Meet Our Members

Member

Rhonda Barnat is a business executive and writes crime fiction under the pen name Rona Bell. Her short story, Prey of New York received special mention in Best Mystery Stories, 2018, published by Houghton Mifflin and edited by Louise Penney and Otto Penzler. She has also published in Mystery Readers Journal and has a forthcoming piece appearing about John Le Carré. She lives in Rye, New York and is a member of Mystery Writers of America.

Member

Raised on what used to be a dairy-and-horse farm in North Stamford, Sarah earned her BA at UConn. After earning an MBA, she moved to Hawaii and taught at the University of Hawaii-Hilo before working at Gemini Observatory as a facility supervisor.

After writing three non-fiction books on horse training, she turned her attention to poetry and fiction. In 2010, she moved to North Carolina, where her novel Drawn from Life and many of her short stories are set. Several of her shorter works have been published in literary journals; in 2021 she was a finalist for the Doris Betts Fiction Prize.

In her writing, Sarah creates compassionate characters who believe they must battle their demons alone, and antagonists who think they have nothing left to lose. Rural life and the natural world are also strong influences in Sarah's work.

Member

Warren retired from a wonderful 3 decades plus career as an adult and pediatric urologist to fulfill a lifelong desire to write a first novel. In the spirit of sharing some of his intimate experiences as a physician, the book naturally falls into the genre of a medical whodunnit.

Forty-one years of blissful marriage produced two daughters, a pair of sons-in-law, four grandchildren, and a loyal rescue hound. Warren and his wife Beth split their time between Stamford (when they need time with the little ones) and Longboat Key, FL (when the latter isn’t inundated by a storm surge).

Member

Liz Bullard is a multi‑genre author, therapist, and coach who helps creatives move from stuck to started with clarity and confidence. Known for her captivating storytelling, Liz’s notable works include The Prophecy Series and the Lira Somers Mysteries, praised for fast‑paced plots, vivid characters, and movie‑like imagery.

Liz’s love of reading and writing is evident in the eReads Podcast, where she celebrates the power of creativity and storytelling. When she’s not writing, coaching or recording the podcast, she’s cooking, reading or spending time with Preston the corgi.

Member

Clinical psychologist Lucy Burdette aka Roberta Isleib is the author of 23 mysteries, including USA Today bestseller A Clue in the Crumbs (Crooked Lane Books.) Both the twelfth book in her Key West series, A Dish to Die For, and the tenth, The Key Lime Crime, won the Florida Book Award’s bronze medal for popular fiction. Her first women’s fiction title, The Ingredients of Happiness and her first thriller, Unsafe Haven, have been published by Severn House. Her books and stories have been short-listed for Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards. She's a past president of Sisters in Crime, and currently president of the Friends of the Key West Library. Visit her website, or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Member

Lyn Liao Butler is a Taiwanese American author of thrillers, upmarket fiction, and rom-coms. Her most recent thriller, Someone Else’s Life, was an Amazon bestseller and her second book Red Thread of Fate is a finalist in the WFWA Star Awards for 2023. Before becoming an author, she was a professional ballet and modern dancer, and is still a fitness and yoga instructor.

Member

Jennifer A. Dayton is a former newspaper columnist and an active public policy advocate. She held several elected offices in Connecticut, which developed her love of writing and public speaking. Dayton published Set in Stone in 2023. Her new novel, Surge Warning, is coming in 2027. Dayton is also published in the Westerly Writers Anthology Echoes of Our Lives 2025, and the Rhode Island Bards Poetry Review, 2026. Jennifer is a member of Sisters in Crime (National & CT & NYC) International Thriller Writers and the Association of Rhode Island Authors. When not traveling for adventure, she loses sleep reading spine-tingling, mind-bending, heart-racing thrillers.

Member

Devon is a wife, mother of three, grandmother to four, accomplished cooking contester, and author of a cooking competition murder mystery series. She has won many cooking contests and cook-offs, and has won prizes such as a full kitchen of major appliances, five-figure cash prizes and four trips to Disney World. Combining her beloved cooking contesting hobby with her enthusiasm for writing was the next logical step. Season with a touch of murder and mayhem, her cook-off mystery series was born. Devon’s latest release is Farm Fresh and Fatal.

