East, West, Home’s . . . Where the Mystery Is

by Paula Gail Benson

On Saturday, September 13, 2025, the Capitol Crimes Chapter of Sisters in Crime in conjunction with the Palmetto Chapter of Sisters in Crime and the Southeastern Mystery Writers of America held its first bi-coastal Crime-A-Thon. What is that, you may ask? It’s a gathering of authors, six from each coast, grouped in panels to discuss what makes the settings and characters in their novels unique.

Baron R. Birtcher

Many thanks to Karen Phillips, President of Capitol Crimes, and its board for providing the registration and Zoom forum for this meeting. Special thanks to Richard Meredith and Chris Dreith for their organization and help in keeping track of audience questions. Another grateful shout out to Penny Manson, who moderated the setting panel of West Coast authors Baron R. Birtcher, Robin Burcell, Audrey Lee and East Coast authors Yasmin Angoe, Linda Lovely, and Lynn Chandler Willis.

I had the privilege of moderating the character panel with West Coasters Bruce Borges, Vinnie Hansen, and R. Franklin James and East Coasters Carla Damron, Sally Handley, and Dorothy McFalls. (I also must admit that I was delighted the participants and audience sang “Happy Birthday” to me. I’ll always remember being serenaded coast to coast!)

Bruce Borgos

Penny and I enjoyed taking a “Family Feud” approach with our panelists. We had terrific participation and an engaged audience, and we hope to repeat the coastal face-off again next year.

Some terrific authors were involved. If you haven’t been introduced to their work yet, I urge you to check them out. Here’s a little about each one.

WEST COAST PANELISTS

Baron R. Birtcher divides his time between Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the hardboiled Mike Travis series (Roadhouse Blues, Ruby Tuesday, Angels Fall, and Hard Latitudes), the Ty Dawson series (South California Purples, Fistful Of Rain, and Reckoning), as well as a stand-alone, Rain Dogs. www.facebook.com/BaronRBirtcher/

Robin Burcell

Bruce Borgos lives in Nevada, writes the Sheriff Porter Beck series, and also has written two stand-alone suspense novels. When in college, he took a course from the screenwriter of The China Syndrome, who complimented his storytelling ability by saying, “You can make a living at this.” Author Bruce Borgos

Robin Burcell, from San Francisco, California, is an FBI-trained forensic artist who has worked in law enforcement for nearly three decades as a police officer, detective and hostage negotiator. She has written thrillers, a mystery series featuring SFPD Homicide Inspector Kate Gillespie, and has co-authored books with Clive Cussler. www.robinburcell.com/

Vinnie Hansen

Vinnie Hansen lives in Santa Cruz, California, and writes the Carol Sabala, baker/sleuth mysteries. In addition, she has written two suspense novels published by Level Best Books and quite a few short stories (in four Guppy anthologies). Her second suspense novel, Crime Writer, has just been released. Vinnie Hansen – Author of ONE GUN and the Carol Sabala mystery series

R. Franklin James (also known as Rae) grew up in San Francisco and lives in Northern California. She writes three series about (1) Johanna Hudson, a genealogist; (2) Hollis Morgan, a white collar criminal who persevered to become a probate attorney; and (3) Remy Loh Bishop, who has been fired as a forensic technician for falsifying results. Author Rae James – Award-winning author of the Hollis Morgan and Remy Loh Bishop Mystery Series

R. Franklin James

Audrey Lee lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and received two degrees (including her master’s in education) from UC Berkeley. Her debut novel, The Mechanics of Memory, was nominated for the Edgar, the Anthony, the Silver Falchion, and the Lefty Award. Never to be Told will be released in May 2026. Author Audrey Lee

Audrey Lee

EAST COAST PANELISTS

Yasmin Angoe

Yasmin Angoe lives in Columbia, S.C. She grew up in Northern Virginia and is a first-generation Ghanaian American. She received the 2020 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Emerging Writers of Color from Sisters in Crime. Her Nena Knight series has been optioned for a TV/Film adaptation. Home - Yasmin Angoe, Author

Carla Damron lives in Columbia, S.C., writes the Caleb Knowles and Georgia Thayer series about social workers who become involved in criminal investigations, and also has written The Stone Necklace, women’s fiction that features interconnected stories (one of the last books published for the Pat Conroy imprint of the University of South Carolina Press). Carla Damron

Carla Damron

Sally Handley lives in Mauldin, S.C., and writes the Holly and Ivy series about sisters who garden and solve mysteries. She also has written a stand-alone novel, Stop the Threat, about school security. Home - sallyhandley.com

