Our Authors

Non-Fiction | Commercial Fiction | Romance

Non-Fiction

KEN ARMSTRONG is an investigative reporter at The Seattle Times. He previously worked at the Chicago Tribune, where he co-wrote six series on criminal justice issues, including an investigation of capital cases that helped prompt the Illinois governor to suspend executions and then empty Death Row. Armstrong has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and the McGraw Professor in Writing at Princeton University. His work in Chicago, with fellow reporter Steve Mills, is featured in Bruce Shapiro's book, Shaking the Foundations: 200 years of Investigative Journalism in America. He has twice won the George Polk Award and is a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His other awards include the Worth Bingham; IRE; ASNE Distinguished Writing Award; Silver Gavel; Scripps Howard Public Service, SDX Public Service and the Casey Medal.

His book, with co-author Nick Perry, Scoreboard, Baby shows how a community's blind embrace of a college football team compromised judges, prosecutors, police agencies, a proud university and the media. Armstrong lives in Seattle with his wife and two children.

MELBA PATTILLO BEALS is one of the Little Rock Nine. At 15, Melba Pattillo and 8 other black students faced the wrath of segragionists and the Govenor of Arkansas to become the first black students to enter Central High School. The civil rights battle which erupted rocked this country, put the world on edge and set Melba's life forever on a different course. She faced angry, rampant killer mobs and renegade police who forced then-President Eisenhower to send combat-ready soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division to protect the lives of the nine students. In 1998, for their courage and self-sacrifice, the Congress of the United States awarded the Little Rock Nine America's top civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. Other recipients of this rarely given honor - just over 300 in the history of the nation - include President George Washington, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison, Bob Hope, Walt Disney, President Harry S. Truman, General Colin Powell and Mother Teresa.

Melba worked as a news reporter for San Francisco's public television station, KQED, and for the NBC affiliate, KRON-TV. She has written numerous articles for periodicals including People, Essence, and the San Francisco Examiner. Her bestselling books that chronicle her experiences, Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock Central High School and its sequel White is a State of Mind: Freedom is Yours to Choose have provided inspirational reading for millions. Her bestselling primer on public relations Expose Yourself: Using The Power of Public Relations to Promote Your Business and Yourself is an acknowledged industry reference. Photo: Brandon Davis.

ELI BERMAN is an associate professor of economics at UC San Diego and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests include economic development and conflict, the economics of religion, labor economics, technological change, economic demography, and applied econometrics. Recent grants from the National Science Foundation (2002 and 2005) have enabled him to look closely at relationships between religion and fertility from an economic standpoint.

His latest publications are "Religion, Terrorism, and Public Goods: Testing the Club Model" (with David Laitin) in the Journal of Public Economics (2008), and "The Economics of Religion," in the New Palgrave Encyclopedia of Economics (with Laurence Iannaccone). Berman received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. His book Radical, Religious and Violent: The New Economics of Terrorism is forthcoming in Fall 2009 from the MIT Press.

DR. JO BOALER is the Marie Curie Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Sussex. Prior to this, she was a professor at Stanford University, California where she was also the chair of the Curriculum and Teacher Education area group. Professor Boaler is a former secondary school teacher of mathematics and has taught in diverse, inner London comprehensive schools, across the 11-18 age range. Her PhD won the national award for educational research in the UK, and she is the author of numerous articles and six books. Professor Boaler specializes in the impact of different mathematics teaching approaches upon student understanding, achievement and equity. Her book: Experiencing School Mathematics won the 'Outstanding Book of the Year' award for education in Britain. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), a former president of the International Organisation for Women and Mathematics Education (IOWME) and a recipient of an 'Early Career Award' from the National Science Foundation in the US.

Her recent book What's Math Got to Do With It? (Viking/Penguin 2008) aims to increase public understanding of the importance of mathematics, and the nature of teaching and learning. She is currently working with members of the British Government and with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust to bring effective research based approaches into schools. Please visit her website at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/profile205572.html.

DR. WALTER M. BORTZ II is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and a graduate of Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Recognized as one of America’s most distinguished scientific experts on aging and longevity, Dr. Walter Bortz's research has focused on the importance of physical exercise in the promotion of robust aging. Dr. Bortz has published over 130 medical articles and authored numerous books, including 100 Healthy Years, We Live Too Short and Die Too Long, Dare to Be 100, and Living Longer for Dummies, and Diabetes Danger. Dr. Bortz is past co-chairman of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Aging, former President of The American Geriatric Society and is currently Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, as well as a Senior Advisor to Healthy Silicon Valley, a community collaborative effort which addresses the soaring incidence of obesity and diabetes.

KAY BRATT a mother of two daughters, is an author and advocate of orphans in China. After founding a volunteer group and working in a Chinese orphanage for over four years, Kay was inspired to publish her memoir, Silent Tears; A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage. Her book will be published with Amazon Encore in early 2010. Utilizing her platform of readers, Kay continues to raise awareness and advocate for children in China’s orphanages. In China, Kay was honored with the 2006 Pride of the City award for the humanitarian work she did on behalf of orphans. Now residing in the United States, Kay brings the adoption community together to meet the needs of waiting children in China and is the founder of the Mifan Mommy Club, an online group of individuals who provide rice for children in Chinese orphanages. Visit http://www.kaybratt.com.

DR. HARRY BROD is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of Superman is Jewish?: How Comic Book Superheroes Came to Serve Truth, Justice and the Jewish-American Way (Free Press / Simon & Schuster 2011) and White Men Challenging Racism: 35 Personal Stories, co-authored with Cooper Thompson and Emmett Schaefer (Duke 2003). Brod is also the editor of The Making of Masculinities: The New Men's Studies (Routledge, 1987) and A Mensch Among Men: Explorations in Jewish Masculinity (Crossing Press, 1988), co-editor of The Legacy of the Holocaust: Children and the Holocaust (Jagiellonian University Press, 2002) and (with Michael Kaufman) Theorizing Masculinities (Sage, 1994), and author of Hegel's Philosophy of Politics: Idealism, Identity and Modernity (Westview, 1992).

Dr. Brod is the Director of the Iowa Regent Universities Men's Gender Violence Prevention Institute, and a member of the Board of Directors of Humanities Iowa. He recently served as a member of the Iowa Governor's Task Force for Responsible Fatherhood, as well as the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Public Philosophy, and held a Fellowship in Law and Philosophy at Harvard Law School. He is a child of Holocaust survivors and a child of the 60's. Both heritages shape his commitments to justice, much of which he has expressed in over twenty years of teaching, writing, and activism. Brod is also the father of two children.

MARK CHANGIZI is a scientist with expertise in theoretical neurobiology, vision, cognitive science, and language. Born in 1969 and raised in Fairfax, Virginia, he attended the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, and then went on to the University of Virginia for a degree in physics and mathematics, and to the University of Maryland for a PhD in math. In 2002 he won a prestigious Sloan-Swartz Fellowship at Caltech, and since 2007 he has been an assistant professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

His research aims to grasp the ultimate foundations underlying why we think, feel and see as we do. Focusing on "why" questions, he has made important discoveries on why we see in color, why we see illusions, why we have forward-facing eyes, why letters are shaped as they are, why the brain is organized as it is, why animals have as many limbs and fingers as they do, and why the dictionary is organized as it is. He has more than thirty scientific journal articles, some of which have been covered in news venues such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, Time Magazine, Reuters, ABC News, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Scientific American, Wired, Discover Magazine and Live Science. He has written two books, THE VISION REVOLUTION (Benbella, 2009) and THE BRAIN FROM 25,000 FEET (Kluwer, 2003). Photo: Mark McCarty, Rensselaer.

