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Dianne Anderson writes this post about Murder in the Grove by invitation. My comments are in square brackets

Murder in the Grove owes its existence to one person in particular, Maureen Harty. She came to Boise from California and discovered that, while Boise is a great place to live, it didn’t offer some of the amenities she had enjoyed previously. She founded Partners in Crime, which is our local chapter of Sisters in Crime, in the mid-1990s and then, with the help of a few members of PinC, held the first Murder in the Grove. From the beginning, the mission of MITG was to promote both the writing and the reading of mystery fiction. As all writers know, without readers our books don’t get published.

[I found an article from The Boise Weekly that lists Maureen Harty and Kathy McIntosh as event originators.]

[Although I couldn’t find references to what she’s written, I did find Maureen Harty listed as “Attorney, Writer” on The Cabin’s Board of Directors. The Cabin sponsors: Writers in the Schools, Summer Writing Camp, Classes and Workshops, and Readings and Conversations]

Over the past ten years, the conference grew from a single track on a single day to the present configuration. We now have: a contest for non-published writers of mystery/suspense, a one-day writing workshop preceding the conference proper, a booksigning by all speaker/authors at a local bookstore, and then the conference itself featuring three tracks.

When we make up the program, we try to present short workshop sessions that are mainly of interest to writers, panel discussions that probably draw more readers, and sessions on forensics that draw from both groups. Writers want to make their books accurate and readers are curious about the reality compared to the TV images we get.

[Sisters in Crime is presenting "50 Ways to Catch a Killer" as part of their Forensic University of St. Louis, November 1-4, 2007.]

The official sponsor of Murder in the Grove is the Popular Fiction Association of Idaho, Inc., in conjunction with Partners in Crime and Coeur Du Bois (the local chapter of RWA – Romance Writers of America).

PFAII was founded specifically to oversee the conference. Prior to its founding, PinC was the only sponsor. As the conference grew, we wanted to do a couple of things. We immediately applied for and received 501(c)3 nonprofit status for PFAII, which put us in the position of being able to apply for some grants. None of those have panned out yet, but we never lose hope. The other was to separate the conference from PinC financially. Partners in Crime continues to be involved in the conference, in particular helping select each year’s Guest of Honor. PFAII plans to sponsor other events in the future to promote other genres of popular fiction, but that is still in the early stages.

Murder in the Grove has had some terrific speakers. Our Guests of Honor have included Marcia Muller (the first), Sue Grafton, Michael Connolly and Anne Perry, among others equally notable. I am amazed every year at the graciousness shown by these well-known writers who are kind enough to accept an invitation to appear, speak, and be presented with our award, now known as “The Bloody Pen.”

[According to The Boise Weekly, “The Ridley was named by event originators Maureen Harty and Kathy McIntosh in honor of esteemed crime writer and former Idahoan, Ridley Pearson, who has been actively involved in Murder in the Grove since its inception and who presents the award.”The Murder in the Grove website has this update: “It’s an award from our dedicated and enthusiastic band Idaho writers and readers in appreciation of their outstanding and significant contributions to the field of mystery fiction.”

“We call this tribute "The Bloody Pen Award"...they are writing about murder, after all. In the past, our award was known as "The Ridley" in honor of Idaho's best known mystery author, Ridley Pearson, but alas, Missouri's gain was Idaho's loss, and so the award now has a new name.”]

Each year we put out an invitation to writers to submit applications as speakers. We offer them very little. We comp the conference costs for them, and pay a small ($50) honorarium for those who give workshops. And every year we have more applications than we can accept. Many times people who have participated in the past apply again (just because we’re so darn much fun.)

Once the deadline passes for applications, we sit down with our list and start making up a program. We decide on panels and workshops that fit with the applicants’ areas of interest, and we try to include as many people as we can. Inevitably, we have to turn some applications down. Some of our speakers have published widely and others have just had their first book appear in print.