President

Eileen Doyle writes mysteries set in the art world, with a particular interest in stories of hijinks such as thefts, counterfeiting, and other swindles. Before she ill-advisedly quit her day job to write full-time, she earned a Ph.D. in art history, taught courses in modern and contemporary art, and held various and sundry positions in visual arts organizations in New York City and Connecticut. She has published non-fiction articles on contemporary art. When Eileen isn’t writing, she can usually be found coaxing her lovable, but lazy, goldendoodle Ginger out for a walk or digging herself out from the mountains of laundry produced by her three children.

Member

Samantha DuBois is a writer and communications specialist whose work has taken her from the Nicaraguan rain forest to the Colorado foothills and beyond. She enjoys writing about her travels on her personal blog, as well as penning character-driven mysteries. Her first mystery novel, Dead Letter, is currently out on submission (yikes!)

In her spare time, she enjoys teaching yoga, finding new trails to hike, and perfecting her chocolate chip cookie recipe. After spending the last two years as unintentional nomads, she and her husband have recently settled in southeastern Connecticut with their two cats, Ollie and Pip.

Vice-President & Facebook Manager

Sharon Dukett is the award-winning author of the environmental thriller The Shutdown List and No Rules: A Memoir.

She worked in information technology as a consultant, programmer and project manager in the private sector, and as a deputy director for the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch. Running technology projects taught her about the infinite possibilities of how plans can go awry, and the creativity needed to rescue them: a useful insight for writing thrillers.

Sharon is also a member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association.

Sharon lives in central Connecticut with her husband, near her children and grandchildren. She is currently working on another thriller.

Member

Patricia Dunn/T.M. Dunn is author of Her Father's Daughter, a psychological thriller (Crooked Lane Books, July 18, 2023), Rebels by Accident (Sourcebooks Fire), and Last Stop on the 6 (Bordighera Press). Her writing has appeared in Salon, The Village Voice, The Nation, LA Weekly, and The Christian Science Monitor. She has also been published in the New York Times best-selling anthology, Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women (Soft Skull); and elsewhere. Dunn has served as Senior Director of the Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College, where she holds an MFA in creative writing. She teaches and coaches aspiring and established writers. Dunn lives in Stamford, Connecticut where she is currently working on her next novel, with her rescue puppy Blanqui snuggled at her side.

Member

Glen Ebisch has been writing for over thirty years. Most of his books are edgy, cozy mysteries with a touch of humor. They are usually set in New Jersey shore communities or in western Massachusetts. A former professor of philosophy, he now writes full-time and lives in central Connecticut.

Newsletter Manager

Christine Falcone’s short stories have appeared in publications such as Imagine, Lancrom Review, and Deadfall: Crime Stories by New England Writers. After working for nearly forty years as an RN in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Christine is delighted that retirement coincides with the publication of her first full-length mystery, Ex’d Out published in 2022. She lives on the Connecticut Shoreline with her family and a dog who is not nearly as well behaved as Bruno, the beloved canine in her novel.

Member

Peggy Gaffney writes suspense for the dog lover. Dogs have figured heavily in her life and she has bred, trained, and shown Samoyeds for over fifty years. Peggy always loved writing and was lucky to have as her advisor and mentor while an undergraduate at Southern Connecticut, the writer, and writing teacher, Walter Tevis, well known for his novels The Hustler, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and The Queen’s Gambit. With an English major and a double major in art and music, she ended up having careers both as a teacher and librarian. Upon retiring, she mastered the skills required to be an independent author/publisher. She wrote and published a dozen non-fiction books, including ten intarsia knitting books aimed at dog lovers, one book per breed, as well as one on cats, and one on llamas and alpacas. Tiring of designing knits, she turned to her first love, writing fiction, and created the Kate Killoy Mystery series, of which there are seven books so far with more on the way. The series is best described as Die Hard meets Best in Show.

Member

Kimberly Giarratano (Jer-ah-tahn-o) is the author of Death of a Dancing Queen, Devil in Profile, and Make a Killing, a series about a tenacious private eye who snuffs out crime in the North Jersey suburbs. The New York Times Book Review said, “What a joy to keep readerly company with Billie Levine..." Her short fiction has also appeared in anthologies and Uncharted magazine. Kim is an administrator for Sisters in Crime and an instructor at SUNY Orange County Community College. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, Kim and her husband moved to the Poconos to raise their kids amid black bears and wild turkeys. While she doesn’t miss the Jersey traffic, she does miss a good bagel and lox.