Originally from Charleston, S.C., STUART H. COLEMAN moved to Hawaii in 1993, and he's been teaching, writing and surfing ever since. Coleman has taught at St. Alban's School, Punahou School, Iolani School, Hawaii Pacific University and the East-West Center. He is the author of the award-winning book Eddie Would Go (www.eddiewouldgo.com), and his writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Men's Journal, Salon.com, Sierra Magazine, Surfer's Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Honolulu Magazine, Hawaii Magazine and Charleston Magazine. Coleman currently works as the Hawaiian Islands Field Coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation (www.surfrider.org).

ANTHONY “TONY” DESTEFANO is a staff reporter covering New York City legal affairs and criminal justice for Newsday newspaper. He was part of a team of New York Newsday reporters who won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news while covering the crash of a subway train at Union Square. Prior to joining Newsday, Tony was a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal and Fairchild News Service. Tony has covered a wide range of legal related subjects, specializing in organized crime, white collar crime and immigration. As reporter at Newsday, and for a time as an assistant editor, he covered the trials of subway gunman Bernhard Goetz, mob bosses John Gotti and Joseph Massino, as well as the arrest and conviction of Bernard Madoff in history’s largest Ponzi scheme. In addition, Tony spent years researching and writing about human smuggling. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Ithaca College (Ithaca, N.Y.), a Master of Arts from Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) and a Juris Doctor from New York Law School (New York, N.Y.) He is an attorney and member of the New York State Bar.

Tony is the author of Gloria Estefan: The Pop Superstar From Tragedy to Triumph, (Dutton, 1997), Latino Folk Medicine: Healing Herbal Remedies From Ancient Traditions, (Ballantine, 2001) and The Last Godfather: Joseph Massino And The Fall of The Bonanno Crime Family, (Citadel Press, 2006), King of The Godfathers (Citadel Press, 2008) and The War On Human Trafficking: U.S. Policy Assessed (Rutgers University Press, 2008). Tony can be reached at his website, (www.tonydestefano.com).

PETER ECONOMY is a bestselling business author, developmental editor, publishing consultant, and ghostwriter with more than 50 books to his credit. His books include the bestselling Managing For Dummies (sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide, in more than 20 different languages), The SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology Company, Giving Back: Connecting You, Business, and Community, and many others.

For more than a decade, he has specialized in collaborating with thought leaders in a variety of different industries and organizations – from Fortune 100 businesses to universities to non-profits with national reach. As the Associate Editor for the Apex award-winning magazine Leader to Leader, Peter has worked closely with some of the nation’s top business thinkers, including Jim Collins, Frances Hesselbein, Peter Senge, Kellie McElhaney, Philippe Kahn, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Peter Georgescu, Wiliam Taylor and many others. Peter is also a member of the National Advisory Council of the Creativity Connection of the Arts and Business Council of Americans for the Arts, and serves on the board of SPORTS for Exceptional Athletes.

Our surveys indicate that the short term effects of being "too nice" in business include a reduction in profits by 8% with even more substantial long term results. RUSS EDELMAN, founder of Nice Guy Strategies, LLC (NGS), has long considered this an important topic. His experience as a business executive and serial entrepreneur, coupled with his own Nice Guy propensity, spurred his interest into how nice guys fare in the business world. Further research led him to formulate a practical framework of knowledge on the subject to help nice guys and their managers. In his new book, Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office (Portfolio/Penguin 2008), Russ shares 8 key strategies to help overly nice guys become "Effectively Nice."

Nice Guy Strategies, LLC is Russ's third business venture. In addition to serving as CEO of Corridor Consulting, Inc, Russ regularly speaks and writes on key business and technology trends for the finance and IT industries he serves. As a highly regarded analyst, he pushes the envelope in understanding, analyzing, and explaining key industry trends to global constituencies.

NORBERT EHRENFREUND has been a judge of the superior court for thirty-three years, now retired but still on active assignment. He was co-founder and chief trial attorney for Defenders Inc., forerunner of the Public Defenders office. Before co-founding Defenders Inc., Judge Ehrenfreund served for eight years as a deputy district attorney in San Diego. Law was Judge Ehrenfreund's second career. After serving in World War II in Europe as an artillery officer, he worked as a newspaper correspondent in Europe and covered portions of the Nuremberg trials. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, has a Masters degree in political science from Columbia University and a law degree from Stanford. He is the author of three books: You're the Jury; The Nuremberg Legacy, How the Nazi War Crimes Trials Changed the Course of History; and most recently, You Be the Judge.

PAUL FROESE is an Associate Professor at Baylor University and a Fellow of the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) who specializes in the sociology of religion. He has a MA in philosophy and completed his PhD in sociology at the University of Washington.

His first book, The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization (University of California Press), tells the story of how atheism, when taken to its extreme, can become as dogmatic and oppressive as any religious faith. He is also a co-Principle Investigator on the Baylor Religion Surveys Project, and he is the co-author of the forthcoming book Who Is Your God? How Our Diverse Views of God Are Shaping America which investigates American images of God. Dr. Froese and his work have been featured on NPR, CNN, NBC, Time, Newsweek, and USA Today.

BJ GALLAGHER is an inspirational author and speaker. BJ's international bestseller A Peacock in the Land of Penguins (Berrett-Koehler; third edition 2001), has sold over 300,000 copies in 22 languages. Her other books include Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Other Women (Conari 2002); YES Lives in the Land of NO: A Tale of Triumph Over Negativity (Berrett-Koehler 2006); Why Don't I Do the Things I Know Are Good for Me? (Berkley/Penguin 2009); It's Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been (Viva Editions/Cleis Press 2009). Her first children's book, What's the Matter with Henry? The True Tale of a Three-legged Cat, has won two awards: Best Gift Book of 2006 from the Cat Writers Association, and Best Humane Communication from the ASPCA.

BJ and her books have been featured on CBS Evening News with Bob Schieffer, the Today Show with Matt Lauer, Fox News, PBS, CNN, and other television and radio programs. She is quoted almost weekly in various newspapers, women's magazines, and websites, including: O the Oprah magazine, Redbook, Woman's World, Ladies Home Journal, First for Women, Woman's World, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Orlando Sentinel, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, CareerBuilder.com, MSNBC.com, ClubMom.com, SavvyMiss.com, among others. Contact: www.womenneed2know.com or www.peacockproductions.com or www.yeslivesinthelandofno.com or www.bjgallagher.com

EDITH B. GELLES is the author, most recently, of Abigail and John: Portrait of a Marriage (Morrow 2009). She is a historian of women with a focus on colonial America and is a senior scholar at Stanford's Clayman Institute for Gender Research (formerly the Center for Research on Women), her haven since 1983. Her first biography, The World of Abigail Adams received the American Historical Association's Herbert Feis Award in 1994. She has edited the letters of Abigail Levy Franks (1696-1756), the earliest corpus of letters that survive by any woman in Europe's western colonies. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals, including William and Mary Quarterly, New England Quarterly, American Quarterly and Psychohistory Review. She lives in Palo Alto, California with her husband and has two grown sons and a poodle.

