Islanders will have an opportunity to hear America’s foremost true crime writer, Ann Rule, in a free presentation Friday, sponsored by the Whidbey Island Writers’ Conference. The conference itself, to be held this weekend, is now full, with 250 attendees coming to the island.

Rule, a former Seattle policewoman, is the author of 1,400 articles and 17 books, including “The Stranger Beside Me,” the story of serial killer Ted Bundy, and the newly published “Every Breath You Take,” whose victim herself asked before she died that Rule write her story.

“It was a command performance,” Rule said.

A former Seattle policewoman, Rule was introduced early to law enforcement. She was the granddaughter of a Michigan sheriff. Her uncle was also a sheriff. Her cousin was a prosecuting attorney and another uncle was the medical examiner.

“I spent literally every summer in jail,” she said. “It was a mom and pop jail. The living quarters, jail and office were all in the same building. I used to help my grandmother cook for the prisoners.”

Rule attended the University of Washington and graduated with a B.A. in creative writing and minors in psychology, criminology and penology. She studied crime scene investigation, police administration, arrest, search and seizure.

“After I became a policewoman, I went to trials from Vancouver B.C. to Eugene, Ore.,” she said.

Rule first began writing for “the Sunday papers,” and then for True Detective magazine. “I wrote two stories a week, 10,000 words each,” she said.

The first book she published was the story of Northwest serial killer Ted Bundy, “The Stranger Beside Me.”

“He was a friend,” Rule said. “We worked together in a crisis center. I didn’t believe it for years. It was my first book, and I was personally involved.”

Rule said she had contracted for the book in 1975.

“But I couldn’t finish it, until six months later I got a letter from Bundy himself,” she said.

Ted Bundy was executed in Raiford Prison in Starke, Fla., in January 1989. The 20th anniversary paperback edition of “The Stranger Beside Me,” now available, has a copy of his personal letter to Rule.

The case of Ted Bundy is characteristic of those Rule chooses as subjects for her books.

“I’ll go through 500 cases looking for one that is complicated but solved, whose anti-hero is brilliant, charismatic, popular, usually seen to be the epitome of success. And it’s all a mask for the anti-social person inside.”

They often design their own persona, she said, “like Blackthorne in ‘Shogun.'”

Another of Rule’s anti-heroes, Scott Skurlock, was recently profiled in a segment of “48 Hours” on CBS, whose staff interviewed Rule in her home in Seattle. Rule’s book “End of the Dream” tells the story of the “Hollywood” bank robber of 1990s Seattle who lived in Seven Cedars, a three-story tree house he built in Thurston County, Wash.

Skurlock, whose looks and smile reminded people of Mel Gibson, attracted friends all around him, Rule said.

“He was like the man every woman would want to date, at least once,” Rule said on “48 Hours.”

Now, Rule will write the book about the Green River murders, following the arrest of Gary Leon Ridgeway, whose DNA has been positively matched to some of the 50-plus victims.

She writes in a Web newsletter (www.annrules.com) that she has been saving research on the Green River murders for 19 years, “believing that the day would come when the tragic cases would be solved.”

“People will tell me things, and I’ll talk to the police,” Rule said. “I’ve stayed closely connected to the case; in fact I lived near Ridgeway in Des Moines.”

As in all her books, Rule will tell the stories of the victims, the detectives and prosecutors, and the killer. She tries to go back to the killer’s early childhood, she said, and even back into their family histories to find some of the genesis of their behavior.

Rule spends months researching her books, beginning with the trial and with many subsequent visits to the locale where the crimes occurred. She has attended the King County Police Basic Homicide School as well as every seminar police organizations invite her to, including those on organized crime, arson, bomb search, DNA.

She herself teaches seminars to law enforcement groups on subjects such as serial murder, sadistic sociopaths, women who kill, and high profile offenders. She was on the U.S. Justice Department Task Force that set up the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program now in place at FBI Headquarters in Quantico, a computer tracking system to help identify and trap serial killers. And she has testified twice before Senate judiciary subcommittees on victims’ rights and on the danger of serial killers.

She is active in support groups for victims of violent crimes and their families, in the YWCA program to help battered and abused women, and in Childhelp and Childhaven, support groups for children.

Two of Rule’s books have been made into miniseries, and more are in the works. She won the coveted Peabody Award for her miniseries, “Small Sacrifices,”and has been nominated twice for Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America.

She sends out a free newsletter about twice a year by e-mail, or by regular mail to anyone requesting one at P.O. Box 98846 Seattle, WA 98198 or annrule@annrules.com.

Rule will be one of 43 presenters at the Whidbey Island Writers’ Conference. Also on the program will be authors Leslie Rule, Ann’s daughter, and Donna Anders, a friend of Ann.

Leslie Rule has recently published her fourth book, “Coast to Coast Ghosts — True Stories of Hauntings Across America.” She and her husband, Kevin Wagner, have personally researched haunted houses all over America and tracked them to their source, Ann Rule said.

“Leslie would often accompany me to trials,” she said. “I’d be inside listening to witnesses and she would be in the cemeteries researching her books.”

Anders’ newest psychological suspense thriller, “Dead Silence,” was published in September. Anders is also the author of “Flower Man” and “Another Life.”

Rule says she has never become inured to the crime and tragedy she writes about.

“I always meet more good people, so many heroes, family, cops. The good so far has outweighed the bad.”

She also enjoys the sometimes arduous book tours (18 cities in 30 days).

“Writing is lonesome,” she said, “It’s good to get out and meet the people who read your books.”

Rule herself reads biographies, autobiographies, and books on medical science. Her favorite authors include Anne Tyler, Garrison Keillor, John Updike, Erma Bombeck, Donna Anders, “and of course, Leslie Rule.”

She has two dogs and five cats at last count. She loves to garden, and collects “way too many things,” including antique bottles and pill boxes, miniature cars, cobalt blue glass and police paraphernalia.

She also says she is still working on her rather unusual dollhouse — a house of ill repute.