Murder Goes South 2011

Wow! What a great conference!

Every speaker was interesting. The intimate setting let participants get up close with the authors. The food was great. And the weather even cooperated.

If you weren't there, ask someone about the customs and border protection program. I learned beagles are cute, but sneaky.

Planning has already begun for next year. Make a mental note, because you won't want to miss another one.

Dr. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith - Murder Goes South

The Murder Goes South Mystery Festival starts tomorrow. Are you excited?

Dr. Susan Kirkpatrick Smith from U.S. Customs and Border Protection is one reason you should be excited. She received her Ph.D. from Indiana University. Her areas of research interest include skeletal analysis and the interaction between health and social status in Greek populations. She spent a year living in Athens, Greece researching skeletons from the Late Bronze Age cemetery at the foot of the Acropolis. Her teaching interests include forensic anthropology, human evolution, and human biological variation.

Dr. Smith will be giving two presentations about forensic anthropology and how it can be used in the murder mystery business. The first, "Death, Decay and Decomposition" highlights what happens in the body after death. The second program "Who are You? Age, Sex, and Skeleton" will tell you everything that can and can't be learned about your deceased from a skeleton. Both programs will invite vigorous questioning from the audience.

Mitchell Graham - Murder Goes South

2 days and counting -

Mitchell Graham was born in New York City. He attended college at Ohio State University on a fencing scholarship and later went on to earn a law degree. After practicing for twenty years he went back to school to study neuropsychology. He has represented the United States in international fencing competitions and has won or placed in the finals of 83 tournaments.

The Fifth Ring was his first novel and received rave reviews. His mystery novels include Majestic Descending, Dead Docket and Circle of Lies, which was released in November. Mitchell currently lives in Miami.

Visit his website at http://www.mitchellgraham.net/.

Williams Rawlings, Jr. - Murder Goes South

WOW! Only four days until the best Mystery program in Georgia starts.

William Rawlings Jr. is one of our featured writers. Like generations of his family before him, William Rawlings, Jr., was born in Sandersville, Georgia where he still lives on the family farm with his wife and two children. He was educated at Emory University and Tulane where he earned a Master's Degree and his Doctorate in Medicine. He did his post-graduate medical training in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital after which he returned to Sandersville to practice medicine. Late in his successful medical career he began writing about the real South, a passion easily recognizable in his literary work.

His first novel The Lazarus Legacy was published in 2003 followed in the next three by The Rutherford Cipher, The Tate Revenge, and Crossword. William's latest novel, The Mile High Club, was published in 2009. He is currently working on two projects, a suspense novel set in Savannah and a non-fiction history of an infamous 1926 murder.

Check out his website at: http://pascuamanagement.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Cathy Pickens at Murder Goes South

Cathy Pickens has been, under different names, a lawyer, a business professor, an university provost, a clog-dancing coach, a church organist/choir director, typist and successful mystery writer.

The most profound influences on her life have been her family, her faith, Nancy Drew, and Perry Mason. She grew up in a small town and was forced to move to big cities to support herself first as an attorney and then as a professor. Cathy found the only way to get out of the cities comfortably was by moving "Avery Andrews" back home and chronicling her exploits. Her novels include Southern Fried, Done Gone Wrong, Hog Wild, Hush My Mouth and Can't Never Tell.

You won't want to miss her amusing take on Southern mysteries. Find out more at http://www.cathypickens.com/

Lee Lofland - Police Procedure and Investigation

Lee Lofland is a veteran police investigator who began working as an officer in Virginia's prison system. He later became a sheriff's deputy, a patrol officer and finally received his gold shield as a detective.

During Lee's career he solved cases involving narcotics, homicide, rape, murder for hire, and occult crimes. He worked undercover for several jurisdictions and received advanced certifications from several law enforcement organization. It is thrilling to hear Lee describe his career. He's a born raconteur, able to explain the gamut of police work from boring routine to piercing moments of terror.

Lee's book Police Procedure and Investigation is a Writers Digest Howdunit Guide that provides direct insight into the world of police investigations. It's the next best thing to having a police officer by your side to explain what happening.

Check him out at Murder Goes South January 29th.