Make Mine Murder: Thriller Authors Panel

Mystery writers will discuss how they write their books, where their ideas come from, how they plot the twists and turns, and how they develop their characters.

Panelists include Lyn Liao Butler, Laurel S. Peterson, David Rich and Wendy Whitman.

Book sale and signing to follow.

Registration required.

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 was a finalist in the WFWA Star Awards. Before becoming an author, Butler was a professional ballet and modern dancer and remains a fitness and yoga instructor. Butler divides her time between New York and Kauai with her FDNY husband, their son, one rescue dachshund, and a myriad of foster dogs. When not writing, you can find her sewing for her Etsy shop and trying complicated yoga poses on a stand-up paddle board.

Laurel S. Peterson is a community college English professor whose poetry has been published in many literary journals. She has two poetry chapbooks, That’s the Way the Music Sounds and Talking to the Mirror, and two full-length collections, Do You Expect Your Art to Answer? and Daughter of Sky. Peterson has also written two mystery novels, Shadow Notes and The Fallen. She is a member of the Norwalk Public Library Board, and served as Norwalk’s, Poet Laureate from April 2016 to April 2019.

David Rich is the author of three action thrillers: The Mirrored Palace, a historical novel about Richard Francis Burton on the Hajj, Caravan of Thieves and Middle Man. Rich 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, Rich wrote episodes of MacGyver, StarGate-SG1 and Legend. Rich has written three plays: The Interview, The Rescue and W.A.R. (Women's Armed Resistance). He teaches fiction and screenwriting in a graduate program in Connecticut.

Wendy Whitman, the author of  two crime thrillers—Premonition and the sequel, Retribution—was a longtime executive and producer for Court TV and HLN, covering many major high-profile murder cases. Before attending Boston University School of Law, Whitman worked for comedians Lily Tomlin and George Carlin. After graduating from law school, she embarked on what would be a 20-year career in television covering crime. She spent 15 years at Court TV and another several at HLN for The Nancy Grace Show. Whitman received three Telly Awards and two GLAAD nominations during her tenure at Court TV.

Presented in partnership with Sisters in Crime CT.