Member

National award-winning writer Penny Goetjen is the author of six mystery and suspense novels where the settings play as prominent a role as the engaging characters. Her recent release THE WOMAN UNDERWATER is set behind the stone walls of a private all boys school in the woods of Connecticut.

A self-proclaimed eccentric known for writing late into the night by the allure of flickering candlelight, she often weaves a subtle, unexpected paranormal twist into her stories. When her husband is asked how he feels about his wife writing murder mysteries, he answers with a wink, “I sleep with one eye open.”

Past President

Elise Hart Kipness is a former national television sports reporter. Her debut crime series introduces an Olympic soccer star turned sports reporter, who takes readers behind the scenes of professional sports where murder is the game of the day. The first book in the series, Lights Out, will be published by Thomas & Mercer in November of 2023. Before sports, Elise was a reporter for New York’s WNBC-TV and the Associated Press. Elise has two sons in college and lives in Stamford, Connecticut, on a small hobby farm with her husband, Labradoodles (Bodhi, Skyler, and Kelsey), chickens, ducks, geese, and one cantankerous turkey.

Member

Elena is a researcher and analyst working in conflict resolution. She is the deputy head of ICRA (Independent Conflict Research and Analysis), a nonprofit organization that deals with conflict issues. She is also the co-executive director of a local CERT, a volunteer organization that supports emergency services. In the past, she has worked as a journalist and a translator. Her debut mystery novel, Splendor for Nothing, is published by Cheek Press. Set in contemporary London, this mystery is rich in sights and smells of the art, architecture and cuisines of the old city. She loves travelling, cooking, reading, and learning new languages. Elena was born and grew up in Italy, and now lives with her husband and children in the US.

Member

S.L. Jacobs hails from Los Angeles but has spent the better part of her adult life in Connecticut, with residential stints along the way in Washington DC, Paris, and the UK.  Her long legal career has always been partnered with volunteerism in municipal governance and local politics. She has written, directed, and performed in multiple community theater productions and is a loud and long-standing participant in any choir that will have her. Public Comment is her debut novel (Tucker DS Press, publication 3/3/2026) and a sequel is in progress. 

Member

L.M. Jorden is an award-winning author of Istria: Food, Love, and War in Croatia and many articles on comparative society, human rights, and the environment. She is a former Professor of American-Mediterranean Studies and English in France. Elle won the New York Press Award and holds an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is also an apprenticed medicinal botanist. Elle combines her love of mystery, history, and botany in the Dr. Josephine Plantae Paradoxes Series.

Instagram Manager

Mary P. Karnes is a native Californian. She’s lived all around the country, but New England is her favorite region, and she’s proud to call it home. Mary has four grown children and four itty-bitty grandchildren. For the last seven years, she has found herself in a new career, that of a wedding planner. Good thing too, as Mary writes a cozy mystery wedding planner series.

Twitter/X Manager

Amy Kierce worked for many years as a magazine editor in New York and copywriter in Boston. Amy is mostly a New Yorker at heart, raised in Ardsley, graduated from Fordham and lived in the East Village, joining the NY Writers Room. She now lives with her husband and children in the Boston area, with their bulldog, Harley, and “crime cat,” Pip. She is working on her debut mystery novel. Connect with Amy on Instagram and Twitter. Please don’t ask her Yankees or Red Sox.

Member

Chris Knopf has published 18 mystery/thriller novels. Blood Bank was released in December 2024, about which Kirkus wrote: “Fans of the series will enjoy its usual low-key pleasures, capped by a nifty climactic surprise.” Two Time was one of thirteen mysteries listed in Marilyn Stasio’s "Recommended Summer Reading" column in The New York Times Book Review. Head Wounds was cited as a best mystery of the year by Mysterious Reviews and Deadly Pleasures, receiving the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Mystery. Dead Anyway received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus and Library Journal, also a Boston Globe Best Crime Novel, and winning the Nero Award. Representative short stories: What Made Sammy Run was published this fall in New England’s Best Mystery Short Stories. Kill Switch was short-listed for the Derringer Award. The Best is Yet to Come appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. A Little Cariñoso appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Crossing Harry was included in Akashic’s New Haven Noir.

