Demystifying the Cookbook Proposal from an Agent's Perspective. Learn how to create a cookbook proposal that gets attention — and even a book deal — from an experienced agent and former book editor. 

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One-hour Zoom presentation by Jen Newens, followed by about 30 minutes of Q&A with the audience. (Zoom link will be live shortly before the event begins on 11/14.)

Nearly 21 years after her 11-year-old son Jacob was abducted at gunpoint in 1989 while riding his bike home from a video rental store, Patty Wetterling had begun to fear that police might never solve the case—then part-time blogger Joy Baker got involved

Nearly 34 years ago, the abduction of an 11-year-old boy from a dark road in rural Minnesota terrified the community and went on to become one of the biggest mysteries in the state's history.

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Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint a half-mile from his St. Joseph home just after 9 p.m. on Oct. 22, 1989. He was never seen alive again.

Saturday morning started off slow for Kathy Kleiner Rubin.

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The 20-year-old Florida State University student was nursing a hangover after partying with a friend the night before.

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However, by the afternoon, she was attending a wedding followed by a potluck dinner at a friend’s home. She decided to make it a relatively early night and returned to the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee to study for a calculus test she had on Monday.

Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy murdered at least 30 women between 1974 and 1978, and Kathy Kleiner Rubin was just seconds from becoming another victim.

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Kleiner Rubin, now 65, narrowly escaped Bundy when he broke into Florida State University's Chi Omega house and killed sorority sisters Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman in their beds during the early morning hours of Jan. 15, 1978.

Second acts signify a major shift in the story of our lives—personal, professional, or both. I used to be this and now I am going to be that. But second acts don’t just happen to us—we can script, stage, and direct them. This is reinvention, empowered by intention. 

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​I’ve navigated at least two second acts throughout my writing career: from journalist to communications consultant, nonfiction author to novelist—not to mention some personal upheavals along the way. In my latest second act, I found my voice and stretched myself in a new direction as a mystery writer—at the age of 63. 

In Geri Spieler's compelling narrative, "Housewife Assassin," we are taken on a journey that transcends time and geography. This story is a nuanced exploration of the intricate network of the U.S. government's security apparatus, exposing hidden flaws that threaten the very heart of our national security. 

A three-part docuseries on Sundance Now and AMC+ explores the life of Rose Dugdale, who broke from her upper-crust origins to become an activist, art thief and IRA bomber.

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Journalists and authors, among them David Davin-Power and Dugdale biographer Anthony Amore (“The Woman Who Stole Vermeer”) put her later crimes in perspective.

Dugdale ended up in London, where she took up with left-winger Wally Heaton. “Walter and Rose meet at a union protest and they strike it off immediately and they become like Velcro,” says author Anthony Amore. “They’re inseparable. They’re together all the time. Although he’s still living with his wife and children, he’s taken up an extramarital relationship with Rose Dugdale when the two become lovers.”

This October, near the anniversary of Jacob's abduction and killing, the Minnesota Historical Society Press will publish the memoir Wetterling and Baker wrote together, a behind-the-scenes look at a crime that shaped the state and the mother who refused to let it steal her hope, her kindness or her marriage.

For 13 years, a pair of the famous ruby red slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" was missing. Valued today at $3.5 million, the shoes were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the actress's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Over the past two decades, the theft launched an investigation from the FBI and inspired a podcast, documentary and several true crime sleuths to speculate on the mystery of the red shoes.

Today's Agent Spotlight is with Jen Newens of Martin Literary Management. As fate would have it, Jen IS doing a giveaway with this Spotlight interview--oh, how we love agent giveaways...but don't scroll to the bottom like a Neanderthal just to enter the giveaway. We are not Neanderthals here. You will read every.