by Maria Kelson
Sisters in Crime has such a fantastic reputation that other crime fiction organizations’ members continually refer to SinC with appreciation and joy. I first heard of it in my early-drafting days as an unpublished novelist, when women I looked up to in the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America encouraged me to join. My journey to becoming a crime novelist has served up the ordinary (which is to say, substantial) heaping of rejection, confusion, isolation, and frustration … but the individuals who keep programs alive and vital for Sisters in Crime have helped tip the scales with their positive energy-gold. SinC funds have helped fit the professional side of writing into my messy life; SinC meet-ups at Bouchercon and Left Coast Crime brought me face to face with some of my writing heroes and book world comadres, who’ve said things like “let me introduce you to my agent,” “come on my podcast,” “submit to my anthology,” or, sometimes most precious of all, “here are my struggles, and here’s how I keep going.” SinC’s book club and write-ins are a virtual café steps away, serving up caffeine and courage for my scared, curious, hungry, eager writer’s soul! And the avenues SinC provides for paying it all forward have something for all styles and service abilities, ranging from handing over a year of your life (thank you, all past presidents!) down to helping with individual projects, single events, or one-on-one conversations. Connecting with a newer novelist who’d won a SinC award I’d judged, exchanging weekly notes of encouragement with an unpublished writer I met via the SinC member directory, and sharing what I’ve learned about book events with newly-published writers has brought me the special satisfaction of giving what I’ve been given to give. Sisters in Crime is a network humming with generosity.
About Maria Kelson:
Maria Kelson’s debut mystery/thriller, Not the Killing Kind, won Sister’s in Crime’s inaugural Eleanor Taylor Bland Award for Crime Fiction Writers of Color in 2014. Six drafts and ten years later, it was acquired for Crooked Lane Books by Toni Kirkpatrick, board chair of Latinx in Publishing, and went on to win the International Latino Book Awards Gold Medal in Mystery and the Women Writing the West WILLA Literary Award for Mystery.
Wesbite: https://mariakelson.com/
For More on the History of SinC: https://www.sistersincrime.org/page/history