Member

Eric Kurzenberger was born in Cleveland, Ohio and has lived in Sydney, Australia, New York City, and Los Angeles, where he worked in such varying fields as film production, screenwriting, special effects, and software development. He currently lives by the beach in Connecticut with his wife, his children, and a dog of uncertain ownership.

Treasurer

Gerri Lewis is an award-winning feature writer, former stringer and columnist who began her career getting her fingers smudged on newsprint at the Ridgefield Press and its syndicated newspapers. Later she turned to magazines and was a contributing writer for Morris Media Group, Inc with regularly appearing cover features in Ridgefield Magazine. With over 1600 published features, news stories and obituaries under her belt, Gerri continues to write for 068 Magazine, focusing on Connecticut towns with the 068 zip code. Her debut Deadly Deadlines Mystery, The Last Word, was released by Crooked Lane Books in 2024.

Member

Before turning to fiction, Jackie Lightfield has explored a career path best described as a methodical documentation of the island of misfit toys. Her recipe for success? One part coder, two parts writer, a dash of marketing and splash of design, served entrepreneurially.

When she is not writing classic mystery adventure stories, she is writing regional guides about journeys that lure you to discover the places and geography that made America. Her work can be found at Armchair Expeditions, or an endless Google search to find fragments of award winning design, copy-writing, games, public art projects, economic development and a relentless fight against mediocrity.

Member

Mary E. Maki, writing as M.E. Maki, is the author of four Caitlyn Jamison mysteries: An Unexpected Death, Fatal Dose, The Death of Cassie White, and Deadly Secrets. Her latest book, The Art of Murder, features two new protagonists, Detective Autumn Whitcomb and Ukrainian archivist Yuri Rachinskij. When not writing, Mary loves researching her family history and digitizing documents to assist other researchers. She’s produced several genealogy monographs and has been published in Connecticut Ancestry and the Nutmegger (Connecticut Society of Genealogists).

She facilitates a monthly fiction critique writing group out of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Fredericksburg, VA. She also serves on Portland’s oral history project, the Voices of Portland, and Portland’s America250 committee.

Mary grew up in the Finger Lakes Region of Upstate New York and now resides in Portland, Connecticut.

Member

Susan Mangiero, Ph.D., CFA is a 25-year veteran of the financial services, financial technology, and insurance industry. She enjoyed an exciting business career as a Wall Street trader, a marketer for two financial services companies, an award-winning blogger, a digital education start-up entrepreneur, forensic economist, and university professor. In 2015, Susan earned the designation of a Certified Fraud Examiner. She testified as an expert witness and/or consulted on a variety of white-collar criminal, civil, regulatory, transactional, and compliance matters. She holds a doctorate degree in finance, an MBA in finance, and an MA in economics. She will complete her book about corporate brand storytelling in 2022 as part of her MFA in Creative and Professional Writing. Susan is currently writing a cozy mystery novel. She is looking for a publishing home for her humorous mystery short stories. She enjoys yoga. Susan loves to play bridge and Scrabble. She wants to learn how to play poker.

Member

Nina Mansfield is a Cos Cob, CT-based author, playwright, screenwriter, and educator. Nina’s short fiction has appeared in a variety of publications and anthologies including Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Mysterical-E, Crime Syndicate Magazine and most recently Justice for All, Murder NY Style 5 (Level Best Books, 2021.) Her YA mystery novel Swimming Alone is published by Fire & Ice YA. Nina is also a produced and published playwright. Her ten-minute and one-act plays have received over 100 productions in the United States and around the world, and are published by Smith & Kraus, Stage Partners, YouthPLAYS, Original Works Publishing, and One Act Play Depot. Nina is a member of MWA, SCBWI, ITW, The Dramatists Guild, and she is a Co-Vice-President of the NY/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Connect with Nina on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Member

Kathleen Marple Kalb likes to describe herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. She’s the author of the Ella Shane historical mystery series for Kensington Books, most recently A Fatal Overture. She grew up in front of a microphone and a keyboard, DJ’ing overnight on school breaks at her hometown radio station in Brookville, Pennsylvania, and writing her first (thankfully unpublished) historical novel at sixteen. An award-winning radio journalist, she’s worked in Pittsburgh, Vermont, and Connecticut, and is currently a weekend morning anchor at New York City’s #1 news station, 1010 WINS Radio. When her son started school, she returned to fiction writing, and after two failed projects, some 200 rejections, and a family health crisis, found an agent for the third book—the first Ella Shane. As Nikki Knight, she’s also the author of the contemporary Vermont Radio Mystery, Live, Local, and Dead, from Crooked Lane. Her Vermont story, Bad Apples, was an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Black Orchid Novella Award Contest. She, her husband, and their son live in Connecticut, in a house owned by their cat.

