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HAPPENINGS
Coming up short in Left Coast panel “Short But Not Usually Sweet”
Fan conference Left Coast Crime comes west with San Francisco Schemin‘. I’ve been changing tactics to ride some short-story successes, and that has landed me a coveted seat on the panel Short But Not Usually Sweet. I miss my usual moderator seat but then who can quibble with a moderator like Brian Shea? The quintet also includes short-story godfather Michael Bracken (who among many other pursuits runs ShortCon with Stacy Woodson), Tom Andes and David Hagerty.
- Brian Shea: Adolescence spent traveling across Saudi Arabia, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Competitive swimmer. Northeastern University graduate, naval officer, Marymount University master’s degree, and a police career with roles as a SWAT operator, narcotics investigator, and detective.
- Michael Bracken: Award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction, and advertising copy: Edgar Award nominee and Shamus Award nominee, award-winning copywriter, three Derringer Awards for short fiction, Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement in short mystery fiction. Published more than 1,300 stories. Inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters for his contributions to Texas literature.
- Tom Andes: New Hampshire-born and raised now residing in Albuquerque resident. Freelance editor, writer, caterer and country singer. Published in several dozen journals and small publications, anthologized in Best American Mystery Stories 2012. Won the 2019 Gold Medal for Best Novel-in-Progress from the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society. New Orleans Writers Workshop co-founder.
- David Hagerty: Duncan Cochrane mystery series author. Former police reporter, county jail teacher. Published more than 50 short stories online and in print.
February 26, 2026, Left Coast Crime 2026 San Francisco Schemin’
Short But Not Usually Sweet panel
Moderator Brian Shea (Rachel Hatch Series); Michael Bracken (Mickey Finn 21st Century Noir series), Tom Andes (Guess This Is Kaput: Stories, Wait There Till You Hear from Me) and David Hagerty (Duncan Cochrane series).
LEFT COAST CRIME AUTHOR CONNECTION: ACTION SEEN with Cindy Fazzi and Vera Chan
Donuts. Coffee. Walking tours and farmer’s markets. To go beyond the printed word, Left Coast Crime offers Author-Reader Connections for a more intimate experience between reader and author. So what can two former journalists stand out from the literary crowd? Well, with threats of violence of course.
I’m teaming up with Cindy Fazzi, Filipino American writer, former Associated Press reporter and the author of the Domingo the Bounty Hunter thrillers (Thomas & Mercer), to teach 60-second self-defense techniques. What with our propensity for violence (and my volunteer work teaching martial arts to UC Berkeley students), this seemed like a natural theme for two people who have never met in person.
5-5:45pm February 28, 2026 @ Hyatt Regency, San Francisco
MEMORABLE EVENTS
February 1, 2025, Sisters in Crime Northern California
Annual Meet and Greet + Marketing and Promotion panel
Moderator: Vera H-C Chan. M.M. Chouinard (Detective Jo Fournier series, The Vacation, and the amateur-sleuth series The Serial-Killer Guide to San Francisco); George Cramer (New Liberty), Victoria Kazarian (Laughing Loaf Bakery cozy mysteries and Silicon Valley Murder police procedural series), Lisa Towles (Specimen).
November 2, 2024, Sisters in Crime Northern California
Fall Showcase
Vera H-C Chan – Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Boucheron Anthology 2024; Michele Drier – Resurrection of the Roses; Stacie Grey – She Left; Vinnie Hansen – Friend of the Devil: Crime Fiction Anthology; Victoria Kazarian – Drop Dead Bread; Ellen Kirschman – Call Me Carmella; Claudia Long – Murder Without a Duck; Ana Manwaring – The Kickback; Faye Snowden – Killing Rain, Robin Somers – Eleven Stolen Horses
1-3pm @ 276 Village Square, Orinda
October 18, 2024, Litquake
Unforgettable Sleuths
Vera Chan (M), Nordic Noir master Thomas Enger (Stigma), National Book Award nominee Ramona Emerson (Exposure), Michelle Chouinard (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco) and Nina Simon (Mother-Daughter Murder Night) will speak of what makes a sleuth unforgettable.
