Mad Anthony Writer’s Conference features first-ever ‘Writer’s Police Academy’

The most common mistake that novice crime fiction writers make, according to Lee Lofland, is doing their procedural research by watching television.

“Television series take a lot of creative license,” he said. “But readers are not as kind to writers as the television audience is. When people read a book, they expect it to be accurate.”

That’s why Lofland, author of “Police Procedures and Investigations: A Guide for Writers,” makes appearances at more than a dozen writers conferences each year.

At this year’s Mad Anthony Writer’s Conference, Lofland is taking the presentation several steps further by offering a “Writer’s Police Academy” as a special event, both part of and separate from the rest of the conference.

It’s the first time he’s assembled a full slate of events, including tours of the Butler County Morgue and the Hamilton Police Department. Lofland said that it’s his relationship with the HPD that inspired him to give the Mad Anthony Writers Conference the first opportunity to have such an event.

“The Hamilton Police Department is very much in touch with how things are done,” he said. “They’re a pretty innovative police department and are my go-to people when I’m consulting on a book.”

Part I of the Police Academy begins 10 a.m. Friday, April 17 at the Hamilton Y.W.C.A. with presentations by Lofland, Butler County coroner Richard Burkhardt, prosecuting and defense attorneys, and a demonstration from the HPD K-9 unit. The tours will take place after lunch.

At 6 p.m. Friday, the action moves to the Wilks Center at Miami University Hamilton as the Mad Anthony Writers Conference begins its regular slate of activities with registration and a meet-and-greet with the keynote speaker Dr. Roger D. Launius, curator of the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

His speech, “Transcendence and Meaning in the First 50 Years of Space Exploration,” presented in partnership with the Michael J. Colligan History Project, begins 7:30 p.m. in Parrish Auditorium.

Following Launius’ talk, around 8:30 p.m., there will be a panel discussion led by Jane Friedman, director of the Writer’s Digest brand of publications from F&W Media, on “Writing Your Book” at the Wilks Conference Center.

The evening closes with a “Night Owl” session for Writer’s Police Academy, “Night Owl: Murder, Mayhem, and the Macabre: A Story of Hamilton’s Bizarre Murders,” around 10 p.m., back at the Y.W.C.A.

“We’ll look at actual crime scene photos and lab results for two of Hamilton’s more notable murders,” Lofland said.

Saturday’s activities begin with a continental breakfast and welcome at the Wilks Center.

“We will have five tracks of workshops,” said Victoria Ryan, co-chair of the conference. Conference attendees can mix and match or attend five sessions in the areas of fiction, nonfiction, career building and two tracks of police and crime writing.

Presenters include:

• Literary agent April Eberhardt, who will be part of the panel “Publishing Your Book”;

• Literary agent Verna Dreisbach, on “Prison & Jail, Slang & Gangs”;

• Lieutenant David Swords (retired), a 30-year veteran of the Springfield, Ohio, Police Department and author of the novel “Shadows on the Soul,” on “Interview and Interrogation”;

• Sheila L. Stephens, the first female Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) special agent in the state of Alabama and the author of “The Everything Private Investigation Book” and “Book of Weapons, Technology and Surveillance,” discussing “Amazing Crime - Newest Crime Fighting Technology” and “Unusual Lethal and Less Than Lethal Weapons: What the Good and Bad Guys Use”;

• Former police officer Michael B. Black, author of the Ron Shade private-eye series, on “SWAT” and “Hostage Negotiations”;

• ATF Special Agent Rick McMahan and writer of short crime fiction on “Writing Realistic Fight Scenes,” “Arrest Tech and Hand Cuffs,” “Police Tools and Equipment” and “Fingerprinting”;

• Clinical psychologist Anne Paris, author of “Standing at Water’s Edge: Moving Past Fear, Blocks, and Pitfalls to Discover the Power of Creative Immersion,” will discuss “The Creative Process; How to Start and Finish Your Project”;

• Novelist Nancy Pinard, author of “Shadow Dancing” and “Butterfly Soup,” on “Your Character’s Story Line”;

• Linda Keller, community relations manager for Barnes & Noble, on “Options in Publishing”;

• Novelist Trudy Krisher, author of “Spite Fences” and “Kinship,” on “Jumping the Fences: What a Writer of Children’s and Young Adult Literature Needs to Do to Leap the Hurdles”;

• Amanda Boyd Walters, deputy editor of Cincinnati Magazine, on “Magazine Writing”;

• Bill Brohaugh, author of “Write Tight: Say Exactly What You Mean With Precision and Power,” “Everything You Know About English Is Wrong,” and “English Through the Ages,” will present “Write Tight (Self-Editing)”.