Murder, Mystery, & Thriller Panel
Monday, June 19, 4-5 PM
Moderator Lorelei Armstrong leads a Pirate Workshop at SBWC. She’s a novelist and has an MFA in screenwriting.
Deborah Holt Larkin is author of A Lovely Girl, a true story of intrigue, murder, and eccentricity, set against the backdrop of iconic 1950s small town California life. Filled with dark humor and bumbling killers, this sometimes heartbreaking, but gripping, story of a scandalous 1958 murder case is narrated by the ten-year-old voice of the author.
Deborah Holt Larkin is uniquely qualified to tell this captivating, yet horrifying crime story. From a front row seat in her family’s living room, she lived the fear and disbelief that gripped her hometown at the time of the murder.
Gar Anthony Haywood is the Shamus and Anthony award-winning author of fourteen novels, including the Aaron Gunner private eye series and Joe and Dottie Loudermilk mysteries. Things Unseen, Gar’s latest and most surprising novel, marks his first attempt to explore in full the subject of God’s existence in the modern world. Booklist has called him “a writer who’s always belonged in the upper echelon of American crime fiction.” He’s written for network television and both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
He’s been a keynote speaker at SBWC, and he’s led a popular workshop there, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Novel Writing,” for the past decade. He and his wife Donna currently make their home in Denver, Colorado.
Lida Sideris is the author of the Southern California Mysteries, loosely based on her former life working as an entertainment lawyer for a movie studio, kind of like her heroine, Corrie Locke, except without the homicides. Her sixth book in the series is slated for release this fall. Lida was one of two national winners of the Helen McCloy Mystery Writers of America Scholarship award and a Killer Nashville, Silver Falchion Finalist. She lives in the Santa Barbara area with her family, rescue dogs and a flock of uppity chickens. She's looking forward to co-presenting her third SBWC seminar this year, “How to be Your Own Best Publicist.”
Marilee Zdenek is the author of Lying Still an intriguing story about the dangerous relationship between psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Favre, and a family of three women: one is the woman he loved; one is the woman he killed, and one has a journal that could destroy him.
Zdenek is the author of eight nonfiction books. This is her first novel. Notably, she wrote The Right-Brain Experience: an Intimate Program to Free the Powers of Your Imagination. It was on the bestseller list of the Los Angeles Times and chosen for the Times Critic’s Choice. An international speaker and coach, she lives in Santa Barbara and has taught at SBWC for more than 20 years.
