The 2023 - 2024 Board
Leah Price
President
Leah Price has served in a wide variety of roles during her working career—from baker, to FBI program manager, to newspaper columnist. Writing as Leah St. James, she draws on these experiences to fuel her stories of good and evil, mystery and suspense, and the redeeming power of love.
A member of Sisters in Crime, Central Virginia Chapter, and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Leah is a native of the Central Jersey Shore but recently retired to the Richmond area with her husband.
Heather Weidner
Vice President and Program Chair
Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Jules Keene Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, and the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.
Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and her novellas appear in The Mutt Mysteries series.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Judy Chalkley
Treasurer and Membership Chair
J. A. Chalkley is a native Virginian. She is a writer, retired public safety communications officer, and a member of Sisters in Crime.
K. L. Murphy
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Secretary
K.L. Murphy is the author of Her Sister’s Death (Dec. 2022) as well as the Detective Cancini Mystery Series: A Guilty Mind, Stay of Execution, and The Last Sin. Her short stories are featured in Deadly Southern Charm and Murder by the Glass. A member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, and James River Writers, she makes her home in Richmond, Virginia. When she’s not writing, she loves to vacation at the beach, read, entertain friends, walk her amazing dogs, and catch up on everything else she ignored.
Committees
Social Media - Website, Facebook, Virtual Meetings
Heather Weidner
Heather Weidner writes the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, the Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. Her short stories and novellas have appeared in a variety of anthologies (including the three for our chapter).
She has been a member of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia since she saw an ad in the paper for a new writers’ group in Richmond. The team, under the leadership of Nancy Newins and Meredith Cole, decided to form a chapter and applied to National.
Through the years, Heather has served the chapter as Secretary, Vice President, President, Anthology Chair, Programming Chair, Web Maven, and Chair of the Social Media Team. She lives in Midlothian with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Social Media - Instagram
Maggie King
Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries. Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, Death by Cupcake, and Murder by the Glass.
Maggie is a member of James River Writers, International Thriller Writers, Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a founding member of Sisters in Crime Central Virginia, where she manages the chapter’s Instagram account. In addition, she serves Sisters in Crime on the national level as a member of the Social Media team. She is a contributing author for the Writers in Residence blog.
Maggie graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Business Administration, and has worked as a software developer, customer service supervisor, and retail sales manager. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Glen, and cats, Morris and Olive. Website
Critique Group Lead
Sandie Warwick
S. E. “Sandie” Warwick got hooked on mysteries watching the Masterpiece Theater adaptation of the Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey stories. Since then, she’s read widely in the genre including cozies, police procedurals, true crime, and thrillers. She’s been a member of Sisters in Crime Central Virginia for years. Following a stint as a reporter on a small-town newspaper, she continues to follow and blog about local government. She contributed a short story to Deadly Southern Charm.
Anthology Coordinator
TBD
