Sisters in Crime



Quenda Story
    President of the Internet Chapter
    of Sisters in Crime

Quenda Story Photo
This month the Spotlight Profile's guest is Quenda Story, President of the Internet Chapter of Sisters in Crime. The interview was conducted on September 8-9, 1997 by Louise Guardino for the Internet Chapter (IC). Quenda, who writes a monthly column on legal issues in the construction industry, is a published author of two nonfiction books and co-author of a third. She adroitly picked up the presidential challenge and charged forward. Still, she retained a sense of humor. Quenda, a frequent winner of Barbara Paul's literary trivia contests, has also found time to work on some essays and crime fiction. From one of Quenda's essays:

My first foray into good causes was in 1962 at a civil rights sit-in and I've been on the front lines every since. On my good days I feel like a citizen soldier for civilization. On my bad days, I feel one of the final four candidates for an aluminum-foil plated Lifetime Spent Tilting At Windmills award.

IC
In light of the passage above, and since you are President of the Internet Chapter of Sisters in Crime, (SinC) do you, then, consider SinC one of the good causes?
Quenda
Do I consider SinC one of the good causes? Absolutely. I assume you mean that in the global sense, not in the sense of my involvement. You can see SinC is a good cause by looking at their achievements: Women were always a part of the mystery scene, but never got the recognition, money and awards that they have after the formation of of SinC.
IC
Yes, I meant in the global sense. Is there a difference in your association with the Internet Chapter of SinC now that you are its president?
Quenda
As a member, I just sat back and enjoyed myself. As President, I'm finding that there's a lot going on in SinC that I wasn't all that aware of. I also find that, as President, I have to constantly remember that I represent the members' opinions, not just my own.

By a "lot going on", I mean in the nuts and bolts sense. How do you keep people who are spread all over the globe in contact? How do you make decisions that affect them all?

IC
Many of the visitors to the Spotlight Profile are here for the first time. What can you tell them as both a member and as President that would convey the flavor of the Internet Chapter?
Quenda
The flavor of the internet? Well this morning the flavor is rage and frustration. [IC: Sunday, 9/7/97 , the net was slow.] On a good morning, it's instant communication with people who are doing the same thing you are. It's an expanded feeling of community that's difficult to get with just a newsletter. Mind you, I'm not knocking the newsletter. But it's not as personal as an opportunity to e-mail someone who has been in the same position as you and can give you some good advice, or at least some words of comfort--or if nothing else, laugh about it with you.
IC
What has been the most challenging aspect to being President?
Quenda
Okay, the most challenging aspect of being President. That's easy. Our change from Genie to a Web site took place in my tenure. I am totally techno-challenged. I had never even visited a web site until I had visited ours.

I had enormous trouble just figuring out how to do this web stuff. You have to understand that I avoid learning experiences wherever possible, and didn't learn any web stuff until I found myself caught in it, so to speak.

IC
But you are learning. If that's all, then you are certainly ahead of the game. What has been the most fun?
Quenda
What has been the most fun? Well, it took me a while to see it as potential fun, but now that I've adjusted to the idea that I'd better be at Bouchercon, I'm looking forward to it.
IC
And for those who don't know--Bouchercon is a mystery convention for fans, authors and all interested in mystery. How will your attendance there relate to the SinC Internet Chapter?
Quenda
Bouchercon is the occasion for one of the two annual meetings of SinC's National Steering Committee (although they have phone conferences and stuff like that in the interim). The other meeting is at Malice [Domestic].

Our switch from Genie to Lit-Arts seemed to have brought a lot of problems to a head. For example, just how much autonomy does each chapter have. Answer is not much, National sets the policy and guidelines for chapters. The problem that presents is--okay, exactly what are the rules and procedures we have to follow? Those rules etc. are not in writing!

The other problem is that National was not set up to accommodate on-line activities. Those activities don't easily fit into a chapter template. For example, where is it that we are, geographically speaking?

The other problem that has nothing to do with our cyberspace techno-problems is what kind of organization should SinC be, now that it has made so much progress on its original goals?

IC
That puts you and the chapter in the forefront as regards the form of a chapter, what constitutes a chapter, and how the new tools may be used to our advantage. Any ideas that you want to reveal to the public about where you'd like to see SinC going or perhaps the direction that would be most advantageous?
Quenda
We suggest the formation of a Grievance Committee, to aid any writer with a legitimate grievance against an agent or a publisher -- contract violations, royalties due that don't get paid, pirated works that are published abroad, etc.

And there are certain dangerous publishing policies that the individual writer is helpless to combat but an organization with clout might well curtail, such as Bantam's new policy of paying a flat fee (no royalties) for tie-in books or Random House's retaining all electronic rights (no negotiation). MWA won't do it; other writers' associations will never do it. So it's up to us. [IC: MWA=Mystery Writers of America]

We're also suggesting that it would be helpful to everybody if policies that have been adopted by the National Steering Committee were in writing and readily available to the chapters.

IC
An aggressive plateful I'd say. And you plan to broach these issues at your meeting with SinC National Steering Committee during Bouchercon in October?
Quenda
We are also going to be, probably, we are still discussing it, strongly urging that policies be put together allowing the formation of other internet groups.

We're broaching these issues before Bouchercon. We're putting together a packet with our new (hopefully by then adopted) IC Chapter by-laws, our complaints about the process, and our suggestions and forwarding this packet to SinC officers about the middle of September for their input, before we send the whole package off to Kansas for inclusion in their Bouchercon meeting packets.