Speakers come from all over the U.S., but we utilize local talents as well. One of our committee members is Joanne Pence, author of the highly successful Angie Amalfi series. She has been a speaker for the past two years, but this year is taking a break. All of our forensics speakers are local. We’re lucky enough to have Dr. Greg Hampikian as a faculty member at our local university, Boise State. (You football fans may recognize that school name as the winner of this year’s Fiesta Bowl.) Dr. Hampikian has been involved in the Innocence Project [also see Dr. Hampikian’s (DNA Links], and he will give a presentation on DNA for the conference participants. The forensics sessions are always popular. Many times attendees have told me how torn they are, trying to decide which sessions to attend, since they all sound interesting.

Our pre-conference writing workshop was new last year. Carolyn Wheat came up from California and did a great job. Her class was based on her book How to Write Killer Fiction. (Every one who attended the workshop received a copy.) In addition, she wrote up an additional handout just for that class.

This year we were able to schedule Margie Lawson. Some of our committee members and many of the RWA folks here in Boise have participated in her classes and recommended her highly. I’ve signed up for her class myself and I’m really looking forward to it.

[M.M. Palmer's first novel, L of a Way to Go, featuring boomer PI Eleanor "L" Scott -- an ex-globetrotting computer consultant turned cyber sleuth -- won both the Popular Fiction Association's Murder in the Grove award and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association's Zola Award for best adult genre.]

The closing date of the contest is (postmarked by) March 31. That’s plenty of time for anyone who wants to submit to get it to us. Just check the Murder in the Grove website for the entry form and address.

AGENTS AND EDITORS

And on the subject of agents and editors, again this is an attempt to make it possible for people trying to break into publishing to get face-to-face with professionals. This year we again will bring in two agents and an editor. They are Katharine Sands, with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, Ken Sherman of Ken Sherman & Associates, and Shawn Reilly, editor in chief of Hilliard and Harris. All three will do a limited number of manuscript evaluations, in which they’ll read 10 pages plus a synopsis, and then meet for a ten-minute one-on-one talk with the author. In the past, some of these meetings have resulted in requests for a full manuscript. We often don’t know the final outcome because people come from all over the country to avail themselves of this opportunity.

Besides the manuscript evaluations, the agents and editor also take group pitch appointments. We schedule no more than 6 people per group, each of whom has about 10 minutes to pitch their work.

We have received tremendous support for Murder in the Grove from the Boise community. Our recommended hotel, Hotel 43, just underwent a complete remodel, and now advertises itself as a “boutique” hotel. They have given us a special rate for Murder in the Grove attendees, only $99 a night, which is less than half their normal rate.

Barnes and Noble Booksellers sponsor a bookfair for the Friday night booksigning as well as the bookstore they operate at the convention center where the actual conference is held. It’s a win-win situation–they sell a lot of books and we get a share of the proceeds.

Our Visitors’ Bureau last year donated a lovely gift basket to our Guest of Honor. And of course, Boise is just a nice place to visit. Check out www.cityofboise.org and see for yourself.

For those of you who have taken the time, to check out our website, www.murderinthegrove.com, you can see that we’re lucky to have the multi-talented Joanne Pence as webmistress. She keeps the web page up-to-date and working. And I want to mention the rest of the committee as well: T.L. Cooper is Chairperson and Peggy Staggs is Secretary. I’m Treasurer and Registrar. Our at-large board members are Cheryl Maude, Joanne Pence, and Valerie Robertson. (Val is also the immediate past chair.) We work on the conference throughout the year, and then when June actually arrives (always a little too soon), members of Partners in Crime and Coeur du Bois step in to help with all the little things that need to be done at the last minute.

I invite anyone who enjoys reading or writing mysteries to join us on June8-9. Feel free to contact us at info@murderinthegrove.com if you have questions.

Check out this link to see the folks mentioned above: Dianne Anderson, Kathy McIntosh, Maureen Hart
MURDER IN THE GROVE 2005 PHOTO ALBUM
Loay Abu-Husein © 2005