Author Don Winslow Will Keynote the 2012 Mystery Writers Conference

Online, May 16, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Book Passage Bookstore proudly announces the 19th annual Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference. Writers of mystery, suspense, thriller, detective and crime literature from across the country will convene at Book Passage in Corte Madera, California, just a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, July 19-22, 2012.

This year's participants will spend four event-filled days in beautiful Northern California writing, workshopping, networking, and perfecting their craft with a celebrated faculty featuring prize-winning authors including conference keynote speaker Don Winslow (New York Times bestselling author of Savages-adapted to film by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone, The Dawn Patrol, and the forthcoming The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages); Cara Black (Author of the Aimee Leduc Investigation series); Tarquin Hall (Author of the Vish Puri mysteries); Karin Slaughter (Internationally bestselling author of the Grant County series).

Editors, agents, and publishers will share with participants what they need to know to get published. Authors will offer classes on setting, dialogue, suspense and point of view. Panels of detectives, forensic experts, and other crime-fighting professionals will provide invaluable information to allow writers to put realism into their work.

There will be many opportunities for faculty and participants to talk, laugh, and exchange ideas in workshops, lunches, and at evening events. Participants and faculty will dine together outdoors in the glorious summer weather the first evening, while subsequent evenings will allow for optional excursions to an array of outstanding dining options for which the Bay Area is so well known.

One Mystery Writers Conference Scholarship will be awarded this year, including full conference tuition to the 2012 conference (travel and accommodations not included). To be considered, participants must submit up to a 1500 word sample of their fiction writing, plus one paragraph about what this conference would mean to them in their writing life. The scholarship is sponsored by William C. Gordon, the author of The Chinese Jars and King of the Bottom. Submissions must be received by 5:00 pm PST on Friday, June 1, 2012. Email submissions to [email protected]. The selected entry will be announced on the Book Passage website and via an email to those who have submitted on June 15, 2012.

Alumna, and now internationally-published author, Cara Black says, "The conference bolstered my skills and helped me get published. You can't beat the caliber or the inspiration."

The 2012 conference faculty will include agents: Lisa Gallagher (Sanford J. Greenburger Associates), Amy Rennert (The Amy Rennert Agency); publishers' representatives: David Cole (Bay Tree Publishing), George Gibson (Bloomsbury); crime fighting pros: George Fong (formerly of the FBI, now Director of Security for ESPN), Al Giannini (San Francisco prosecutor for more than 32 years); authors: Cara Black, Rhys Bowen, Tony Broadbent, David Corbett, Robert Dugoni, Judy Greber (aka Gillian Roberts), William C. Gordon, Tarquin Hall, Arthur Kerns, John Lescroart, D.P. Lyle, Tim Maleeny, Kirk Russell, Sheldon Siegel, Karin Slaughter, Don Winslow, Jacqueline Winspear

The cost of the four-day Conference is $540. Optional 30-minute private consultations are available for $95. For complete details, a full schedule, faculty list, accommodations, or to register, please visit the Conference homepage on the Web at http://www.bookpassage.com/mystery-writers-conference. You may also contact Conference Coordinator, Kathryn Petrocelli, by phone at (415) 927-0960 ext. 239, or email [email protected].

Louise Ure, author of The Fault Tree and Forcing Amaryllis, says, "Before I learned about Book Passage classes and the Mystery Writers Conference, the only creative writing I'd ever done were a couple of particularly imaginative IRS submissions at tax time. Sure, I was an avid mystery reader, but that didn't translate to being a mystery writer anymore than being a gourmet means you know how to cook. So I decided to learn from the pros. Within a year I'd written my first novel, partnered with a well-known agent, and sold the book to Time Warner's Mysterious Press."

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