Member

Korina Moss is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series, which includes the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead, as well as two novels short-listed for Best Contemporary Novel. Listed as one of USA Today’s "Best Cozy Mystery Series," her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. Cheddar Off Dead was also recommended by PBS for their 2026 Summer Reading Challenge.

Member

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the new Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in Connecticut with her rescue pals. Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or visit the Wicked Authors blog.

Member

Kirsten Navin is an award-winning graphic designer. She has worked for nationally published sports magazines including Tennis, USTA Magazine, and Golf Digest. More at home designing books, she is now taking a “stab" at writing her first novel (work in progress) – a police procedural involving a cat burglar, an art forger, and a murderer. The story is fictional, though elements are drawn from her home town on Long Island and growing up with a father who was chief of police. Kirsten lives in Easton, CT with her husband, three children, and cat.

Member

Karen E. Olson is the author of the Annie Seymour and Tattoo Shop mysteries and the Black Hat thrillers. She won the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award at Mysterious Press for her first book, Sacred Cows, and her fourth book, Shot Girl, was a Shamus finalist. Her new book is An Inconvenient Wife, a modern retelling of Henry VIII and his wives as a crime novel. She was a longtime newspaper journalist and an editor at Yale. She and her husband, a freelance journalist, are empty nesters and live in North Haven with their ginger cat Seamus.

Member

Kathryn Orzech—film fan, news nerd, traveler—writes suspense thrillers with female leads who confront danger and brush with the supernatural. In ASYLUM: a dark suspense saga, a family secret endangers a reluctant heiress bent on solving the mystery behind her grandmother’s dark past; its screenplay adaptation won Best Unproduced Script in several film festivals. In PREMONITION OF TERROR, prophecy meets protocol when a reluctant psychic must convince her skeptical FBI brother that international terrorists plan an attack on U.S. soil. Kathy’s interests: history and geopolitics, society and culture, psychology and science, and she manages the DreamWatch paranormal website.

Member

Laurel Peterson writes the Clara Montague mystery series, published by Woodhall Press. Clara, a Fairfield County girl, has psychic dreams that predict death and disaster (of course!), usually connected to someone she loves. She’s fallen for local police chief Kyle DuPont, an African American newly arrived from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Clara’s adventures are chronicled in Shadow Notes and The Fallen, both from Woodhall Press. When she’s not writing, Laurel is a professor of English at Norwalk Community College, where she teaches literature, creative and expository writing, and interdisciplinary courses in the arts; and advises the student literary magazine, Musings.

In addition to writing mysteries, she has published two full-length and two chapbook-length collections of poetry. She was the town of Norwalk, Connecticut’s poet laureate from April 2016 – April 2019, and a past editor of the literary journal Inkwell. She currently serves on the Norwalk Public Library board. Find out more about her at her website or on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Membership Secretary

Ang Pompano’s stories have appeared in many anthologies, including the Anthony Award-winning Mystery Most Edible. His novel When It’s Time for Leaving was nominated for an Agatha Best First Novel Award. Diet of Death is his latest novel. A founder of Crime Spell Books, Ang co-edited Bloodroot: Best New England Crime Stories. A member of MWA, he’s been on the New England Crime Bake committee for sixteen years. A long-time SinCNE board member, he is now on the board of the Connecticut chapter. Ang lives in Guilford with his wife Annette and their two rescue dogs.

Member

Shari Randall is the author of the Lobster Shack Mystery series. Her debut, Curses, Boiled Again, won an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. As Meri Allen, she writes the new Ice Cream Shop Mystery series. She has also published short stories in the Destination Murders and Chesapeake Crimes anthologies. A Coast Guard spouse and former librarian, she and her husband live on the Connecticut shore. She enjoys travel, dance, and visiting her globe-trotting children. You can connect with her on Facebook and Instagram where she shares photos of all things cozy Connecticut.

