She Can Do It: Real/'Reel' Women and Mid-Century Mysteries (Framingham Reads Together)
Join Massachusetts suspense authors Janet Raye Stevens and Sharon Healy-Yang for an engaging, multi-media event revealing some intriguing inspirations for creating a mystery set circa WWII. Using film clips, anecdotes, and excerpts from their books, Janet and Sharon will talk about 1940s women in real as well as reel life and how these smart, stylish, and wise-cracking gals in books and film inspired their own 1940s-set mysteries. If you love mysteries, movies, and lots of banter, don’t miss it!
Sharon Healy Yang: Former Worcester State University English professor Sharon Healy Yang is a huge fan of the wit and dark suspense of mystery films and books of the golden era. That passion inspired the National Indie Excellence Awards finalist Bait and Switch, set in 1943, and the sequels: the noir-inflected Letter from a Dead Man and Always Play the Dark Horse. Sharon's Jessica Minton series features a sharp, witty lead who's ripe for romance, even if it's mixed with espionage, deception, or murder. Sharon Healy Yang
Janet Raye Stevens: Meet Janet Raye Stevens, mom, reader, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and author of smart, stealthy romantic tales. A Derringer Award finalist for the WWII-set short "The Vanishing Volume," featuring plucky librarian Emily Applegate, and winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award for A Moment After Dark, set in Dec. 1941, Janet writes short stories and novel-length mysteries, paranormal, time travel, and the occasional holiday romance with humor, heart, and a dash of suspense. Janet Raye Stevens