A.L. Long is an Award winning author of the Independent Press Award for Distinguishing Favorite. She says – “My love for writing began several years ago after an early retirement from a demanding job that I loved, but also hated because it consumed so much of my time. Now, I am able to focus my time on what I love. Writing romance has been a life long dream and to actually say that I am a published author is beyond what I would have ever expected.  Even though some may say I have a little naughtiness in my books, I look at it as an added bonus for my readers. After all what is a romance book without a little spice.  When I am not writing, I enjoy spending time with friends either at home or out on the town. Mostly, I enjoy a relaxing night at home where I can enjoy a glass of wine in the company of a good book.”

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Marvin Wolf is a charter member of Independent Writers of Southern California and four time past president. He also belongs to the Writers Guild of America,West, Mystery Writers of America, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the USMC Combat Correspondents Association. He served in Vietnam as a combat photographer and was awarded a battlefield commission as well as the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. Marvin’s first book, The Japanese Conspiracy was an investigative exposé of the decades-long secret collusion between the Japanese government and industrial conglomerates in violation of international trade agreements.

Since then he has authored or collaborated as co-author or ghost writer to produce well-regarded autobiographies of ABC Broadcasting founder Leonard Goldenson (Beating The Odds), Native American leader Russell Means (Where White Men Fear To Tread,) and former South Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky (Buddha’s Child). His latest book (February 2015) is Abandoned In Hell, The Fight For Vietnam’s Firebase Kate. He also co-wrote the screenplay for Ladies Night, a feature-length movie for the USA Network based on one of his own books.He is presently writing a nonfiction book about Vietnam Veterans and their contributions to US society since the war. The Next Great Generation will be published in November 2019. Marvin lives in Asheville NC with his adult daughter and two small but ferocious dogs.

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21 Things You Should Know About Me

What book have you gifted the most? Why?

“Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy,” David Bergamini – Totally accessible history of Japan and its relationship with the West before WWII

What is the one productivity tool you use every day? Why?

Grammerly   Quick check on punctuation and spelling.

What word do you misspell most often?

Mispel.

What three things do you do to be a successful writer?

Write every day.*Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Accept criticism gracefully and with an open mind.

What are the titles of the last two books you have read?

The Surgeon (Tess Gerritsen)

Remembering Heaven’s Face (John Balaban)

What is your favorite word?

Timbuktu. I’ve heard that it’s also St. Peter’s favorite word.

What do you use more often – a dictionary or a thesaurus?

Thesaurus

What would you name the autobiography of your life?

Al Capone’s Illegitimate Grandson

What is your ‘go to’ munchie or drink while writing?

Chilled Tap Water.

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Elaborate.

It might be worth 10,000 words. Or just one. Does the picture convey a large, nuanced story? Or a single, indelible fact?

What animal are you most similar to and why?

Dog: All I do is eat, sleep, stare out a window and poop.

How would your best friend describe you?

As a guy that he kinda sorta used to know.

What keeps you up at night? (and don’t say howling dogs)

What I have something difficult to do the next morning.

What is one thing you will never do again?

Fight in a war.

If we came to your house for dinner, what would you prepare?

My daughter and our dogs. They startle easily.

What is the best compliment you have received – or would like to receive?

That I was a good soldier who served with honor in a brutal war while maintaining a cheerful presence.

What question do you hate to answer?

Are you sure you don’t want another helping of this delicious ____________________?”

Crowds, small groups or ‘go away’?

Small groups.

What would you sing at Karaoke night?

Arrirang.

If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

Mario Kiefer has a keen interest in people and likes to write about the things that make people tick – those hidden motivations they often do not see themselves. Although born in Austin, Texas, he has lived in many parts of the country and is fascinated by the differing cultural viewpoints he has encountered always asking himself “why”?

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21 Things You Should Know About This Author

 

What book have you gifted the most? Why?

The Mediations of Marcus Aurelius. Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD.  This book contains his private thoughts written down for himself on basic Stoic philosophy and the importance of perspective in one’s judgment.  Understanding these thoughts, instructs the reader on how to deal with the trials and travails of ordinary existence and puts perspective on the problems at hand.  Personally, I have read it a number of times.  Each time, I take away something new.  I believe that when one takes away something new from a re-reading of material, then that material may actually have something worthwhile to say.  When gifting the book to others, my sincere hope is that in the reading of the material, they may find their own path to self-discovery.

