Four Louisiana authors, experts planned for annual Mystery Readers-Writers Literary Festival Saturday

Four Louisiana authors or criminal activity experts will make presentations at the Fifth Annual Mystery Readers / Writers Literary Festival beginning at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 13, 2019, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie. The free festival is intended not just for mystery writers but for readers as well.

9:30 to 10:45 a.m.

Farrah Rochon: “Using Psychology to Create Memorable Characters”

Farrah Rochon gives an interactive deep dive into creating characters using various methods rooted in psychology, including characterization with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Keirsey-Temperament Sorter, and how to apply them to fiction writing. 

USA Today Bestselling author Farrah Rochon hails from a small town just west of New Orleans. She has garnered much acclaim for her Holmes Brothers, New York Sabers, Bayou Dreams and Moments in Maplesville series. The two-time RITA Award finalist has also been nominated for an Romance Times Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award, and in 2015 received the Emma Award for Author of the Year.

 

11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Jean Redmann and Greg Herren

The central character in a mystery oftentimes will be a detective who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Through the years, Redmann and Herren have created dozens of characters in their mysteries, and they explain how to create logical, believable, complex characters that readers will love.

J.M. Redmann writes two mystery series, one featuring New Orleans PI Micky Knight, and as R. Jean Reid, the Nell McGraw series, about a Gulf Coast town newspaper editor. Her books have won First Place Awards in the ForeWord mystery category, as well as several Lambda Literary awards. The Intersection of Law and Desire was an Editor’s Choice of the San Francisco Chronicle and a recommended book by Maureen Corrigan of NPR’s Fresh Air. Redmann is an at-large board member for Mystery Writers of America.

Greg Herren is the author of more than 30 novels and has edited more than 20 anthologies. He has won numerous awards, including the Anthony and Lambda Literary Award (twice). His short story collection Survivor's Guilt and Other Stories was released on April 1, and his next novel Royal Street Reveillon will be released this September.

12:30 to 1:45 p.m.

O’Neil De Noux: “The Femme Fatale”

The evolution of this female siren, the femme fatale, in detective literature, has a distinct development from the early days of the victim in Poe to the deadly archetype seen in the Chandler and Hammett novels and film noir. O’Neil De Noux explains the femme fatale archetype and how it is used today.

O’Neil De Noux is a New Orleans writer with 40 books published, 400 short story sales and a screenplay produced. He writes crime fiction, historical fiction, children’s fiction, mainstream fiction, science-fiction, suspense, fantasy, horror, western, literary, young adult, religious, romance, humor and erotica. His fiction has received several awards, including the Shamus Award for Best Short Story, the Derringer Award for Best Novelette and the 2011 Police Book of the Year. Two of his stories have appeared in the Best American Mystery Stories anthology (2013 and 2007). He is a past vice president of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Louisiana Book News is written by award-winning author Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances and mysteries under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her first book in each series is FREE to download as an ebook, including "Emilie," book one of The Cajun Series, "Ticket to Paradise," book one of The Cajun Embassy series and "A Ghost of a Chance," the first Viola Valentine mystery.

Tuesday Ebook Spotlight: O'Neil De Noux

New Orleans author O’Neil De Noux is exploring a new genre with his paranormal secret agent novel, “Lucifer’s Tiger.” The book is up now on Kindle Scout where readers may enjoy the opening scenes for free and vote for the book to be published by Amazon. 

Here is a brief rundown: IT IS 1936 and the world is on the brink of war – An American agent with special talents tangles with Japanese agents frantically searching for a mysterious stone called the Blaer. Murder quickly follows as the American stumbles across a vivacious brunette who needs rescuing. Or does she? She has her own special talents. The chase is on from southern China through steamy India to a lost island in the Arabian Sea. What diabolical plan do Nazi scientists have for tigers in this deadly game of cat-and-mouse in the realm of the ultimate predator? The tiger.

To read the opening lines to “Lucifer’s Tiger” and vote, visit https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/783BJVSMZLQX.