DAVID HELVARG is President of the Blue Frontier Campaign (www.bluefront.org) and the author of four books, Blue Frontier, The War Against the Greens, 50 Ways to Save the Ocean and Rescue Warriors. He's editor of the Ocean and Coastal Conservation Guide, organizer of several ‘Blue Vision’ Summits for ocean activists, and winner of Coastal Living Magazine’s 2005 Leadership Award and the 2007 Herman Melville literary Award. Helvarg worked as a war correspondent in Northern Ireland and Central America, covered a range of issues from military science to the AIDS epidemic, and reported from every continent including Antarctica. An award-winning journalist, he produced more than 40 broadcast documentaries for PBS, The Discovery Channel, and others. His print work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, LA Times, Smithsonian, Popular Science, Sierra, and The Nation. He’s done radio work for Marketplace, AP radio, and Pacifica. He’s led workshops for journalists in Poland, Turkey, Tunisia, Slovakia and Washington DC. He is a licensed Private Investigator, body-surfer and scuba diver.

ALLEN M. HORNBLUM is a non-fiction author who tackles long-neglected and controversial subjects. His books have garnered considerable media attention and have been featured on Good Morning America, the CBS Evening News, CNN, the BBC, and scores of newspapers including the front page of the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. His book, Acres of Skin, is the definitive work on the history of American prison inmates as test subjects for human experimentation.

He is currently completing the first biography of Atom Bomb spy, Harry Gold. Yale University Press will publish the book entitled, Requiem for a Secret Agent, in 2010.

PETER ISLER has been involved in every America's Cup since winning it as navigator aboard Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes in Australia in 1987. He sailed in his fifth Cup campaign serving as navigator for the BMW Oracle Racing Team in 2007. His four previous campaigns were all in the afterguard aboard Stars & Stripes (1987, 1988, 2000 & 2003), winning the Cup twice (1987 & 1988). Peter took a break from sailing and served as analyst for ESPN's Emmy Award-winning coverage of the America’s Cup in 1992 & 1995. In Auckland, 2002-2003, Peter did both—sailing with Stars & Stripes and then, once the team was eliminated—he served as analyst for Outdoor Life Network’s coverage of the racing. In 2007, Peter joined the VERSUS network’s America’s Cup team covering the America's Cup.

Isler is the author of Peter Isler’s Little Blue Book of Sailing Secrets, Tactics, Tips, and Observations (Wiley), co-authored the best-selling book Sailing for Dummies (Wiley) and wrote a business book At the Helm: Business Lessons for Navigating Rough Waters (Doubleday) with Peter Economy. He is president of Isler Sailing International, Inc. a sports marketing and television production company. Photo: Gilles Martin-Raget.

GENIE JAMES, M.M.Sc., is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Natural Hormone Institute of America. For more than two decades, she has been nationally recognized as a powerful change-agent in the areas of personalized health and integrative medicine. Today Genie's primary focus is writing and speaking on the topic of natural approaches to increasing sexual vitality at any age. Written with C. W. Randolph, Jr., M.D, her book In the Mood Again is scheduled for release by Simon and Schuster in January 2010. Genie and Dr. Randolph are also the authors of From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well and From Belly Fat to Belly Flat.

JIM KAPE’S love of wood and natural materials began at a very young age when he followed his father to work sites in remote rural Wyoming. As his father wired houses, at the age of 5, Jim was using a woodburning toy to make pictures in scrap 2 by 4’s laying around the job site. It was later in life when the load of work and personal life became so heavy that an outlet was necessary. He turned back to wood and the basics of leatherworking. The creative spark that was hidden for so long exploded into sudden brilliance.

Jim’s outlet of design and art settled into woodworking and chess set design. His Notre Dame chess set has won awards both in Utah and Arizona, and will soon be published in the Scrollsaw and Woodcrafts Magazine. Jim’s other unique chess set designs will be published by Fox Chapel Publishing in his first book. Jim lives in Arizona, with his wife, young son, mother in law, two bulldogs, and several pure-bred cats. You can see what is going on with Jim and his wood addiction at (www.sawdustdreams.blogspot.com).

MICHAEL KOPIEC is a board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist and fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology who, during three decades of private practice, delivered over 5,000 babies. When injuries sustained in an accident with a drunk driver left him unable to return to the profession he loved, Michael eventually turned to writing. As the first-born child of Auschwitz survivors, his father had years earlier, passed into his keeping the remarkable and inspirational story of his, and his mother's survival. The soon to be published, The Unwilling Survivor is the first part of that story.

JO MAEDER was a radio DJ in Miami and New York City known as “The Rock and Roll Madame” before moving to the Bible Belt to care for her estranged, hoarding mother in serious decline. The life-altering experience led her to write her debut memoir When I Married My Mother: A Daughter’s Search for What Really Matters – and How She Found It Caring for Mama Jo (Da Capo Press/Perseus 2009). Her first novel, described by her publisher Heyne as “an erotic comedy,” was published in Germany with the name Venusblueten and is now in its third edition. Jo would describe it as “a neurotic fantasy.” Her essays have appeared in the New York Times and More magazine. She has also been a voiceover artist for several decades and can currently be heard as the imaging voice of radio stations from Krater-96 in Honolulu to the Coast in New York/Connecticut, as well as a variety of events on ESPN. She is now working on a new memoir called When I Divorced My Day Job about her life in radio and that of legendary DJ, and friend, the late Alison Steele “The Nightbird.”

New York Times bestselling author MICHAEL LEVIN has written, co-written or ghostwritten close to 60 books. Three of Michael’s five published novels have been optioned, and one novel became an ABC Sunday night Disney movie of the week.

Michael is one of the most accomplished ghostwriters in the nation, having written for private clients focusing on biography, business, sports, and social issues. His client list includes a member of the Forbes 400, four individuals with net worths of over half a billion dollars, and business leaders across the country. Michael has published with Simon & Schuster (three novels and two works of nonfiction), Random House (twice), St. Martin’s Press, Beacon Press, Penguin (five books), Putnam/Berkley (two novels), Wiley, and many other houses. He has also contributed to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Jerusalem Post, Writers Digest, CBS News, and many other outlets.

JOSEPH MENN is the author of Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet, forthcoming from PublicAffairs. His previous books include All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster, the definitive work published by Crown Business in 2003. "All the Rave" was named one of the three best books of the year by Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc., the nonprofit professional trade association.

Menn is a San Francisco-based technology writer for the London-based Financial Times. He spent a previous decade covering cyber-security, privacy and other technology beats for the Los Angeles Times. He won a "Best in Business" award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for tobacco coverage and has twice been a finalist for a Loeb Award, the most prestigious in financial journalism. Please visit his website at www.josephmenn.com.

HOWARD MURAD, M.D. world-renowned skin care expert and leading authority on aging, is a board-certified dermatologist, trained pharmacist, and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine (Dermatology) at the Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. Dr. Murad has personally treated over 50,000 patients in his LA based medical center. In 1989 he founded Murad, Inc. (www.murad.com) as a way to further share his groundbreaking skincare formulas, which were among the first to achieve significant measurable anti-aging results without surgery. Dr. Murad continues his innovative research and holds 18 patents for advances in the science of skin health. He has authored numerous articles with nationally recognized publications, such as Cosmetic Dermatology, and three books including The Murad Method, Wrinkle-Free Forever, and The Cellulite Solution. Dr. Murad’s products are also a constant feature in national and international publications and have won numerous awards.