Member

Luanne Rice is the New York Times bestselling author of thirty-nine novels, translated into thirty languages. She often writes about love, family, nature, and the sea.  She received the 2014 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award for excellence and lifetime achievement in the Literary Arts category. Connecticut College awarded Rice an honorary degree and invited her to donate her papers to the College’s Special Collections Library.  She also received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from St. Joseph University in West Hartford, Conn.  Several of Rice's novels have been adapted for television. Her monologue for the play Motherhood Out Loud premiered at Hartford Stage and has been performed Off-Broadway in NYC and at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Rice is a Creative Affiliate of the Safina Center, an organization that fuses scientific understanding, artistic expression, and emotional connection.

Member

David Rich is the author of three novels: The Mirrored Palace, a historical novel about Richard Francis Burton on the Hajj, Caravan of Thieves and Middle Man, which are action thrillers. David spent most of his career in Hollywood. He wrote the feature film Renegades, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Philips, and worked on scripts for stars ranging from Marlon Brando to Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson, from Macolm McDowell to Betty Buckley. For television, David wrote episodes of MacGyver, StarGate-SG1 and Legend. David has written three plays: The Interview, The Rescue, and W.A.R. (Women’s Armed Resistance). He also teaches fiction and screenwriting in a graduate program in Connecticut.

Member

Debra Sennefelder is the acclaimed author of the Food Blogger Mysteries, the Resale Boutique Mystery Series, and the upcoming A Spirit in the Library Mystery series written as Lexie Cooper. An avid reader who reads across a range of genres, mystery fiction is her obsession. Her interest in people and relationships is channeled into her novels against a backdrop of crime and mystery. When she’s not reading, she enjoys cooking and baking and as a former food blogger; she is constantly taking photographs of her food. Yeah, she’s that person. Born and raised in New York City, where she majored in her hobby of fashion buying, she now lives and writes in Connecticut with her family. She’s worked in retail and publishing before becoming a full-time author. Her writing companion is her adorable and slightly spoiled Shih-Tzu.

Library Liaison

Carole B. Shmurak is Professor Emerita at Central Connecticut State University and the author of 11 books. Under her own name, she writes the Susan Lombardi Academic Mystery Series. As Carroll Thomas, she is the co-author of the Matty Trescott Young Adult Historical Novels, one of which (Ring Out Wild Bells) was an Agatha nominee for best young adult mystery. Carole also leads monthly mystery groups at the Simsbury, Wallingford and Southington libraries.

Member

Tessa Smith McGovern is the author of many short stories and two books, Cocktails for Book Lovers (Sourcebooks) and London Road: Linked Stories (eChook Digital). She has an MFA in Writing from the Vermont School of Fine Arts and has been an instructor at The Writing Institute, Sarah Lawrence College since 2011. She’s the founder of Bloom Writers’ Studio which offers virtual classes and pitch events with literary agents for fiction and nonfiction writers, and she’s co-host of the Westport Library podcast ‘Go Ahead, Write Something.’

Member

Manju Soni, pen name MJ Soni, is the author of short stories and Defying Apartheid, her part-memoir about being a doctor activist in apartheid South Africa. 

Her debut mystery, The Masala Chai Mystery Club, is out in July 2026, from Crooked Lane Books.

The story follows a retired librarian and her chai-loving friends as they delve into the investigation of their despised HOA president's murder, which echoes the plot of their latest Agatha Christie book club read. It’s perfect for fans of Only Murders in the Building and Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club.

Secretary

Louise Talotta’s career background is in Human Resources and operations management for two CT insurance companies. A UCONN grad, she also has a Business Mastery Certification from UCONN and CPC accreditation from the International Coaching Academy for life and business coaching. She is a contributing author in Coaching for Powerful Change, published in 2015 and past winner of a fiction award for a boating humor story, Toddler on Board published by Offshore Magazine.

An avid reader of cozy mysteries, she has just completed her first mystery, The Blue Fate Special, where hidden secrets come to the surface to solve the thirty-year disappearance of a local high school girl.