Louisiana Book News is written by journalist Chere Dastugue Coen, who writes Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire. The first two books in her award-winning romances series are FREE as ebooks and for Feb 14-18 her new paranormal mystery is FREE to download! For more information and to sign up for her newsletter visit www.cherieclaire.net.

History professors Joiner and White examine Shreveport's historical Oakland Cemetery

Gary Joiner and Cheryl H. White are history professors at LSU-Shreveport. Joiner is director of the Red River Regional Studies Center and host of a weekly radio program called “History Matters” for Red River Radio. White is the author of several books.

The two have published two books together on Shreveport history: “Historic Haunts of Shreveport” and the most recent, “Shreveport’s Historic Oakland Cemetery: Spirits of Pioneers and Heroes.” Their latest book offers an historic overview of the cemetery, then detailed information about the land’s inhabitants who range from mayors and Civil War soldiers to the first burial place for Jews in the city.

There’s the famous “Shreveport Madam” Annie McCune, two grandchildren of Pres. Zachary Taylor who died en route to Shreveport during the Civil War and Edward Jacobs who established the First National Bank (I once looked for his ghost with paranormal investigators at his old building, now the Spring Street Museum). Nathan Goldkind was murdered in a card game and his killer got off easy so his gravestone makes sure everyone knows that.

The saddest chapter of Oakland Cemetery lies beneath an earthen rise. The yellow fever mound contains 726 bodies who succumbed to the brutal disease when it ripped through the city in 1873. A hero of the time was Lt. Eugene Augustus Woodruff, a former Union soldier working on clearing the Red River from debris. He assisted the city during the epidemic at the sacrifice of his own life and he’s buried in Oakland as well.

Joiner also published books on the Civil War and Shreveport history including “Vanishing Scenes from the Red River Valley” and “Wicked Shreveport.” White is also the author of “Confederate General Leonidas Polk: Louisiana’s Fighting Bishop” and the upcoming “The History and Haunts of Louisiana’s Antebellum Plantations.”

New releases

Des Coroy of Lafayette works with people to help sharpen their communication skills to build intimate relationships. He was a regular presenter speaking on communication skills on radio and TV in Australia. Coroy has published a book on the subject, titled “21^st Century Relationship Guide: Communicate Your Way to True Intimacy.” For more information on the book and author, visit www.descoroy.com.

O’Neil De Noux has published “Nude in Red,” the third novel featuring NOPD’s half-Cajun, half-Sioux Detective John Raven Beau. The murder of a young woman draws detectives into a secret world of high-priced call girls with ties to the Mafia and a Romanian organized crime syndicate and more murder victims.

“Young Ladies of Good Family” by Anne Marie du Bois de Chêne, a collection of short stories written by Haitian born, and longtime Louisiana resident Ingrid L. Czichomski, has been translated into French titled  “Jeunes Filles de Bonne Famille.”

Book news

            Independent Bookstore Day is held annual in early May — this year it’s Saturday, May 2 — but in New Orleans this interferes with Jazz Fest. In fact, the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association will be operating a tent at Jazz Fest to raise funds for literacy. So New Orleans will be celebrating its independent bookstores one week later on Saturday, May 9. Events will include bookstores hosting authors. If you’re not in New Orleans, please visit your local independent bookstore and thank them for continuing to spread literary wonders — and keep us writers alive!

              Sheri Fink is up for a PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction for “Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital.” The book about a New Orleans hospital damaged by Hurricane Katrina was one of the New York Times’ Best Ten Books of the Year, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the 2014 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Ridenhour Book Prize, the 2014 American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award (Public/Healthcare Consumers), a 2014 Science in Society Journalism Award and the SIBA 2014 Book Award for Nonfiction, among others. 

Upcoming events

Author & Reader Con 2nd Annual ARC NOLA gathering and book signing with author panels, party, red carpet awards and more is July 30-Aug. 1 at the Holiday Inn New Orleans-Downtown Superdome. For information, visit www.authorreadercon.com.

Louisiana Book News is written by Cheré Coen, the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.