His upcoming book, The Water Principle: Saving Your Looks and Your Health through The Science of Cellular Water, uncovers the mystery of how to take control of the aging process. Based on three-decades of research, Dr. Murad conclusively demonstrates that the fundamental marker of youthful good health and true age is the ability of the cell membrane to effectively hold and utilize water. This compelling account of his discoveries sets forth an easy to adopt battle plan for optimizing cellular strength, youthfulness and health through an integrated approach he calls Inclusive Health.

BRIAN NELSON has over eighteen years of experience in Latin America and has lived in Costa Rica, Argentina, Mexico, and Venezuela. His work on the region has appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Christian Science Monitor, The Southern Humanities Review and was the subject of a PEW Case Study for Georgetown University. In 2002, after receiving his MFA from the University of Arizona, Mr. Nelson was awarded a Fulbright grant to write The Silence and the Scorpion. Over a seventeen-month period and building on his many connections in Venezuela (some dating back to 1988 when he attended high school there), Mr. Nelson was given open access to many high-level officials in the Chávez regime and the opposition. In addition to his MFA, Mr. Nelson holds degrees in International Studies and Economics. He lives in Baltimore and teaches for Johns Hopkins University.

JOSIAH OBER holds the Constantine Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University. He divides his time and academic appointment between the Departments of Classics and Political Science, and has a courtesy appointment in Philosophy. His most recent book, Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens (Princeton 2008) won a PROSE award from the Association of American Publishers. Major reviews have appeared in Forbes.com, the London Review of Books, and The New Republic. He writes and teaches courses on various topics conjoining Greek history, classical philosophy, and political theory and practice. He is currently working on What Athens Was, a history of classical Athenian democracy and why it matters today.

Josiah has authored or co-authored a number of other books, including Fortress Attica (1985), Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), The Athenian Revolution (1996), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (1998), Athenian Legacies (2005). His writing for popular audiences includes The Anatomy of Error: Ancient Military Disasters and Their Lessons for Modern Strategists (1990 with Barry Strauss), A Company of Citizens: What the World's First Democracy Teaches Leaders about Building Great Organizations (2003 with Brook Manville). He has held residential fellowships at the National Humanities Center, Center for Hellenic Studies, Univ. of New England (Australia), Clare Hall (Cambridge), Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences , and Univ. of Sydney; research fellowships from the ACLS, NEH, and Guggenheim; and has been a Visiting faculty at University of Michigan, Paris I-Sorbonne 2000, and UC-Irvine. Before coming to Stanford he taught at Montana State University (1980-1990), and Princeton University (1990-2006).

DR. TERRI L. ORBUCH (Ph.D.) is a professor of sociology at Oakland University and a researc h professor at the University of Michigan, Survey Research Center. She is the project director of a long-term study on marriage and divorce (1986 - present), funded by the National Institutes of Health. She has published several articles on marriage and divorce, dating and sexuality, parent-child relationships, accounts and story-telling, and the effects of divorce on children. Her latest book is called 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great (Random House) forthcoming in fall 2009. Dr. Orbuch also is known as "The Love Doctor®" on radio, TV and in magazines/newspapers across the country. She is the host of "The Love Doctor" talk radio program on the VoiceAmerica network and her relationship segments are aired weekly on Fox-TV Detroit. (www.drterrithelovedoctor.com).

NICK PERRY is a native of New Zealand, where he grew up in a family steeped in newspaper tradition. His late grandfather was a renowned cricket writer who covered the sport for some 60 years.

Perry began his career at The New Zealand Herald in 1998 before moving to Seattle. He has worked at The Seattle Times since 2002 and has covered the higher-education beat for the past three years. Recently, he has written about the runaway debt burden shouldered by today's students, fraternity deaths, and the university provost who was stripped of his title after getting into a shoving match with another administrator. Perry and his wife have two children, aged 5 and 2.

Perry has won a George Polk Award as well as two national honors from the Education Writers Association. He is the co-author, with Ken Armstrong, of the book Scoreboard, Baby.

BARRY M. POPKIN is the director of the University of North Carolina Interdisciplinary Obesity Center and a professor of global nutrition. He has studied economics and nutrition for three decades, and his research has spanned six continents. He has an active U.S. program in understanding dietary behavior with a focus on eating patterns, trends and socio-demographic determinants. This includes involvement in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a study of environmental determinants of physical activity and inactivity patterns and obesity among 20,000 U.S. adolescents examined in 1995, 1996 and 2001. His work also includes detailed longitudinal studies that he directs in China and Russia, and involvement with longitudinal studies in the Philippines, as well as related work in Brazil and several other countries.

Popkin, one the world's leading experts on the obesity crisis, is the author of The World Is Fat (Avery/Penguin 2008) in which he argues that the fattening of the human race is not simply about gluttony, but it is instead the result of an unprecedented collision of technology, globalization, government policies, and food industry practices with human biology. He shows how the clash between our biology created over tens of thousands of years and modern technology, in particular over the last 20-25 years, has transformed the way we eat, drink and move and the way food is marketed and controlled.

C.W. RANDOLPH, M.D., one of the nation's leading physician-experts in the field of bio-identical hormone replacement (BHRT), has treated thousands of women and men with hormone imbalances for more than a decade. A graduate of Louisiana State University School of Medicine, Dr. Randolph is board certified by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as the American Board of Holistic Medicine. Because he practiced as a compounding pharmacist before returning to medical school, Dr. Randolph also board certified by The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists. As the co-founder of The Natural Hormone Institute of America, Dr. Randolph continues to be a frequent speaker for medical and women's health organizations across the country. In addition to In the Mood Again, Dr. Randolph is the coauthor of the best selling books, From Hormone Hell to Hormone Well and From Belly Fat to Belly Flat.

WENDY SACHS is an award-winning television producer and the author of the critically acclaimed book on balancing career and family How She Really Does It: Secrets of Successful Stay-at-Work Moms (Da Capo). Wendy has fifteen years of experience in media, politics, public relations and women's issues. Currently, she is a vice president at Dan Klores Communications in New York City where she represents high profile corporate clients and media personalities.

Previously, Wendy worked as a Capitol Hill press secretary for two members of Congress – Peter Deutsch (D-FL) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR). She then moved to New York City where she worked as a TV producer at FOX and "Dateline NBC." At “Dateline,” Wendy won an Emmy award for her field producing work on the Columbine shootings and received an Amnesty International USA Media Spotlight Award for an hour-long program with Maria Shriver on the international trafficking and sex trade of women. After leaving “Dateline,” Wendy worked as the media director for Larry Ellison's Internet Computer company start-up NIC connecting disadvantaged communities with Internet access. Wendy has been interviewed on NBC's "Today," "Good Morning America," CBS's "Up to the Minute," and FOX's "Good Day New York" among others. She currently writes a regular column about work/life balance for the popular web site Mommy Tracked.com. Wendy lives in New Jersey with her husband Michael and her two children, Jonah, 7 and Alexandra, 5.

NICHOLAS SCHOU is an award-winning investigative journalist with OC Weekly who has also written for LA Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of the 2006 book Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack Cocaine Epidemic Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb, published by Nation Books, and which has been optioned for a feature length film by Universal Studios, and the upcoming book Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love's Quest to bring Peace, Love and Acid to the World, scheduled to be published by Thomas Dunne books Fall 2009. It is available at www.amazon.com/Orange-Sunshine-Brotherhood-Eternal-Spread/dp/0312551835/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_0_1.

