Tell us about yourself. I've been working to establish myself as an author who creates New England-focused historical fiction. (While exploring universal themes and human foibles). I’ve published a well-received historical fiction series called The Puzzle Box...
Award-winning writer Duncan Whitehead was born in England and is the author of the best-selling and award-winning GORDONSTON LADIES DOG WALKING CLUB Trilogy. The series, inspired by the quirky characters and eeriness in the real-life Savannah neighborhood in which he once lived, is a humorous mystery that boasts an assortment of characters and plot twists. The first book in this series won the 2013 Reader’s Favorite Book Award for Comedy.
He has also written over 2,000 spoof and comedy news articles under various aliases for a variety of websites both in the US and the UK. Duncan now resides in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and has written further novels, including the four-book FOREST PINES MYSTERY SERIES and a stand-alone comedy, THE RELUCTANT JESUS, which won the 2014 Reader’s Favorite Book Award for Comedy.
The final and fourth book in the FOREST PINES SERIES was released in December 2023, written after a four-year hiatus from writing. He is the author of the parody A COZY MYSTERY…WITH ZOMBIES!, which was released in January 2024. He has recently completed his next book, a comedy, and parody entitled MURDER, SHE HOPED and has commenced work on his next comedy/mystery, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT FLETCHER’S END.
Duncan is well known for his charity work and kindness to animals, children, and old people. His charity, ‘Habitat for Hotties,’ where he finds housing for retired Hooter’s waitresses, was recently voted the least likely charity anyone would ever donate to. He has donated several organs to puppies and kittens and, to help save the planet, does not leave a carbon footprint, as he only wears slippers. In February 2040, he invented time travel and now spends much of his time in either the future (where he has won the lottery an astonishing 117 times) or the present day. Attempts to return to 1985 and write The Harry Potter series of books have thus far failed.
Dr. Randy Overbeck is an award-winning educator, author and speaker. As an educator, he served children for more than three decades in a range of roles captured in his novels, from teacher and coach to principal and superintendent. His thriller, LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND (2012) and his recent mysteries, the Amazon and B & N No. 1 Best Seller, BLOOD ON THE CHESAPEAKE (2019), the No 2 Bestseller CRIMSON AT CAPE MAY (2020) and SCARLET AT CRYSTAL RIVER (2021) have earned Hundreds of five star reviews and garnered national awards including “Thriller of the Year”—ReadersFavorite.com, “Gold Award”—Literary Titan, “Mystery of the Year”—ReadersView.com and “Crowned Heart of Excellence”—InD’Tale Magazine. He is also the author and voice of a new podcast, “Great Stories about Great Storytellers,” which reveals the unusual backstories of famous authors, directors and poets.
As a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Dr. Overbeck is an active member of the literary community, contributing to a writers’ critique group, serving as a mentor to emerging writers and participating in writing conferences such as Sleuthfest, Killer Nashville and the Midwest Writers Workshop. When he’s not writing or researching his next exciting novel or sharing his presentations, “Things Still Go Bump in the Night” and “A Few Favorite Haunts,” he’s spending time with his incredible family of wife, three children (and their spouses) and seven wonderful grandchildren.
Robin Murphy is an Amazon best-selling author of a paranormal mystery series, and also writes chick-lit, and nonfiction. She is a speaker on author platforms, self-publishing, and marketing. She currently is a virtual admin and a freelance writer.
Helen Starbuck, no relation to the coffee bunch, is a Colorado native, former OR nurse/nurse editor, and award-winning author of the Annie Collins Mystery Series and standalone romantic suspense novels. She loves mysteries, suspense, romance, and any book that is well written. She’s a huge fan of books with independent, strong, women characters and, as Neil Gaiman says, “…stories where women save themselves.” When not writing you can find her ballroom dancing, talking to her cat Bean, and gardening.
My name is Brett Wallach, and I’m a father of two daughters from the Philadelphia area. The protagonist in my Phil Allman, P.I. series of mysteries is a misanthropic, sentimental, bitter, funny, romantic, lustful, tough, sometimes amoral, slightly (?) insane divorced father of two daughters from Philadelphia. Any resemblance to myself is highly coincidental. I’ve tried to create a character who often says and does the wrong things, after reading so many books in this genre where the main character, despite quirks, is usually unrealistically virtuous. Think Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver, only funnier. My favorite authors are John Steinbeck, Graham Greene, Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, Dennis Lehane, Walter Mosley, Gillian Flynn, and many others. I have no delusions that my novels are on their level, but as my reviews (please see them as well on Goodreads) show, most people seem to find them entertaining. After my former publisher recently went out of business, I decided to self-publish, and my nine books (so far) in the series (Jesse Garon, And I Love Her, Young Blood, Freeze Out, Susceptible,Torment, Man Out Of Time, The One You Never Seen Before, The Last Shot) are all available on Amazon, and candid, objective reviews are always welcome. My most recent noir novel, The Last Shot, has been published by The Wild Rose Press. My tenth book, and the only one not in the Phil Allman series is The Last MAN On Earth, a sci-fi/social and sexual satire, and I hope that you like that as well. My email address is brettswallach1@gmail.com, and feedback is welcome.
I started writing stories at 7 years old and began my first novel at 19, but it wasn’t until the first lockdown that I had the idea for a crime solving psychic who could use her abilities to aid her in her investigations. I wrote the book within a few months, before passing it to friends to beta read for me. In my day job, I teach history to kids in fun, hands-on workshops. My passions for ghosts and for history have been combined in my book, The Curious Life of Ada Baker.
