ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vinnie Hansen fled the South Dakota prairie for the California coast the day after graduating high school.
Her eventual home in Santa Cruz serves as the backdrop for most of her Carol Sabala mystery series. Black Beans & Venom, the seventh and latest installment (misterio press), was a Claymore Award finalist and also received a B.R.A.G. Medallion.
But Vinnie loves to write short stories as well. Her story Novel Solution appears in Fish or Cut Bait (Wildside Press). With a home in a tourist mecca, Vinnie couldn’t resist writing Critical Mass, her story in Destination: Mystery! which was reprinted in Santa Cruz Weird. Other stories have been published in Santa Cruz Noir, Porter Gulch Review, Transfer Literary Magazine, Lake Region Review, phren-Z, Web Mystery Magazine, Crime & Suspense, and Mysterical-E. Her 2019 publications included stories in the NorCal Sisters in Crime’s first anthology, Fault Lines, and the fifth anthology from the Sisters in Crime Guppies, Fishy Business. Her latest piece is the creative non-fiction work Geography Lessons in the Winter 2021 issue of Catamaran Literary Reader (published in December, 2020).
In 2015 her short short Bad Connection won the Police Writers’ Academy’s coveted Gold Donut.
Presentations
Invite Vinnie Hansen to present to your reading group or club! In addition to her book readings, Vinnie has extensive experience speaking to reading groups and to organizations such as the AAUW, the Soroptimists, and Delta Kappa Gamma Zeta Chi. Vinnie has also participated on panels at Left Coast Crime, High Desert Crimes, Killer Nashville, and Litquake.
Vinnie has spoken on topics ranging from the writing process to self-publishing, small-press publishing and e-publishing.
E-mail Vinnie Hansen to schedule an event.
Event Album
- With Lou Berney, my new favorite suspense writer and winner of the Lefty for Best Mystery Novel. Left Coast Crime, Vancouver, 2019
- Launching Lostart Street at Bookshop Santa Cruz June 8, 2017.
- With Allen Eskens at Left Coast Crime, March, 2017.
- At Book Passage, March, 2015, with Elin Barnes and Judith Janeway.
- Vinnie signing books at Inklings & Things October, 2012. Check out this cute bookstore!
- Vinnie’s launch reading for Death with Dessert, Capitola Book Cafe, 2009
- Vinnie speaking at the Capitola Book Cafe, August, 2005.
- Reading with Santa Cruz Noir Peeps at Borderlands Books in 2018.
- On the air with Bruce Bratton, KZSC, June 6, 2017.
- Vinnie Hansen, Katherine Hyde, and Mary Feliz (left to right) ready to present to the AAUW (February, 2017).
- Vinnie with her Left Coast Crime 2014 panel mates: Laurie Stevens, Sherry Joyce, William E. Wallace (seated), and Michael Cooper (standing).
- Vinnie at phren-Z reading, Capitola Book Cafe, May, 2012
- Vinnie on her panel at Left Coast Crime, March, 2007.
- Capitola Book Cafe, August, 2005.
- With my Santa Cruz Women of Mystery buddies, Peggy Townsend, Mary Feliz, Leslie Karst, and Katherine Bolger Hyde at LCC 2018 in Reno.
- My solo event promoting Santa Cruz Noir in October, 2018
- Hawking my wares at Bay Area Book Festival June, 2017
- Learning defensive moves at the Writer’s Police Academy August, 2016
- Ready to sign at Chefworks October, 2014
- Vinnie at the Sisters in Crime Spring Soiree, 2009
- Vinnie with John Steinbeck at the reading of her winning piece in the Santa Cruz Reads Adult Fiction Contest
- Vinnie busy at a book signing hosted
by Bookshop Santa Cruz, April, 2003