SUSAN SHIRK is a Los Angeles Times bestselling author. She is also the director of the University of California system-wide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Ho Miu Lam Professor of China and Pacific Affairs in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. During 1997-2000, Dr. Shirk served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, with responsibility for the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mongolia. In this position Dr. Shirk planned and participated in meetings between the Chinese and American presidents and senior officials, and in negotiations on arms control, human rights, and trade, including negotiations on China's accession to the World Trade Organization.

She founded in 1993 and continues to lead the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD), an unofficial "track-two" forum for discussions of security issues among defense and foreign ministry officials and academics from the United States, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea. Dr. Shirk's publications include her books, How China Opened Its Door: The Political Success of the PRC's Foreign Trade and Investment Reforms; The Political Logic of Economic Reform in China; and Competitive Comrades: Career Incentives and Student Strategies in China. Her latest book China: Fragile Superpower (Oxford 2007) was a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

Dr. Shirk served as a member of the U.S. Defense Policy Board, the Board of Governors for the East-West Center (Hawaii), the Board of Trustees of the U.S.-Japan Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an emeritus member of the Aspen Strategy Group. As Senior Adviser to The Albright Group, Dr. Shirk advises private sector clients on China and East Asia.

DR. JONATHAN SPIRO earned his Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley and is a highly acclaimed professor of history at Castleton College in the Green Mountains of Vermont, where he teaches standing-room-only courses in the Honors Program on race, ethnic­ity, slavery, immigration, the conservation movement, the nature-nurture debate, women’s history, and the Mayas.

His book Defending the Master Race traces the history of—and explains the connections between—the eu­genics movement, the conservation movement, and the nature-nurture debate in the United States. Early reviewers have stated that this “brilliant” and “near-miraculous feat of scholarship” should be mandatory reading for all Americans who want to understand such contemporary phenomena as immigrant bashing, right-wing militias, and "angry white males," as well as the origins of environmentalism, anti-Semitism, and the latest advances in cloning, stem cell research, and "designer babies" that comprise the "new eugenics.”

RANDALL STICKROD has enjoyed a distinguished career as a magazine publisher, media executive, and technology executive. Best known as the founder and publisher/editor of Computer Graphics World magazine, which helped launch the vibrant computer graphics industry, he went on to help found Wired magazine, and was involved in the launch of many others. Mr Stickrod was also a co-founder and publisher of The Readerville Journal, a magazine serving book lovers and the literary community. As a writer, he has published many articles in magazines and newspapers on a broad range of subjects including business, technology, nature and travel. His short stories have appeared in Montana, Janus and VerbSap magazines.

Mr. Stickrod was executive vice president of a major technology publisher and currently consults with numerous media companies and the financial community that serves them. He was considered a pioneer in the field of computer graphics and went on to serve as CEO of Miro Computer and Zelos Digital Learning. Since then he has been a strategic consultant to many other technology companies. He has BS and MS degrees in physics from the University of Oregon.

BRENDA STOCKDALE has been the Director of Mind-Body Medicine for Georgia Cancer Treatment Center for over a decade where the latest research in mind-body medicine serves as an adjunct to medical treatment. As the National Program Director for ECaP [founded by Bernie Siegel, M.D.] Brenda designed ECaP's first hospital-based program and co-created ECaP's national retreats for person's with life-challenging illness. She has been featured on Oprah, NPR, other TV talk shows, as well as in a variety of print media. She has also developed a health psychology program for primary care settings specializing in preventive medicine, autoimmunity and stress-related conditions. A leader in her field, Stockdale has taught, presented workshops, and lectured nationally over the last fifteen years for a variety of corporate and special interest groups and her workshops and programs have been implemented in hospital settings, oncology practices and cancer centers. She is a clinician in the field of behavioral medicine, but it is her own experience with life-altering and catastrophic illness that anchors the subject in an intimate way.

Brenda's Bachelor and Graduate degrees in Behavioral Science and Health Psychology are from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and she completed a clinical training program in Mind/Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of You Can Beat the Odds: Surprising Factors Behind Chronic Illness & Cancer-the Six-Week Breakthrough Program for Optimal Immunity and is the recipient of a Hambidge Fellowship. Please visit her website at www.brendastockdale.com.

PAT SUMMERALL, considered by most critics and fans alike to be the premier play-by-play man for network coverage of the National Football League, has been broadcasting since 1962. Summerall’s acclaimed partnership with analyst John Madden began in 1981, and they are without question football's longest running and most proficient broadcast team ever.

Summerall was a star place kicker on the New York Giants teams of the late 1950s and went on to broadcast NFL games, including a record 16 Super Bowls, over a career that spanned more than four decades. He also anchored coverage at Wimbledon, the Masters, and other leading sporting events around the world. His voice is still associated with the Masters, which he continues to introduce each year. He also continues to broadcast the Cotton Bowl and other football games each season. Summerall has won every important award in sports broadcasting, and in today’s world, the leading award for a sports broadcaster is named for him. In April 1994, he was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and in July 1994, he received the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. In April 1997, Summerall earned yet another honor for his broadcasting skills when he was inducted into the NFL Alumni's prestigious Order of the Leather Helmet in recognition for his contributions to professional football. Summerall is the co-author of Giants: What I Learned About Faith, Family and Football from Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry.

DEBORAH TODD is an award-winning designer, writer, producer, and director in the interactive arena, with 16 published games and 24 published titles to her credit since 1991. She has worked with some of the industry’s top publishers and Hollywood studios, including Disney Interactive, Disneyland, Fox, DreamWorks, Discovery Channel, MGM/UA, Columbia, Warner Bros., Nickelodeon, The Learning Company, Humongous Entertainment, Broderbund, Mindscape, Houghton-Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, Random House, and Steven Spielberg’s Starbright Foundation. Her projects have garnered such awards as the ABA Book Sellers Choice New Media Award, the ComputEd Best Interactive Story Award, Child Magazine’s Best Software of the Year Award, Parenting Magazine’s Software Magic Award, and U.S. News and World Report’s Top 12 Titles of the Year.

Her most recent book is Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light, with a forward by producer Jon Landau. Ms. Todd’s book on game design was recognized as one of the five most important industry books of 2007 by Game Developer magazine, and was a finalist in the 2007 Frontline Awards. Barnes and Noble proclaimed, “We’ve seen several books that promise to take you inside game design. A few of them have been excellent, but none are better than Deborah Todd’s Game Design: From Blue Sky to Green Light.” Her next book with AK Peters takes a look at the positive influence of video games on society, and is scheduled for release in June 2009. Ms. Todd lives in Marin County, California.

VICTORIA ZACKHEIM is an author and book editor. She is also the creator, contributing author, and editor of three anthologies--THE FACE IN THE MIRROR: Writers Reflect on Their Dreams of Youth and the Reality of Age (Prometheus Books, September 2009); FOR KEEPS: Women Tell the Truth About Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance (Seal Press/Perseus 2008); and THE OTHER WOMAN: Twenty-one Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal (Grand Central 2008), a Canadian national bestseller and the basis of a forthcoming play. She is the author of the novel, The Bone Weaver.

