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The Year of Your Book: Mystery


“Who Dunnit? How? And Why?”

These are the basic questions underlying the Mystery novel. For the reader, the fun is to be carried along on the wild ride for the answers to these questions, and the challenge is to answer the questions before the narrative does. But for the writer the challenge is greater, to create a world that is morally disordered by murder, and to investigate the denizens of that world, their society, their laws, their beliefs, their desires, loves and passions, their losses and gains, in order to bring to life the tensions and betrayals that make up the world we live and love in—the world in which the ultimate betrayal of murder rips the fabric of society.

The sturdy bones of the mystery novel allow a rich array of literary realizations. Students will learn conventions, contemporary expectations and demands of the genre, as well as the creation of character, plot, setting, mood, voice, suspense, pacing, and other narrative necessities. All these carry over extremely well into any other fictional mode.

These courses may be taken altogether or à la carte.

Round Table & Launch Party
Saturday, 1/10/2015 4–10 p.m.
This is a free round table discussion for all genres followed by the launch party. Please see the event page here for more information.

1/15/2015–2/19/2015, 6 Thursdays, 1–3 p.m.
This is part 1 of a 6 section year-long course. This class is capped at 9 students

3/05/2015–4/09/2015, 6 Thursdays, 1–3 p.m.
This is part 2 of a 6 section year-long course.

4/23/2015–5/28/2015, 6 Thursdays, 1–3 p.m.
This is part 3 of a 6 section year-long course.

7/08/2015–7/09/2015, 2 days, 12–4 p.m.
This is part 4 of a 6 section year-long course. Please note that these dates are tentative and will be confirmed as summer session approaches.

9/24/2015–10/29/2015, 6 Thursdays, 1–3 p.m.
This is part 5 of a 6 section year-long course.

11/12/2015–12/17/2015, 6 Thursdays, 1–3 p.m.
This is part 6 of a 6 section year-long course.

Joanne Dobson

Joanne Dobson is a novelist, a retired Fordham University English Professor, and a long-time fiction teacher and workshop leader at HVWC. Her most recent book is The Kashmiri Shawl, a historical novel published in 2014.

Author of the Professor Karen Pelletier mystery series, she has, more recently, co-authored with Bev Myers Face of the Enemy, a novel set in WWII New York City. This year, at their Benefit Gala, the Hudson Valley Writers Center honored her as writer, teacher, and scholar.

Event Location and Ticket Information

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Hudson Valley Writers’ Center
300 Riverside Drive
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591
Handicap Accessible? Yes

Date: Thursday, January 15, 2015 - Thursday, February 19, 2015
Times: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Ticket pricing:

Get tickets now
$295 - Members
$320 - Non-Members

Presenter: Joanne Dobson
Presenter Phone: (914) 332-5953