Mystic Ink Publishing Voices of the Masters Series - Santa Barbara Writers Conference 2023 - Murder, Mystery & Thriller Panel- Moderated by Lorelei Armstrong, with Deborah Holt Larkin, Gar Anthony Haywood, N.S. "Vish" Vishwanath, and Marilee Zdenek

Moderator: Lorelei Armstrong leads a Pirate Workshop at SBWC. She is a novelist and has an MFA in screenwriting.

Deborah Holt Larkin, is author of A Lovely Girl, a true story of intrigue, murder, and eccentricity, set against the backdrop of iconic 1950s small town California life. Filled with dark humor and bumbling killers, this sometimes heartbreaking, but gripping, story of a scandalous 1958 murder case is narrated by the ten-year-old voice of the author. Deborah Holt Larkin is uniquely qualified to tell this captivating, yet horrifying, crime story. From a front row seat in her family’s living room, she lived the fear and disbelief that gripped her hometown at the time of the murder.

Gar Anthony Haywood, is the award-winning author of 14 novels. Things Unseen, Gar’s latest and most surprising novel, marks his first attempt to explore the subject of God’s existence in the modern world. Booklist has called him “a writer who’s always belonged in the upper echelon of American crime fiction.” He’s written for network television and the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. He leads a popular SBWC workshop, “The Seven Deadly Sins of Novel Writing.” He and his wife Donna make their home in Denver, Colorado.

N. S. “Vish” Vishwanath is the author of Nights of the Moonless Sky set in 16th century South India. In this debut novel, a succession struggle disrupts the peace of the realm when the patriarch dies. Doomed by an inequitable tradition to be cremated alive, his widow, our intrepid protagonist, is thrust into a forbidding darkness – thus spawning a thriller of intrigue, self-discovery, and destiny. A big fan of SBWC, Vish credits it with playing a pivotal role in shaping his writing life.

Marilee Zdenek is is the author of Lying Still an intriguing story about the dangerous relationship between psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Favre, and a family of three women: one, the woman he loved; one, the woman he killed; and one with a journal that could destroy him. This is Zdenek’s first novel. She’s the author of 8 nonfiction books, including The Right-Brain Experience: An Intimate Program to Free the Powers of Your Imagination, an LA Times bestseller. An international speaker and coach, she lives in Santa Barbara and has taught at SBWC for more than 20 years.