Doors open 6:30 p.m., 7pm Pacific time
June 1, 2024, Sisters in Crime Northern California
Getting Smart About AI
Vera Chan (M), Reese Hirsch, Bruce Johnson
Playback available on Zoom, passcode: p5s?YYr6
April 11, 2024, Left Coast Crime
Are You Full Yet? Culinary Mysteries
Vera Chan (M), Wendy Church, J.C. Eaton (Ann Goldfarb), Claire Johnson, Ana Manwaring
Noon Pacific time
June 11, 2023, California Crime Writers Conference
Authentic Characters, Different Ethnicities and Cultures Journalists
Vera Chan (M), Jennifer J. Chow, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Cody Sisco, Rachel Howzell Hall
9AM Pacific time
September 9, 2022, Bouchercon
Best Paperback/Audio/eBook
Vera Chan (M), Tori Eldridge, Cheryl A. Head, Greg Herren, Tara Laskowski, Jess Lourey
9AM Pacific time
September 8, 2022, Bouchercon
Burying the Lede: Mysteries with Journalists
Vera Chan (M), Brenda Buchanan, Curtis Ippolito, K. L. Murphy, Rich Zahradnik
9AM Pacific time
April 9, 2022 Left Coast Crime Albuquerque
Ripped From the Headlines: Real-Life Characters & Stories
Vera Chan (M), David Morell, Kari Bovée, Susan Elia MacNeal, Rick Treon
2:45 PM Pacific time
April 8, 2022 Left Coast Crime Albuquerque
Let’s Keep It Short: From Cozies to Noir
Lisa Mathews (M), Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Madeleine Harris-Callway, Gay Toltl Kinman, Vera Chan
2:45 PM Pacific time
November 6, 2021
SinC NorCal Fall 2021 Author Showcase (Zoom)
12-2 PM Pacific Time
November 15, 2021
Mystery Hour with Con Sweeney (Second Life & YouTube Live Stream)
12 PM Pacific Time
November 20, 2021
AAUW (American Association of University Women), West Contra Costa Branch (Zoom)
10 AM
November 23, 2021
Green Apple Books (Zoom)
San Francisco, Calif.
6 PM Pacific Time
December 16, 2021
Midnight Hour Anthology Panel (Crowdcast)
Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore
San Diego, Calif.
7 PM
Read Now:
“TONE DEAF” in MUSIC, MURDER, MAYHEM AND MYSTERY
Selected for inclusion in Bouchercon Nashville 2024’s anthology, my short story “Tone Deaf” is in Down & Out Books‘ TALES OF MUSIC, MURDER AND MAYHEM. Edited by bestselling author Heather Graham, the limited-edition hardcover anthology benefits the Nashville Public Library and is available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.
The judging committee selected the stories through blind selection, so it’s splendid for this tale of Chinese American music school noir to make the cut.
Quiescent Fung was a reverse prodigy. She was color-blind, had two left feet and couldn’t string two notes together without tripping over the chord.
That had to amount to something, she told herself.
When she was nine, she Googled female colorblindness and found her condition was uncommon (one in two hundred girls, versus one in twelve boys.) She’d written the mutations down in a yellow hardbound notebook, OPN1LW and OPN1MW, and adorned the silk-finished page with glittery butterfly stickers.
The discovery made her feel special. It had taken a few years for her to understand that she saw things differently and a few more for mother to believe her. Her mother Miriam sourced high-end textiles for home design and was often jetting to places like Thailand or Indonesia or Kazakhstan and wasn’t around enough to notice. Her frequent absence in fact required Quiescent’s life to be scheduled and pre-ordained, down to coordinating the clothes — and colors — that she wore.
Every print copy comes with a complimentary digital e-book.
“THOSE POOR MOTHERS” in THE LOS ANGELES REVIEW
2023 Short Fiction Award winner Vera Chan, final judge Carlos Allende
They look like my daughter. Sixteen or seventeen, blonde hair that touches their shoulders, pale faces. The newspaper runs their photographs in black and white. I don’t know if their eyes are the same translucent blue, like the veins in her forearms. “Lucy,” I tell her, “they look so much like you.”
The Los Angeles Review print issue featuring all winners is available summer 2024.
“MURDERERS’ FEAST” in MIDNIGHT HOUR
Men had been murdered for less. And yet techpreneur John Manley, a sneering braggadocio who has left a trail of duped VC investors, bankrupted cohorts and damaged women, still lived. What could possibly happen when two hundred of his closest enemies gather in a five-day exclusive gourmet retreat, in this tale of Silicon Valley noir?
Under the pseudonym of H.C. Chan, Vera Chan joins 19 stellar authors of color in MIDNIGHT HOUR: A CHILLING ANTHOLOGY OF CRIME FICTION FROM 20 AUTHORS OF COLOR with her short story, “Murderers’ Feast.” Edited by USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Abby L. Vandiver, the anthology is published by Crooked Lane Books.
The paperback and ebook were published on Nov. 9, 2021. Order a copy today.
Audiobook released March 1, 2022 by Dreamscape Media. Listen now.
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