Meetings

The Middle Tennessee Chapter meets monthly, except for October when we attend the Southern Festival of Books in downtown Nashville. Until 2006, the December meeting was devoted to a Christmas Party. Since everyone seemed overburdened with parties during the holidays, we switched to a Post Holiday Blues Party on the meeting date in January.

The meetings are held at 6:00 p.m. in the private room at Bronte Bistro, downstairs at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in the Mall at Green Hills on Hillsboro Pike. Those who like can stay for dinner after the meeting. We are currently alternating between the Bronte Bistro at the bookstore and Ruby Tuesday's across the parking lot.

We provide a variety of speakers, including both local and visiting mystery authors, law enforcement personnel such as homicide detectives and crime scene investigators, and others of interest to the mystery community. Spread throughout the year are discussions of a popular mysteries led by member Lynette Ingram.

Here is our lineup for 2010

January 12, Post Holiday Blues Party at Calhoun's Restaurant on White Bridge Road.

February 9, Discussion of Books Members Are Reading, Moderator, Beth Terrell.

March 9, Bente Gallagher (Jennie Bentley), whose third DIY mystery, Plaster & Poison, is out March 2.

April 17, Lynette Ingram leads discussion of Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.

May 15 (note date change), SinC/Music City Romance Writers joint meeting featuring a panel of authors from both groups.

June 8 (Guest Author, TBA)

July 13, Lightning Source representative will tell us about their print-on-demand operation in LaVergne.

August 10 (Discussion Book TBA)

September 14, Firearms Expert

October, no meeting, Southern Festival of Books is Oct. 8-10.

November 9, Law Enforcement Professional

December 14 (Discussion Book TBA)

2009 Meetings

January 13, Post Holiday Blues Party at Calhoun's Restaurant on White Bridge Road.

February 10, Arson Investigator Kevin Neville with the Nashville Fire Department.

March 10, Asst. District Attorney Bobby Hibbett of Wilson County (15th Judicial District).

April 14, Chester Campbell, who's book The Surest Poison, first in his new Sid Chance Mystery Series, will be released on April 10.

May 12, Book Publicist Tom Robinson, whose clients have included Chapter members Bente Gallagher (Jennie Bentley) and JT Ellison.

June 9, Lynette Ingram will lead our Summer Reading Program discussion of Catherine O'Flynn's 2007 Costa First Novel Award mystery, What Was Lost.

July 14, Carolyn Haines, popular author of the "Bones" series featuring Sarah Booth Delaney.

August 11, Anything You Ever Wanted To Ask an Author a panel of member authors answers  your questions.

September 8, Judy Clemens, president of our parent organization, Sisters in Crime. Judy writes the Stella Crown mystery series.

October (no meeting, Southern Festival of Books is October 9-11).

November 10, Robbie Bryan, veteran Community Relations Manager at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood..

December 8, Lynette Ingram leads discussion on the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

We'll have the 2010 schedule up soon. Meanwhile, we'll leave last year's schedule here so you can see what you missed if you didn't make every meeting. Hope to see more of you in 2010.

2008 Meetings:

February 12, Betty Webb, Scottsdale, AZ author of the Lena Jones Desert Mysteries. Her fifth book in the series, Desert Cut, will be out just in time for the meeting. Betty spoke to our chapter in 2003 about her second book, Desert Wives, which created quite a stir with its depiction of polygamist enclaves along the Arizona/Utah border.

March 11, River Jordan, author of The Messenger of Magnolia Street. Besides writing and speaking around the country, this Nashvillian produces Backstory with River Jordan each Saturday on WRFN, 98.9FM.

April 8, Phyllis Gobbell, co-author of An Unfinished Canvas, the true story of Janet and Perry March, a murder mystery that captivated Nashville for a decade. Phyllis is a past president of The Tennessee Writers Alliance.

May 13, Dewey Lambdin, longtime chapter member and author of the Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures series. His 14th book in the series, Troubled Waters, was published in February.

June 10, Homicide Detective David Achord, who works in Metro's South Precinct. He served as J.T. Ellison's police expert in writing All the Pretty Girls, her debut book about Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson.

July 8, Book Discussion led by Lynette Ingram. We'll be discussing this year's Edgar Award Winner for Best First Novel by an American Author, In the Woods by Tana French.

August 12, book publicist Maryglenn McCombs.

September 9, Timothy Hallinan, whose new book, The Fourth Watcher, is the second in a series about travel writer Poke Rafferty, now a resident of Bangkok.

October (no meeting—Southern Festival of Books is October 10-12)

November 11, JT Ellison, whose second book in the Taylor Jackson series, 14, is out in September.

December 9, Norma Mott Tillman, Nashville private investigator who specializes in locating missing persons. She is the author of Private Investigation 101 and three books dealing with finding missing persons.