Linda Lovely lives by a lake in Upstate South Carolina. She has written the HOA mysteries, the Brie Hooker humorous mysteries, the Marley Clark traditional mysteries, a romantic suspense series called “Smart Women, Dumb Luck,” and a 1938 historical mystery. Author Linda Lovely | mystery and suspense author

Sally Handley

Dorothy McFalls (who also writes as Dorothy St. James) lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, has written romance, mystery, fantasy, and romantasy, and has three mystery series featuring (1) a White House gardener, (2) the proprietor of a Southern Chocolate Shop, and (3) a librarian operating a secret book room of real books. Cozy Mystery Books | Cozy Mystery Author Dorothy St. James

Lynn Chandler Willis lives in a little cottage on a minifarm in the heart of North Carolina. She has written true crime as well as the Ava Logan mysteries and a Death Doula novel. In 2013, she was the first woman in a decade to win the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First P.I. Novel competition. https://lynnchandlerwillis.com/

Linda Lovely

All these fabulous authors made the event a great success. Many thanks to you all!

The Capitol Crimes Chapter has now posted the video on YouTube. If you would like to watch, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4UCnoQara8&feature=youtu.be

What do you think? Which coast produces the best mystery protagonists and villains?

Dorothy McFalls/Dorothy St. James

Lynn Chandler Willis

Agony or Ecstasy?

by Vinnie Hansen

Does writing make you insane or preserve your sanity? Salad Bowl Saturdays is pleased to welcome Vinnie Hansen to share her thoughts on the subject. Welcome, Vinnie! — Paula

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Writing can drive me insane. As I used to tell my students, “It’s a short drive.”

There have been so many crazed authors, who can doubt the connection? However, perhaps the authors weren’t driven mad by writing, but became authors because they were mad. I’m sure there are moments when all of us think we are out of our minds to be engaged in the pursuit. George Sand called writing “a violent and indestructible obsession.”

Vinnie in high school

 

On the other hand, just as often, writing preserved my sanity. I grew up in rural South Dakota in a poor family with ten children. My earliest writings were cathartic, bleeding-on-the-page productions, but they helped me heal. And many of the stories did go on to be published.

When I was in my thirties, my older sister—my best friend and a surrogate mother to me—struggled through chemo for breast cancer. When she eventually succumbed to the disease, writing allowed me to deal with the grief.

I’m not quite calloused enough that everything immediately becomes grist for the mill. When my father died, I cried and cried with nary a plot in my head. Eventually, though, every event is potential material. Sometimes I am aware of that even as an event occurs, and that helps me to put the occurrence into perspective.

Vinnie after 35 years of writing

With my work-in-progress I am grappling with the burglary of our house on the day before Thanksgiving, 2012. My husband and I came up the walk with our turkey as a burglar jumped over our backyard fence. My 63-year-old husband gave chase. I called 9-1-1. During the chase, the burglar twice pulled a gun and threatened to kill my husband. Fortunately, he did not. The police apprehended the criminal. The case went to trial in April, 2014, and the young man was sentenced this morning. I’ve coped with the fear, stress, and sadness by channeling it into fiction.

The Burglary

On a lighter note, fiction also allows me to see that an embarrassing moment can be funny—if framed in a story. For twenty years my husband participated in an art event called Open Studios. His studio is in our home, so during Open Studios, people would troop through our home to see his art. One year, my husband was out putting up his signs in preparation for the event. I was in the shower when I heard footsteps in the house. Dripping, I climbed out, threw on my robe, and encountered an over-eager art-loving couple padding around our living room. We were all embarrassed. But I knew it was funny. In my most recent Carol Sabala mystery, Art, Wine & Bullets, set during Santa Cruz’s Open Studios, I was able to incorporate the scene.

Writing allows us to convert tragedy and humiliation into drama and humor. What experience have you transformed via the magic of writing?

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Vinnie Hansen

Vinnie Hansen is the author of the Carol Sabala mystery series: Murder, Honey; One Tough Cookie; Rotten Dates; Tang Is Not Juice, Death with Dessert and Art, Wine & Bullets. She was a 2013 Claymore Award finalist for her upcoming Carol Sabala mystery, Black Beans & Venom. A semi-finalist for the Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction, she has written many published short stories. Her story Novel Solution will appear in the upcoming anthology Fish or Cut Bait. Vinnie lives in Santa Cruz, California, with her husband, abstract artist Daniel S. Friedman.