By "before Bouchercon," I mean we're starting the process in advance of that convention. We don't want to scare them :)

IC
Policies? Do you mean clearing away any of the stumbling blocks this chapter encountered so that new internet chapters can form without administrative problems?
Quenda
Well, I don't mean that there shouldn't be hoops to jump through. It's important that chapters conform to the National purpose and direction. What I would like to see is an articulated and clear process for internet chapter formation . A process that reflects some of the internet aspects that aren't mechanically the same as a potential Des Moines Chapter would have.
IC
Why do you think there might be a need for additional Internet-based chapters?
Quenda
Well, I wouldn't say there was a "need" for another internet chapter, but there is a demand for one. The CompuServe people, for example, would like to establish their own chapter and there may be other people out there just dying to set up the New Jersey Internet Chapter or whatever. If it isn't possible to do it, we'll probably never know the parameters of the demand.
IC
Why not one Internet Chapter?
Quenda
Why not only one? Good question. I can think of some good arguments about why there should be only one, but I guess in the end, the answer is that there are people who want to form another chapter, and why shouldn't they be allowed to do so..
IC
How would you characterize the members of our Internet Chapter? Staid? Funny? Indescribable?
Quenda
Oh, witty, insightful, all sorts of good things. Participating in our chapter, here and on Genie has been one of the better things in my life. We have members who I feel incredibly close to, especially when you think that if they came to my front door, I wouldn't recognize them.

Thoughtful pause. Actually what I wanted to say is that it's too bad we've been so tied up in the problems we've had with National, because it's kind of replaced some of the terrific discussion that used to go on, but once we get some of these other problems out of the way, we will get back to good stuff like gossiping.

IC
If they came to your front door, you might just run in the other direction. :-) Come Bouchercon you may have an opportunity to put some faces to names.
To your creative side: You've written some nonfiction and, as mentioned above, are working on some essays, but how about fiction?
Quenda
Aha, fiction. Yeah. I've published about eleven short stories, even won prizes (one) for them, but I can't give away my book length manuscript. I thought for a long time that my problem was that I was doing something in my short stories that I wasn't doing in my novels, but Jane Chelius who might be schlepping my latest effort around, said, no, the problem was a lack of context. I write, she said, like everybody knows what the place looks like.
IC
If she's schlepping it around then it must have promise. Where would you place your writing on a continuum from hardboiled (bloody and tough) to cozy (violence offstage and civilian sleuth) with humorous closer to cozy than hardboiled?
Quenda
Okay, where would I put my mystery. Not bloody, definitely not bloody. Money and character are what interest me most.

I'm big on corporate criminals.

IC
Money as a motivator? Or money that might come your way as a blockbuster author?

Oops. I see you answered: money as a character (big corp moguls) motivator.

Quenda
Actually both, heh, heh. I'd love to make some big bucks. Hell, I'd settle for little bucks. If my book gets published and you buy a copy, I'll come to your house and read it to you.

But also, I'm a great believer in the adage about a crime behind every fortune.

IC
Can you reveal the setting (this place we all should know) to us or shall we wait until the book comes out?
Quenda
The setting, ah yes. It moves back and forth between inner city Detroit where I used to live to the clean bland suburbs where I live now.

I like the suburbs better. What's even more fun is finding out some of the things that go on around here! But the interesting part is once you get to know these people you see the same problems you see everywhere--they're just more comfortable in their misery here.

Have you read any of Jon Katz's books about the "suburban detective"?

IC
No, I haven't read Katz's books. Do you write in a similar vein?
Quenda
No, I wouldn't say I write in a similar vein exactly, but to some extent a similar setting.
IC
How would you characterize your writing experience: more work than fun, vice-versa, or evenly balanced?
Quenda
I started out thinking that of course I could write a book. I was supremely confident. Now that I am beginning to know what I'm doing, I'm discovering it's damned hard work! But, still I don't want to do anything else. (Personally I think this compulsion to write despite lack of recognition, money or anything else represents something strange and compulsive. That's why I like SinC so much. I get to meet a lot of other strange and compulsive people. :)

Lots of compulsion there, huh?

IC
The mark of a compulsive person! heh! :)
Quenda
Us compulsives gotta stick together.
IC
You are also a literary trivia Queen. How do you come by that expertise?
Quenda
I have a highly retentive memory and I read a lot.

Winning all those trivia games was great for my ego, because sometimes I'm sensitive about my education. Some of the schools I attended were less than great, and I feel that I'm not educated in the way I'd like to be. Ah well, that's what books are for.

IC
Formal education is a beginning. What one does afterwards is what makes the difference. You have gone the extra miles.

I believe that tonight you have also become less web-intimidated than you were when we began. Another great learning experience. As a last question, is there anything you'd like to say to the visitor who happens to drop by the Spotlight Profile? Anything at all?

Quenda
I'd like to urge anybody who drops by to check in with the web sister and join us. We're a great bunch.
End


I found out the next day that at the time of this interview, Quenda was feeling under the weather. In fact, she later suffered the worst of a flu's effects. Could it have been my questions? Heh heh. So, please, give her a hand for being a brave, suffering soul, putting up with me, the intricacies of a chat room, and the flu. Comments? Questions? Click on the names below to e-mail the participants. Thanks for stopping by!

Quenda Story Louise Guardino

To see previous Spotlight Profiles, click here.

Questions about the chapter? Write to Prez@sinc-ic.org .
Questions about the web site? Write to WebSister@sinc-ic.org .

Unless otherwise specified, all content is copyright © 2002 Sisters in Crime, Internet Chapter.