Louise, a native of Avon, lives with her husband Bruno, and is happily surrounded with her son and his family and nieces and nephews in near-by towns. When she isn’t writing, she is cooking and entertaining family and friends or setting up an easel painting landscapes throughout Connecticut.

Member

Judy Tierney has written two books based on her fourteen years as a "washashore" on Block Island, RI, Passing Time in Winter, Block Island Style, a memoir, and The Washashore Murders, a mystery set on the fictional Nor'easter Isle. 

Prior to writing fiction, she reported for the Block Island Times. She won two New England Press awards and one Rhode Island Press award for her work there. 

In earlier years she was a psychiatric nurse at Yale University, an environmental activist in Bethany, CT and a correspondent for a local weekly. Now she resides in West Haven, CT where she leads a quiet writing life.

Member

Katie Tietjen is an award-winning writer, teacher, and school librarian. Her debut novel Death in the Details—inspired by the real-life mother of forensic science, Frances Glessner Lee—was published in 2024 by Crooked Lane Books. Two of Katie’s manuscripts won the Tassy Walden Award in 2019 and 2020. Her short story Ivy appeared in Seascape: The Best New England Crime Stories. A lifelong Connecticut resident, Katie loves reading, spending time with her husband and sons, and snuggling with their four pets. She is an unrepentant tea snob, but otherwise a very nice person.

Member

Wendy Walker is the USA Today bestselling author of psychological suspense novels All Is Not Forgotten, Emma In the Night, The Night Before, Don't Look For Me, What Remains and Blade, and the Audible Originals, Hold Your Breath, American Girl, Mad Love and The Room Next Door. Her work has been translated into over twenty-three foreign languages and has been optioned for television and film. She is a former attorney and investment banker, and as a teenager, she trained for competitive figure skating. Her next thriller, Ten Years Gone, will be published by Thomas & Mercer in 2027.

Member

Greg Wands is the internationally bestselling co-author, along with Elizabeth Keenan, of three novels under the pen name E.G. Scott. Their books have been translated into a dozen languages and have been featured in Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, Real Simple and InStyle. He also co-wrote the forthcoming novella, The Gimlet Slip, with Fiona Davis. Greg is based in New York City and South Salem.

Member

Tessa Wegert is the critically acclaimed author of the Shana Merchant mysteries, as well as the North Country series, beginning with In the Bones. Her books have received numerous starred reviews and have been featured on PBS and NPR Radio. A former journalist and copywriter, Tessa grew up in Quebec and now lives in Connecticut, where she co-founded Sisters in Crime CT and serves on the board of International Thriller Writers (ITW).

Member

Wendy Whitman has a unique background through her decades-long work as an executive and producer for Court TV and HLN, covering almost every major high-profile murder case in America. Through her knowledge of the most detailed aspects of the crimes, Ms. Whitman has become an expert on the subject of murder in America. Before attending Boston University School of Law, Whitman worked for comedians Lily Tomlin and George Carlin. After graduating from law school, the author embarked on what turned out to be a twenty-year career in television covering crime. She spent fifteen years at Court TV and another several at HLN for the Nancy Grace show, where she appeared on air as a producer/reporter covering high-profile cases. Whitman received three Telly Awards and two GLAAD nominations during her tenure at Court TV. Since turning her attention to writing, Whitman has published two crime thriller novels: Premonition and the sequel, Retribution.

Member

Jane Willan is the author of the Sister Agatha and Father Selwyn mysteries, featuring a mystery-loving Welsh nun whose curiosity regularly leads her beyond the convent walls. A cozy mystery writer and ordained United Church of Christ pastor, Jane draws on the humor, friendships, and occasional complications of community life to create stories where even the most respectable people may have something to hide. She grew up in Wadsworth, Ohio, graduated from Hiram College, and now serves a congregation in Connecticut. She also writes about the intersection of her two callings on her Substack, At the Corner of Faith and Fiction. Away from her writing desk, Jane enjoys hiking and biking with her husband, Don, reading good mysteries, and spending time with their dog, Ollie, and cat, Winnie.

Member

After a career that included journalism, trade show management, and software consulting, Tiger Wiseman finally has time to enjoy her favorite things — cooking, reading, and writing — all while spoiling her Golden Retriever. She is currently working on a historical mystery set in 1920s New York City and centered around the residents of a boarding house.