Public Safety Writers Convention at The Orleans Hotel in Sin City (Las Vegas where the heat index was 114 degrees in the shade).
Sound boring? Let’s look at this through the writer’s eyes:
Sin City + New Orleans atmosphere+ dripping sweat = sounds like a great setting for a book, huh?
Throw in the FBI, Homeland Security, police officers, firefighters, emergency personnel, security persons, two psychologists, a journalist, two social workers and their take on how to catch a bad guy (or, in my book, bad girl), and OMG you have a thriller!
Seriously, that’s what this experience was like for me. I came back eager to write.
Why did I go there instead of RWA? RWA is great but expensive! I joined this group because it has a lot to offer.
First it was cheap. Yea, that’s me you hear squeaking when I walk, cheap, cheap, cheap. The cost is $55.00 year (they also offer 2 and 3 year memberships at a discounted rate).
A day-old chick (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Membership benefits include:
Manuscript Review—All new and renewing members may take advantage of a one-time manuscript review by one of the association’s published authors. Cost? FREE!
Writing Competition—Competition Categories include published and unpublished works:
Fiction—Books, Short Stories, Flash
Non Fiction—Books, Creative-Non-Technical, Creative-Technical, Technical Manual, Poetry, and Screenplay.
Cost? Just $10.00 per entry!!!! CHEAP!
Networking—All members of PSWA are welcome to participate in our website’s e-mail listserv which is intended to provide networking opportunities for members. It’s an e-mail list with all the expert members available for the rest of us to ask questions on crime or certain law enforcement agencies or any type of questions dealing with public safety. They will tell you REAL TRUTH, not what you see on TV. And let me tell you, cops LOVE to talk! You can also send them e-mail on new releases, blogs, yada, yada, yada. Cost? FREE!
Annual Conference—PSWA’s (Public Safety Writers Association) annual conference was held in Las Vegas on July 11-14, 2013, at the Orleans Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. It’s at the same place every year. 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. Cost: $200.00 before January 31 for members and $250.00 for non-members.
Yup, I said NON-MEMBERS! You can still go even if you don’t join.
It was 3 days of learning, networking, finding new authors to read and make new friends with. What did I learn? Here are a couple of hooks I’ll toss in the air for you…
Prostitutes usually don’t have drug problems and the average age for a prostitute is 14 to 18 years old.
The best promotion times to post on Facebook, to blog, or to tweet is 9:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Yes, Virginia, there is someone out there named Chris Sweeny analyzing this.)
Blog Talk Radio is in and boosting sales.
DNA techs writing professional articles conducted an experiment and actually put grasshoppers, ants and cockroaches into volunteer family homes, retrieved them after a week and found 100% of that family’s DNA all over them. Why? Because the DNA technology has gotten so precise they can now find DNA in skin scales. Yuck, but cool!
DNA is also being used by the rich and not so rich in a program named SNIPS. Any guesses? It’s a Genome DNA analysis that can trace your dog’s ancestry. It’s mostly used for show dogs. It can also be used for humans to determine hair color, eye color, and skin color of your unborn child. WOW!
All this IS included in the price of the conference plus they provided yummy lunches for the three days we were there! YES, the price includes LUNCHES!
You get a lot of Bang for your Buck! I’m thrilled with this group of talented writers. I’d love to share my GREAT find with you! You can find the group at http://policewriter.com/wordpress/ .
Until next time, happy writing,
Diane Kratz
Edited by: Sally Berneathy
Related articles
- 2013 Public Safety Writers Association Conference (profilesofmurder.wordpress.com)
- 2013 PSWA Writing Contest Awards (jtzortman.wordpress.com)
- PSWA Results (jwillsbooks.com)
Profiles of Murder 