Weekend Road Trip: Mad Anthony Writers Conference/Writers’ Police Academy
Have you ever wished you had the time, money, and opportunity to attend a writers conference, a book festival, a police academy, and all the forensics classes you can stand in one action packed weekend?
Well, I’m pleased to announce that the Mad Anthony Writers Conference in Hamilton, Ohio (just outside Cincinnati) has made that dream weekend a reality. On April 17-18, 2009 I’m joining forces with the Mad Anthony folks to host the very first Writers’ Police Academy as part of this wonderful conference and book festival.
All police procedure and forensics workshops will be taught by active and retired police officers, detectives, ATF special agents, and forensics experts (some pretty famous ones, too). These knowledgeable professionals are top in their fields and will be lecturing as well as conducting hands on demonstrations of real police tools and equipment.
See how the pros conduct felony stops and arrest dangerous criminals. Learn how to lift fingerprints and properly handcuff bad guys. See what it feels like to sit behind the wheel of a patrol car.
Activate the lights and siren yourself! There’s no better way to enhance your writing than to put yourself in the story. Smell the smells, see the sights, and hear the sounds.
Be prepared to get your hands dirty because audience participation is allowed in some of the workshops. There will be a couple of surprise events, too.
Some of the workshops we have planned are on weapons, K-9s, patrol cars, autopsy, serial killers, how to write fight scenes, detectives, crime scene investigation, undercover operations, forensic anthropology, fingerprinting, coroners, interview and interrogation, and writing search warrants. And there’s still more to come!
The event will close with the wildly popular Murder and Mayhem panel.
I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts. Does this sound like an event you’d like to attend? What sort of workshops would you like to see? There’s still time to add more classes to suit your writing needs.
puzzle – If you start walking today you should make in time for the first workshop. See you there!
Well, it’s only about 2900 km away from where I live (waaaaaaaay north of Montana…), but I’ve gone further for a good conference, and this sounds like a winner. I’d sign up for all the workshops you mentioned — hands-on is the only way to go!
Kelly – I should know more today. I’ll let you know as details unfold.
Kate – Welcome to The Graveyard Shift. Good ideas. I’ll add them to the list. Actually, this might be a good blog topic, too. Thanks.
Definitely worth the hop from Philly! Other topics I’m interested in are writing realistic police dialogue, police slang, names for forms that are commonly used, departmental politics, internal affairs investigations, and convening a task force.
This sounds exactly like the kind of conference I’ve been looking for. Like everyone else these days, I have to count my pennies and hope I win the lottery (or sell a few stories) before then. I’m looking forward to the details.
Joyce – I know you’ll enjoy this one. We might even have a Dodge Charger on hand…
Pat – There’s a meeting tomorrow. I believe there’ll be more details available at that time.
Oh oh oh, I want in. When will details be made available? I could even drive to Dayton. And if it’s an ongoing conference if I can’t do next year maybe the year after?
This sounds fantastic! And it’s within driving distance, too!
This is true, Lee. I always have fun…;D
Christa – Thanks. I’ll look forward to hearing from him.
Mary – Here’s the link to the conference website. They’ll be updating it, soon.
http://www.madanthonycbf.org/
Bobby – I hope you can make it. I know you’ll enjoy it.
MysteryWriter – Welcome to The Graveyard Shift. I hope you can make it to the conference. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Peg – I know you’re pretty locked into your home conference. You’ll have fun no matter where you go.
Becky – Are you going to be teaching workshops there again next year?
Lee, it sounds wonderful. Can you keep us posted on who’ll be on the faculty?
Gee, thanks Lee. I know I am!
However, I get one chance a year to see some very good friends and I almost had to pass it up for next year until DH very sweetly made sure the $$$ for that conference was in my savings account.
He has trouble handling the dogs for one weekend and this year he had to do it three times because I had two weddings and a conference to attend. I don’t think he’d be thrilled with a repeat of that next year. LOL Have a great time! TAKE NOTES!!!
Oh, wow, I would love to attend that! 🙂
If all goes well, I’m so there. Thanks for the info, Lee.
Lee, thanks again for responding! $100 sounds pretty agreeable 😀 We’re thinking we might combine this with a trip to see relatives in Dayton, Ohio. Could you possibly direct me towards more information? Such as time, place, etc. If there’s a website, that’d be great 🙂 In fact, I should probably stop being lazy and change tabs to where I already have Google opened 😛
Hope you’re having fun at the beach!
Thanks Lee – I will cc you on the email I send him. He worked the Peterson case and several other high-profile cases, was an investigator for eight years and is a very entertaining speaker. Good guy and very helpful. I hope he can help you too.
Christa – Yes, we’re talking to someone in that field, but please send my contact information to your friend. I’d like to hear what he has to say.
Peg – You’re going to miss a good one!
Kendra – The panel has had that name for a few years. Probably before Doug’s book of the same title came out. The panel has been a huge hit in the past and continues to please the crowd with surprises. Can’t drop any names until we receive confirmations. Everything should come together within the next two weeks. Even I’m excited about this one!
Mary – This is one of the most affordable conferences ever. Registration last year was less than $100.00 (one hundred) dollars! I’m not sure about the cost for this year, but I’m sure it will be in the same ballpark. Yes, it’s official. The conference is an annual event. This is just the first time they’ve included such an extensive police/forensics track.
Hi guys. I’m out of town (at the beach). I’ll respond later tonight (Saturday).
Cool!! 😀 I’ve been trying to find something exactly like this, but I didn’t think they existed. Now that I know they do…Yay!! I’ve learned from my parents how to travel frugally, so the travel cost wouldn’t be a problem. (We also have relatives in Ohio) The only problem would be if the cover charge for the workshops are $1- $2000 dollars. In what price range do you think this would be in?
My parents might make me go to get the real police academy thing “out of my system.” 🙂 Is anything official?? Keep us posted!
This sounds utterly terrific, Lee, but I have to reluctantly agree with the others on $$. I’m planning to attend two big conferences next year and I’m already cringing bout the airfare. Does the Murder and Mayhem panel feature Dr. Lyle? Or is it just coincidence that it has the title of one of his books? Can you drop any names?
sounds fantastic. Budgetary concerns abound, however, having quit my day job, part time though it was. Will keep it on my list, though.
Damn! I wanna come to it! But I can only afford 1 a year and I’ve already booked mine for next year.
🙁
I can’t attend but it sounds great. Doing anything on electronic forensics? I have a good friend who teaches extensively in that field (his particular expertise is cell phone forensics). If he can’t make this conference, he’s very well connected and may be able to recommend someone else. Let me know!