Victoria is also the story developer and screenwriter of the documentary film Tracing Thalidomide: The Story of Frances Kelsey, and screenwriter for More Than A Lord's Daughter: Ada Byron Lovelace (both films with On the RoadProductions). She is an instructor in the UCLA Writers' Program, where she teaches courses in Personal Essay and Memoir. Victoria writes and records commentaries for The Mimi Geerges Show (Satellite/FM and public radio) and is a frequent keynote speaker for educational and non-profit organizations. Please visit her website at www.victoriazackheim.com. (photo: Vicki Topaz).

Back to Top

Commercial Fiction

When RITA nominee P.J. ALDERMAN visited the Pacific Northwest years ago, she fell in love with the region's unique history, culture, and mystique. The first book of the Columbia River series, A Killing Tide, blends murder with romance and sets it against the stunning backdrop of one of the world's most dangerous stretches of water. With Haunting Jordan, Alderman launches her Port Chatham mystery series, interweaving 19th century intrigue with present day supernatural sleuthery. A lover of jazz music, historic homes, rich coffee and fine chocolate, she lives in Washington State with her family, where she claims to be haunted by numerous felines, a stray dog and wily woodland creatures.

ANJALI BANERJEE was born in India and raised in Canada and California, she received degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. Her four novels for youngsters and two novels for adults have been published to critical praise, receiving accolades in several review journals and newspapers including The Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Post Intelligencer, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Her first novel for adults, Imaginary Men (Pocket Books) was a Book Sense Notable Book. The Seattle Times applauded Imaginary Men as "a romantic comedy equal to Bend it Like Beckham" and called Anjali's second novel for adults, Invisible Lives (Pocket Books) "poignant" and "surprising." Anjali's young adult novel, Maya Running (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House) has been optioned for film, and Looking for Bapu (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House) has been nominated for two state awards. Random House will release Anjali's next novel for children in summer 2010. Visit http://www.anjalibanerjee.com. (photo: Carol Ann Morris)

GILLIAN BAGWELL has had a life-long love of books, British history, and theatre, and united these passions in writing The Darling Strumpet. She grew up in Berkeley, California, and began her professional life as an actress. She majored in theatre at the University of California at Berkeley, and then attended a year-long British professional acting training program, the Drama Studio London at Berkeley. She moved from acting to directing and producing, founding The Pasadena Shakespeare Company in 1994, and producing thirty-seven productions over nine seasons. She began researching Nell Gwynn as the subject of one-woman show, but realized that such a brief format couldn’t do justice to the richness of Nell’s life, and began writing The Darling Strumpet while living in London in 2006. Her extensive background in theatre has enabled her to bring viVidly to life the theatrical conditions and performances of Nell’s time.

Growing up in a converted 1890s funeral home fueled DAKOTA BANKS' interest in the paranormal. Although no ghost whisperer, she keeps an open mind. Dakota has been fascinated by archaelogy. The premise for her series The Mortal Path (Harper Collins) came from the looting of the National Museum of Iraq for three days in 2003. Hundreds of irreplaceable treasures were lost, including those from Sumeria, during which so many inventions arose: written communication, a number system, timekeeping with hours and seconds, the first wheeled vehicles, metallurgy, the calendar, and the kiln. Sumer is now present-day Iraq. Dakota played the writer's what if? game. What if artifacts weren't the only survivors from the Sumerian civilization? What if something remained that didn't have the best interest of humans at heart? The Mortal Path burst into existence, with Maliha Crayne (pronounced Ma-LIE-ah) as the character straddling past and present.

Dakota lives in suburban St. Louis with her husband, two sons, and two cats. She is a member of the International Thriller Writers, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America. Please visit her website at www.dakota-banks.com.

A love of storytelling and a desire to follow humbly in the footsteps of the great Southern writers prompted LYNNE BRYANT to write her debut novel Catfish Alley, to be released by NAL/Penguin in spring 2011. Lynne was born and raised in rural Mississippi, where her maternal grandparents farmed cotton and her mother is one of their fifteen children. Catfish Alley weaves together historical and contemporary characters in a fictionalized account of places and events in her home town. Contemporary stories defined by the context of Southern history continue to intrigue Lynne. Hard at work on her next novel, Lynne is currently a college professor in Colorado, but the home of her heart is still the American South.

TERRY DEHART is a former U.S. Marine and NASA security analyst. He is the author of The Winter of God and Man (forthcoming Orbit, an imprint of Hachette Book Group). Three of his stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His short stories have appeared in The Barcelona Review, Zoetrope All-Story Extra, Night Train Magazine, In Posse Review/Web del Sol, Paumanok Review, Smokelong Quarterly, Vestal Review and Opium, among others. Terry lives with his wife and daughters in the San Francisco Bay Area.

KERRIE M. DROBAN is a criminal defense attorney specializing in capital litigation. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars where she studied with playwright, Edward Albee and with poets, Jon Anderson and Carolyn Kizer. In addition to poetry, Kerrie Droban has published two suspense thrillers, In the Company of Darkness and The Watchman's Circle, the latter of which earned the Daphne Du Maurier Award for excellence.

Her first non-fiction, true crime book entitled Running with the Devil: The True Story of ATF's Infiltration of the Arizona Hells Angels, was released in hardback on June 1, 2007 by Lyons Press. Her latest true crime, Age of Fire, is scheduled to be released in October, 2009 by St. Martin's Press. For more information, visit www.kerriedroban.com.

A native Angelino, MICHELE DOMINGUEZ GREENE attended USC, studying theatre and creative writing. She began writing short stories, screenplays and magazine articles with features in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Animal Wellness among others. Eventually she got up the nerve to try her hand at her favorite form, the novel. Her debut young adult novel, Chasing The Jaguar (Harper Collins), has been nominated for an American Library Association award and is included on reading lists for teens around the country. Her next novel, Keep Sweet, will be released by Simon Pulse! (Simon & Schuster) in 2010. She continues to have a very successful career as an actress, having appeared in the NBC series L.A. Law and numerous television and independent movies. She has been seen recently on The Unit, Cold Case, Brothers and Sisters among other top rated series. Michele resides in Los Angeles, CA. Visit www.michelegreene.com.

DEBORAH HALVERSON is the author of two novels for teens, Honk If You Hate Me (Delacorte, 2007) and Big Mouth (Delacorte, 2008). Deborah edited books at a major publishing house for ten years-until she climbed over the desk and tried out the author chair on the other side. Now she writes books for teens and for adults full-time. Armed with a Masters in American Literature and a fascination with pop culture, she sculpts stories from extreme places and events-tattoo parlors, fast food joints, and, most extreme of all, high schools. Deborah lives with her husband and triplet sons in San Diego, California, where she also freelance edits fiction and non-fiction for both published authors and writers seeking their first book deals. For more about Deborah, check out her website www.DeborahHalverson.com. (photo: Theresa Stanton at Design Focus Studio)

KATHRYN JOHNSON has authored more than 40 published novels, is an Agatha Award finalist and honoree of the American Library Association. Her most recent work of fiction is The Gentleman Poet, a historical novel set in 1609, sold to William Morrow for publication in 2010. She serves on the Board for the Mystery Writers of America/Mid-Atlantic Region. Founder in 2006 of Write by You www.writebyyou.com, an author’s mentoring service, she also teaches at the renowned Writer’s Center in Washington, D.C. and speaks at regional and national writers’ conferences. Her professional memberships include the Author’s Guild, Ninc, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America. Having lived in Italy and traveled throughout Europe, and most recently to Egypt, she loves weaving rich historical detail into her novels. Kathryn and her husband Roger enjoy cultural events in Washington but spend most of their summers sailing the Chesapeake Bay in their vintage sailboat, Purr. Her writing partners are her two cats, Tempest and Miranda, who say they prefer dry land.

