Reader's Entertainment Radio

Shirley Reva Vernick writes award-winning MG and YA fiction, including ALA Best Fiction pick and Sydney Taylor honor book The Blood Lie. Her essays have appeared in Salon, Cosmopolitan, literary journals, and city newspapers. Shirley also helps run Storybee.com, a storytelling web service that is used as a literacy tool on five continents. NASA used it as a model for its Imagine Mars program, which combined storytelling and science for K-12 students. You can learn more at her website: https://www.shirleyrevavernick.com/

And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com

Book Lights - shining a light on good books!

Author and Book Lights Podcast host, Lisa Kessler, joins me today to talk all about what helped her writing in 2021 and what her goals are for 2022. 

On Lisa's 2022 to do list? To pen her 50TH book! 

Lisa Kessler is a Best Selling author of dark paranormal fiction. She’s a two-time San Diego Book Award winner for Best Published Fantasy-Sci-fi-Horror and Best Published Romance. Her books have also won the PRISM award, the Award of Excellence, the National Excellence in Romantic Fiction Award, the Award of Merit from the Holt Medallion, and an International Digital Award for Best Paranormal.

Her short stories have been published in print anthologies and magazines, and her vampire story, Immortal Beloved, was a finalist for a Bram Stoker award.

When she’s not writing, Lisa is a professional vocalist, and has performed with San Diego Opera as well as other musical theater companies in San Diego.

Stay up-to-date on new releases and giveaways by subscribing to Lisa’s newsletter here: https://goo.gl/56lDla or checking in with her on Twitter, FB, and Amazon.

International Bestselling Author Kathrin Hutson has been writing Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and LGBTQ Speculative Fiction since 2000. With her wildly messed-up heroes, excruciating circumstances, impossible decisions, and Happily Never Afters, she’s a firm believer in piling on the intense action, showing a little character skin, and never skimping on violent means to bloody ends. 

In addition to writing her own dark and enchanting fiction, Kathrin spends the other half of her time as a fiction ghostwriter of almost every genre and as Fiction Co-Editor for Burlington’s Mud Season Review. She is an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association. 

Kathrin lives in Colorado with her husband, their young daughter, and their two dogs, Sadie and Brucewillis. 

You can learn more at: https://www.kathrinhutsonfiction.com/

And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com

Book Lights - shining a light on good books!

Writer Angela Terry is an attorney who formerly practiced intellectual property law at large firms in Chicago and San Francisco.

She is also a Chicago Marathon legacy runner and races to raise money for PAWS Chicago—the Midwest’s largest no-kill shelter.

She resides in San Francisco with her husband and two cats, and enjoys throwing novel-themed dinner parties for her women’s fiction book club.

Her latest release, The Trials of Adaline Turner, is out now. 

You can sign up for Angela's newletter at her website and reach out to her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Linda Thomas-Sundstrom is an award-winning author of paranormal romance and urban fantasy, with books from Kensington, Amazon Montlake, Harlequin Nocturne, and GothicScapes.

Linda lives in the west and swears she has "paranormal" in her DNA. A teacher by day and a writer by night, Linda delivers gothic, supernatural fare, both contemporary and historical, and invites you to come on this wild ride with her. You can find Linda on Facebook at - www.facebook.com/LindaThomasSundstrom and her website: http://www.lindathomas-sundstrom.com/

And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com

Book Lights - shining a light on good books!

By day, Becky Monson is a mother to three young children, and a wife. By night, she escapes with reading books and writing. An award-winning author, Becky uses humor and true-life experiences to bring her characters to life. 

She loves all things chick-lit (movies, books, etc.), and wishes she had a British accent. She has recently given up Diet Coke for the fiftieth time and is hopeful this time will last... but it probably won't.

Readers' Favorite Book Award Recipient 

2016, 2017, 2018, & 2019

You can find her latest book How To Ruin the Holidays out now. 

Give Becky a shout at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bookbub, and Goodreads.

Even better, sign up for her newletter at BeckyMonson.com.

Mia Heintzelman is a polka-dot-wearing, horror and romance movie lover, who always has a book and a to-do list in her purse. She writes fun, unforgettable, more than just laughs romance about strong women, and men with enough heart to fall for them. When she isn’t busy writing fictional happily-ever-afters, she is likely reading, playing board games, or eating sweets. 

She currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and two children.

​Look for her books soon with Tule Publishing.

You can learn more at her website: https://www.miaheintzelman.com/

And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com

Book Lights - shining a light on good books!

Carla Luna was born in Los Angeles but spent most of her childhood on Vancouver Island, B.C., surrounded by beaches and forests. Her love for writing started at the tender age of eight when she wrote a short story about three witches who debated the best way to spend Halloween (riding broomsticks vs riding vacuum cleaners). In college, she studied history and archaeology and was fortunate enough to work on digs all over the world. She still dreams of traveling to far-off places and now channels that wanderlust into her stories.

Her love of romance began when she discovered the rack of Harlequin romances at the library where she worked as a teen. From there, she moved on to steamy historical epics and Gothic romances set on windswept moors. At present, she writes contemporary romance and romantic comedies with a dollop of humor and a pinch of spice.

When she’s not writing, she works in a spice emporium where she gets paid to discuss food and share her favorite recipes. Her passions include baking, Broadway musicals, whimsical office supplies, and listening to pop culture podcasts. She currently resides in Wisconsin with her family and her feisty Siberian cat.

Her latest release, White Wedding, a Christmas Romantic Comedy is out now. 

You can find Carla and sign up for her newsletter at her website. She's also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

*Book graphics by Carla Luna

Eliot Parker is the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. His novel Code for Murder was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. He is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. He recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels.

Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and Blog Talk Radio. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches English at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.

He is the proud pet-parent of two loving, and spoiled cats, Layla and Buddy, and enjoys sports, traveling, reading, and movies when he’s not writing. You can learn more here: https://www.eliotparker.com/

And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com

Book Lights - shining a light on good books!

Journalist and sports lover Tracy Solheim loved writing since the 4th grade when she sold out of her first book--because her father bought all the copies. 

Nevertheless, she was hooked on telling a good story.

A bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee landed her in Washington, DC, where she wrote reports for Congress while pursuing a Master’s degree in Legislative Affairs from The George Washington University.

Not totally exciting, but writing. Then she had a brief stint in television production for NBC Sports at the Seoul Olympics (1988), but most of her early writing consisted of crafting lengthy government reports. 

In 2012, her first book Game On, was published and Tracy has been penning amazing romances ever since. 

Her latest series, Men of the Secret Service is out and her latest holiday release, Second Chance Christmas are available now. 

You can find Tracy at her website, Facebook, Instagram, BookBub, Pinterest, and Goodreads. 

You can find her book list on her website and if you sign up for her newsletter, you'll get a recipe book full of holiday drink recipes featured in Second Chance Christmas.