Dennis the poltergeist in my novel was inspired by a real poltergeist that I experienced in an Edwardian flat when I was 19. Twenty-five years later, I still think about him almost every day. I followed an unusual route to publication. At the end of my interview with psychic Mike Baker, he suggested I should approach a publisher in Cambridge with a K or C name. I thought why not give it a try, and that’s how I found Cranthorpe Millner.
Marla White started her illustrious career as a storyteller at the age of four by drawing on the TV screen to help Winky Dink get out of mortal danger, earning her a firm spanking. Deterred by the negative feedback, she studied to be a park ranger instead until she realized it was really a TV show about park rangers she liked, not the actual outdoors. She enjoys a career developing television series and movies as well as teaching story workshops at UCLA Extension.
Appropriately, she found out on April Fool’s Day she’d sold her first book, “The Starlight Mint Surprise Murder” to Wild Rose Press.
Denise Jaden is a co-author of the Rosa Reed Mystery Series by Lee Strauss, the author of several critically-acclaimed young adult novels, as well as the author of several nonfiction books for writers, including the NaNoWriMo-popular guide Fast Fiction. Her new Mallory Beck Cozy Culinary Mystery Series will launch throughout the year, and you can add the first book to your reading list on GoodReads right now. In her spare time, she homeschools her son (a budding filmmaker), acts in TV and movies, and dances with a Polynesian dance troupe. She lives just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband, son, and one very spoiled cat.
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Marilyn Meredith is the author of over 40 published books including two mystery series, the Deputy Tempe Crabtree mysteries and the Rocky Bluff P.D. mysteries, written under the name of F. M. Meredith. She’s a member of two chapters of Sisters in Crime, and the Public Safety Writers Association. She’s taught writing for Writers Digest School, and at many writers’ groups and conferences. She lives in a foothill community of the southern Sierra with her husbands. She’s a fourth generation Californian, ans has a really big family that includes seven great-great grandchildren.
Bentley Turner, a pseudonym, has written several short stories for literary journals. “The File on Thomas Marks” is his first mystery. Turner is working on another mystery tentatively titled “A Killing in Oklahoma.” Under his legal name, Turner has written articles for academic journals, chapters for academic books, entries for encyclopedias and other reference books, and several books of nonfiction for academic and reference publishers.
Debbie De Louise is an award-winning author and a reference librarian at a public library on Long Island. She is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Long Island Authors Group, and the Cat Writers’ Association. Her novels include a paranormal romance, standalone mysteries, the Cobble Cove cozy mystery series, and a romantic comedy novella. Debbie has also written a non-fiction cat book and a time-travel novel. She’s contributed to several Red Penguin Collection anthologies and their Bloom Literary Journal. She also writes for Catster Magazine. Debbie lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and three cats.
Tonia Lalousi was born in 1993 in Greece and studied Biology at the University of Patras. In 2017, she started writing romantic stories and she published her first romance novel on Amazon, entitled ”Follow your heartbeat”. Her gradual transition from the sphere of romantic reading to the mysteries and adventures of crime fiction led her to write a crime book series, starring the criminologist Peter Deligiannis. The first book of the series, entitled “The Fall”, is published in Greece by Pigi Publications. It is an alloy of crime and romance, and its main axis revolves around the effects of our choices between right and wrong. The second book, entitled ‘’The Last Symphony” is also published in Greek, by Lexitipon Publications. It is an entirely crime story which deals with the value of perfection, as a reference point for the conquest of the top and the social recognition. In 2020, she gave a master class about creative writing to Greek writers.
Author, Mary Cunningham, grew on the northern side of the Ohio River in Corydon, Indiana. Her first memories are of her dad’s original bedtime stories that no doubt inspired her imagination and love of a well-spun “yarn”. She began writing memoirs at an early age, and continues to do so, today.
Her award-winning five book middle-grade series, Cynthia’s Attic, was published in 2006-2013. The setting is in her childhood home in Southern Indiana. Family stories and ancestors comprise the storylines. She’s writing a new mystery series (humor is essential) with the first book being published by Wild Rose Press in 2021
Cunningham is a member of The Carrollton Writers Guild.
When she gives her fingers a break from the keyboard, she enjoys golf, swimming and exploring the mountains of West Georgia where she makes her home with her husband and adopted, four-legged, furry daughter, Lucy.
Award-winning author Lorraine Evanoff’s highly addictive, suspenseful thrillers are perfect for fans of Erik Larson, Jack Slater and Kathy Reichs.
Former Hollywood finance exec Lorraine Evanoff uses classic mystery storytelling to spin complex tales of international finance with a sexy female heroine. Lorraine’s best-selling Louise Moscow Novels, FOLIAGE and the newly released PINOT NOIR, are high concept noir thrillers inspired by real-life banking scandals.
Originally from Chicago, Lorraine received a degree in French from DePaul then studied and worked for seven years in Paris and is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband. Lorraine held CFO positions in high tech companies during the dot-com era, and more recently in the film industry, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She already has multiple IMDB credits to her name and now has a screenplay in development.
Awards:
PINOT NOIR: An International Banking Spy Thriller (A Louise Moscow Novel Book 2)
2020 BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD WINNER, MYSTERY CATEGORY
2020 indigBRAG B.R.A.G. MEDALLION WINNER, HISTORICAL FICTION CATEGORY
FOLIAGE: An International Banking Spy Thriller (A Louise Moscow Novel Book 1)
2016 BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARD FINALIST, HISTORICAL FICTION CATEGORY
2016 NEW APPLE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
2016 SHELF UNBOUND BEST INDIE BOOK, NOTABLE INDIE AWARD
2016 READER’S FAVORITE BOOK AWARD FINALIST