LOUANNE JOHNSON is a New York Times bestselling author. She is also a former U.S. Navy journalist, Marine Corps officer, high school teacher, and the author of the bestseller Dangerous Minds. Dangerous Minds has been published in eight languages including Japanese, German, Italian and French, and Michelle Pfeiffer starred in the August 1995 box office hit based on the book.

A native of rural northwestern Pennsylvania, LouAnne served nine years on active military duty first in the Navy and later in the Marine Corps. While on active duty, LouAnne earned a B.S. in Psychology. Following her honorable discharge, she attended graduate school to earn a Master of Arts in teaching English. In 1989, LouAnne began teaching reading and writing to non-English speakers as an intern at a high school in California. She is the author of nine nonfiction books, most recently Queen of Education, and Teaching Outside the Box: how to grab your students by their brains.

LouAnne has presented keynote addresses to numerous organizations, including the National School Boards Association, and the National Staff Development Council to name a few. She has appeared on several TV shows, including Oprah, CBS Eye to Eye, and NBC Weekend Today. Her latest project is a novella narrated by Eddie Corazon, a 16-year-old juvenile delinquent turned poet-philosopher. Self-published as Alternative Ed, this novella is now a full-length novel, Muchacho, which will be published by Knopf in Sept 2009. For more information, visit www.louannejohnson.com.

PATRICK KENDRICK is the Battalion Chief of the Tamarac Fire Rescue in Florida and has been in the fire service for 26 years. He is the author of Papa’s Problem which won the Florida Book Award and the Hollywood Film Festival Opus Magnum Discovery Award. He has published numerous articles in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including Reader’s Digest, the Miami Herald, the Palm Beach Post, and Broward County’s Sun Sentinel. A member of the Mystery Writer’s of America and the Hemingway Society, his short story The Bestseller won an honorable mention from the Mystery Writer’s of America. Please visit his websites www.papasproblem.com and www.patrick-kendrick.com.

CAYLA KLUVER lives in Wisconsin, where only the hardy survive, with her family and her muse (Nina, her cat). Her Young Adult debut novel, Legacy, will be re-released in hardcover in August of 2009 by Amazon.com as its first title in its new AmazonEncore program. The novel is the first of a planned trilogy. Legacy combines mystery, romance, and warring Kingdoms within the context of the Medieval period. Originally self-published in soft cover in April of 2008, Legacy garnered numerous positive industry reviews. It was also honored by the Reader Views Literary Awards, the Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, the National Best Books Awards, and the Young Voices Foundation.

In addition to writing, Cayla enjoys such activities as singing, theatre, horseback riding, and hanging out with friends and family. She graduated from public high school at the age of fifteen, one month after the original edition of Legacy was published, and will be sixteen at the time it is released by AmazonEncore.

SHANA MAHAFFEY lives in San Francisco, California, in part of an Edwardian compound that she shares with an informal cooperative of family, friends, and five cats. She's a survivor of Catechism and cat scratch fever, and is a member of the Sanchez Grotto Annex, a writers' co-op. Her first novel, Sounds Like Crazy (NAL/Penguin) is due October 2009. She welcomes all visitors to her website (http:/www.shanamahaffey.com) and is happy to meet with book groups in-person or in cyberspace (phone/webcam/the works).

NICK NOLAN While working his way through college, Nick Nolan spent weekends and nights selling furniture; then with his BA in-hand he directed a residential treatment center for homeless and abused GLBT teenagers. Soon after, Nick decided to write his first novel, and spent six years laboring away. “I had no idea what I was doing,” Nolan states, “but I love writing, and knew Jeremy’s story would resonate with readers, so I kept at it.” On the advice of NY Times Bestselling Author Kathleen McGowan, Nolan self-published Strings Attached to unexpected success: The book, loosely based on Pinocchio, spent over forty weeks in the Top 10 in Gay Fiction on Amazon.com, and was named 2006 Book of the Year for Gay/Lesbian Fiction by ForeWord Magazine. Two years later his second novel, Double Bound, earned ‘Book of the Year’ awards from both ForeWord Magazine and Reader Views. Today Nick and his partner, together since 1987, spend time at their home in Los Angeles or their mountain cabin with their beloved dogs and dear friends. His third novel is on its way. (http://nick-nolan.com)

C.M. Palov is a Washington DC native who decided to put a love of action adventure flicks, her degree in art history, and an obsession with biblical conspiracy theory to good use. The result is her debut novel ARK OF FIRE, an esoteric thriller (Berkley 2009). The sequel, THE HERETIC’S TALE, will be released in 2010.

C.M. Palov is a member of International Thriller Writers.

Over the years, EILEEN CLYMER SCHWAB’S passion for writing was channeled through occasional newspaper and magazine articles as she balanced a job and raising four children. With the encouragement of her husband and the blessing of her supportive daughter and three sons, Eileen has finally unleashed the writer within. "I had always thought of myself primarily as a nonfiction writer until one day the ideas, dialogue, and characters in my head grabbed my attention and shook me by my muse. At that moment, a fiction writer was born and I have never looked back." Eileen graduated from Rutgers University with a BA in Communication. She resides with her family in northeast Pennsylvania. Her debut novel, Promise Bridge (NAL/Penguin) will be available in Spring/Summer 2010.

Back to Top

Romance Fiction

STARR AMBROSE writes contemporary romances about heroines with a confident attitude and a sense of humor. Add a smart, sexy hero and put them together with a little mystery and a lot of sexual tension for a fun romantic suspense adventure!

Starr was born and raised in Michigan, and graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in English. She and her family live in rural S. E. Michigan on a small farm with horses, chickens, cats, and dogs. She enjoys the abundant local wildlife, except for raccoons, who should learn to keep their evil paws off her chickens.

SARA ANGELINI is an insurance defense attorney in the San Francisco Bay area. After graduating from West Virginia University with a Master’s Degree in Animal Sciences, she gave up her dream of becoming a veterinarian when she realized that she only liked her own pets. She moved to California with her husband to pursue law school. The Trials of the Honorable F.. Darcy, inspired by Colin Firth’s smoldering haughtiness and an insatiable curiosity about what made Mr. Darcy tick, is her first novel. She lives with her husband, daughter, and two dogs.

JACKIE BARBOSA always wanted to be a writer, but she took a few detours on the road to publication, including a stint in academia (she holds an MA in Classics from the University of Chicago and was a Mellon Fellowship recipient) and many years as a technical writer/instructional designer for a data processing company.

She still holds her day job in instructional design, but her true passion is writing steamy romances--both historical and contemporary. She has published several short stories and novellas with epublisher Cobblestone Press. Her first print release, Behind the Red Door, will be released by Kensington Books in May 2009.

Jackie learned to believe in love at first sight when she met the man of her dreams twenty years ago and to believe in happily ever after when she married him. She lives in Southern California with her husband, their three children, and an ever-changing menagerie of pets. Please visit her website at www.jackiebarbosa.com.

