Mystery Making: In this interactive workshop, four mystery authors representing different sub-genres, including cozy/traditional and thriller/suspense, will brainstorm on their feet to create a brand new mystery using suggestions provided by the audience. Fun, fast-paced, and fascinating, this improv game offers important insights into mystery writers' minds and the conventions of the genre.

Sisters in Crime is a robust organization of mystery and thriller authors, whose speakers span New York Times bestselling authors to emerging greats. Each engages and entertains while sharing their experiences in the fast-changing world of publishing.

Today’s panel includes:

Elisabeth Elo
Elisabeth's suspense novel, North of Boston, was named one of Booklist's Best Crime Novels, 2014 and was published in six countries. Elisabeth’s new thriller, Finding Irina M, will be released in March 2019 from Polis Books. Elisabeth has worked as an editor, an advertising copywriter, a high-tech project manager, and a halfway house counselor before earning a PhD in American Literature at Brandeis University. Since then, she's taught writing and literature at colleges in the Boston area. Her essays and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications, and a comic novel, Save Your Own, was published in 2006 under the name Elisabeth Brink. Elisabeth lived near the ocean for many years and now resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Connie Johnson Hambley
Connie grew up on a small dairy farm just north of New York City. When she was a young girl, an arsonist burned her family's barn to the ground. From that experience grew the stories that have become "The Charity," "The Troubles," and "The Wake." "The Charity" is the first in Connie’s page-turning series. "The Troubles," a story of terrorism and identity found, was published May 2015 and won Best Fiction at the EQUUS Film Festival in New York City. The third book in the trilogy, "The Wake," was released in September 2017. Her short story, "Giving Voice," was published by Level Best Books in WINDWARD: Best New England Crime Stories in 2016, and "Black Ice" is included in SNOWBOUND, Level Best Book's 2017 anthology.

Edith Maxwell
Macavity- and Agatha-nominated Edith Maxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and the Local Foods Mysteries. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Her award-winning short crime fiction has appeared in many juried anthologies, and she is honored to serve as President of Sisters in Crime New England. A fourth-generation Californian and former tech writer, farmer, and doula, Maxwell now writes, cooks, gardens, and wastes time as a Facebook addict north of Boston with her beau and three cats. She blogs at WickedCozyAuthors.com, Killer Characters, and at Under Cover of Midnight.

Toni L.P. Kelner
As Toni L.P. Kelner, she's the author of the eight Laura Fleming mysteries and the three books in the "Where are they now?" series. She also co-edits urban fantasy anthologies with Charlaine Harris. Their most recent is AN APPLE FOR THE CREATURE, and GAMES CREATURES PLAY will be released in April 2014. Kelner will be solo editing her first anthology with DEAD BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, stories set in Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse world. In between novels and short stories, she sneaks in short stories about pirates, PIs, zombies, and demonic phone calls. As Leigh Perry, she writes the Family Skeleton series featuring a walking talking skeleton named Sid. The series debuted with A SKELETON IN THE FAMILY in September 2013, and THE SKELETON TAKES A BOW is due out in September 2014.