As a writer of paranormal romance, KENDRA LEIGH CASTLE has been praised for the way she balances dark fantasy, lush sensuality, and wicked wit. Her debut novel, Call of the Highland Moon (Sourcebooks Casablanca 2008) earned 4.5 stars and a prestigious Reviewers' Choice Award nomination from Romantic Times. The two other books in the MacInnes Werewolves trilogy, Dark Highland Fire (October '08) and Wild Highland Magic (May '09), round out a story arc that Yankee Romance Reviewers recently declared "delicious." Her next project is a new series for Silhouette Nocturne, The Fallen, beginning with the book Sinfully Yours.

After being raised in the far and frozen reaches of Northern New York, Kendra ran away with a handsome young fighter pilot and moved all over the country. She now lives in Maryland along with her husband, their three children, two high-maintenance dogs, and one enormous cat. She also has a home on the web at www.kendraleighcastle.com.

EVANGELINE COLLINS resides in Michigan with her husband and daughter. She holds a B.S. in Engineering from Michigan State University and a MBA from Eastern Michigan University, where she graduated with honors. An avid reader, it wasn't until she exhausted her local library's supply of historical romance novels that she decided to try her hand at writing her own. Much to her delight, she discovered a new passion. And she has been hard at work crafting her romances ever since.

Her debut novel, Her Ladyship's Companion, will be available in May 2009. Please visit Evangeline's web site at www.EvangelineCollins.com

MARIE FORCE has worked as a reporter, editor, and writer over the last twenty years, serving most recently as the communications director for a national membership organization. A lifelong romance reader, she lives with her husband, two children, and a seventeen-year-old dog named Consuela in her home state of Rhode Island where she spends as much time as she can at the beach or on her father's boat. Marie is the author of Line of Scrimmage (Sept. 08) and Love at First Flight (July 09). Visit Marie online at www.mariesullivanforce.com, on her blog at http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com.

ALLEGRA GRAY is a former military officer--turned English professor--turned homeland defense analyst. One thing she has always been, though, is a storyteller. She wrote her first book at the age of 5 (it has yet to be published). Allegra began her publishing career while teaching in the English department of the U.S. Air Force Academy, but soon discovered that non-fiction, academic work was not enough to satisfy her creative drive. She turned to fiction, and will launch her career as a novelist with Kensington Publishing, with the release of a historical romance, Nothing But Scandal in 2009.

Allegra lives in Colorado and writes novels full of steamy intrigue that interweave her love of history, legend, and romance. Check out her website at www.allegragray.com

LAURA GRIFFIN started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of romantic suspense. Her debut novel, One Last Breath, won the 2008 Booksellers Best Award for romantic suspense. Griffin's other titles include: One Wrong Step, Thread of Fear, Whisper of Warning, and Untraceable. Visit her web site at www.lauragriffin.com.

ROBIN KAYE was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge next door to her Sicilian grandparents. Living with an extended family that's a cross between Gilligan's Island and The Sopranos, minus the desert isle and illegal activities, explains both her comedic timing and the cast of quirky characters in her books.

She's lived in half a dozen states from Idaho to Florida, but the romance of Brooklyn has never left her heart. She currently resides in Maryland with her husband, three children, two dogs, and a three-legged cat with attitude.

ROSE LERNER discovered Georgette Heyer when she was thirteen and wrote her first historical romance a few years later. Her writing has improved since then, but her fascination with all things Regency hasn't changed. When not reading, writing, or researching, she enjoys cooking and marathoning old TV shows. She lives in Seattle with two roommates, four cats, and too many books and DVDs to count." (photo: Jersey Girl Photography)

MARGARET MALLORY recently surprised her friends and family by abandoning her legal career-and her steady job-to write novels. She has always loved romantic tales, heroic deeds, and happy endings. She is thrilled to spend her days writing stories of romance and adventure, instead of going to meetings and writing memos. And, at long last, she can satisfy her passion for justice by punishing the bad and rewarding the worthy-in the pages of her novels.

With her two children off to college, Margaret is devoting her time to writing the next books in her medieval romance series, All the King's Men. Escape in time with these stories full of adventure, steamy romance, and historical intrigue-with a few wily royals, charismatic rebels and unlikely spies thrown in for good measure!

Margaret lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband and their two college-age children. Knight of Desire is her first book, so she would dearly love to hear from readers. You can contact her via her Website at www.MargaretMallory.com

ANGI MORGAN is an 11th generation Texan who utilizes her strong heritage to create passionate characters willing to risk everything for the one they love. Her debut novel, See Jane Run, with Harlequin Intrigue (Sept 2010) is an RWA Golden Heart finalist and the 2009 Daphne du Maurier winner.

Angi and her husband live in North Texas and spend their free time traveling throughout the country. Check out her website at www.AngiMorgan.com or become a fan on Facebook: AngiMorgan

CARIDAD PINEIRO is the USA TODAY and NY Times bestselling author of over twenty novels. In 2007, a year marked by six releases from Harlequin and Pocket Books, Caridad was selected as the 2007 Golden Apple Author of the Year by the New York City Romance Writers. Caridad's novels have been lauded as the Best Short Contemporary Romance of 2001 in the NJ Romance Writers Golden Leaf Contest, Top Fantasy Books of 2005 and 2006 by CATALINA Magazine and Top Nocturne of 2006 by Cataromance. Caridad has appeared on various television shows, such as the FOX News Early Edition in New York, and articles featuring her novels have been published in several leading newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Daily News, LATINA and the Star Ledger. For more information on Caridad, please visit www.caridad.com or www.thecallingvampirenovels.com.

In an attempt to combine her love of the Regency era with her weakness for great swashbuckling sword and sorcery fantasy, ALIX RICKLOFF created a race of humans known as the Other whose bloodlines mingle and merge with those of the faery realm.

Living among the Regency bucks and Society dames of nineteenth-century England, these men and women must traverse a knife-edge between the everyday world they inhabit and the shadowy realm of the Fey who make their cunning and sometimes treacherous presence known all too often.

Alix’s awards include the 2006 WRW Marlene for Historical Romance and most recently a final in the 2007 Golden Heart, while Romantic Times Magazine called her 2008 debut novel, Lost In You (Kensington Zebra), “dark, dangerous, and sensual where legend and passion mix to perfection to create a compelling, original love story.” Her latest foray into the world of the Regency-paranormal, Dangerous As Sin, is slated for a July 2009 release. Alix Rickloff writes and lives “historical” from her 200-year old Maryland home, or you can find her on the web at www.AlixRickloff.com.

AMI SILBER/ZOE ARCHER is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Writing as Ami Silber, her novel Early Bright was published by Toby Press in Fall 2008. The London Times calls Early Bright "An astonishing debut and a brilliantly engrossing read." As award-winning romance author Zoe Archer, her forthcoming Blades of the Rose series will be published by Zebra in Fall 2010. Her novella will also appear in the Brava anthology Will You be my Zombie Valentine? (January 2010). Ami and her husband live in Los Angeles. Please see her websites www.amisilber.com and www.zoearcherbooks.com.

CHERYL ANN SMITH became hooked on historical romance at age fourteen when she stayed up all night to read The Flame and The Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss. Her own journey into writing happened much later when one afternoon she couldn’t find a book to read and decided to write her own. She worked through a new marriage, kids, and demanding job to pen her first novel and was immensely satisfied to get to, The End. She’d discovered an exciting new career and now writes sexy Regency set romances full time. Matching the Courtesan’s, her debut Berkley novel, will come out in early 2011. You can visit her website at www.cherylannsmith.com.

Back to Top