What is the one productivity tool you use every day? Why?

Any tool that can be used for communication – whether communication to myself or to others. That generally is in the form of a calendar and email. I use my email in-box, in large part, as a task list.

What word do you misspell most often?

The word “the.”  This is likely due to dyslexia, but I am constantly writing the word “the” as “teh.”

What three things do you do to be a successful writer?

Read, discuss and write – in that order.

I am a voracious reader and will read pretty much anything put in front of me. Genre doesn’t matter.  I enjoy everything from children’s books to philosophical tomes; from newspaper articles on feel-good stories to lengthy material on political, social or economic philosophies.  As child, I read the encyclopedia for fun and I truly believe that one learns more from reading than from anything else.  It doesn’t matter what one reads as long as the material provokes thought.

I like to discuss the things I read and the thoughts that are provoked by the reading. I enjoy hearing opposing viewpoints and believe that by listening to and understanding those opposing viewpoints, we learn more about each other and the subject (whatever subject) at hand.  But I also firmly believe that in discussing things, people must keep an open mind and do so with the idea of learning about the other points while refraining from argumentative discussions that lead nowhere.

Then simply writing. Many times, I find that I am talking to myself in the shower, while sitting in the garden or by the pool, as I reflect on various thoughts that come into mind.  Then, I feel a need – an urge – to put those thoughts to paper.

What are the titles of the last two books you have read?

Recently, I have been on a revisiting the classics kick. I just finished re-reading Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.  Before that, I re-read Orwell’s Animal Farm.

What is your favorite word?

“Thought.”  Not that there is any particular elegance to that word, but to me, the word “thought” (or some derivation thereof) connotes intellectual curiosity.

What do you use more often – a dictionary or a thesaurus?

I would have to say a dictionary. I don’t use it necessarily for the definition of a word, but more frequently to understand a word’s etymology. Language is a fluid thing and the meaning of a word changes over time with common usage.

Award winning playwright and author Elliott Baker was born in Jacksonville, Florida. After high school he went on to bump into as many different experiences as possible.  From the University of Missouri Elliott continued on to Jacksonville University where he earned a B.A. in history. He worked as a swimming instructor in the Catskills, with an import business, on a kibbutz in the Golan Heights during the 1973 war, as an EKG technician, a retail district manager, a sandwich shop owner, and a hypnotherapist, until in 1981 he started and ran a five store costume jewelry chain for fifteen years. Sally Ann and Elliott currently live in southern New Hampshire.

In 1992 Elliott had the pleasure of seeing Gershwin’s show Crazy For You in New York City. When the orchestra began the overture, he had an epiphany. Nowhere was he more excited than seated in a theatre before the start of a show.  In 1995, the decision to compose musical scores moved Elliott to apply at the BMI / Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in New York. He was accepted as a composer/lyricist and his life took a sharp turn.

Baker has since written the book, music, and lyrics for six musicals, one of which was adapted into a play. Four musicals and the play have been published by Dramatic Publishing and Eldridge Publishing and are being produced all over the United States with previous productions in New Zealand, Portugal, England, and Canada. All of his shows have seen production. Baker is an active member of The Authors Guild and The Dramatists Guild.

In 2007 Elliott began work on a fiction series The Sun God’s Heir. An historical adventure set in the late seventeenth century, SGH has taken on a life of its own. The Sun God’s Heir: Return, book one of the trilogy, was released this past January. Book two, Rebirth, came out in May, and in October, will be followed by the final book of the series, Redemption.

 

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Elle Boon lives in Middle-Merica as she likes to say…with her husband, her youngest child Goob while her oldest daughter Jazz is set to make her a grandma for the first time this summer. Oh, and a black lab named Kally Kay who is not only her writing partner but thinks she’s human. She’d never planned to be a writer, but when life threw her a curve, she swerved with it, since she’s athletically challenged. She’s known for saying “Bless Your Heart” and dropping lots of F-bombs, but she loves where this new journey has taken her.

She writes what she loves to read, and that’s romance, whether it’s about Navy SEALs, or paranormal beings, as long as there is a happily ever after. Her biggest hope is that after readers have read one of her stories, they fall in love with her characters as much as she did. She loves creating new worlds, and has more stories just waiting to be written. Elle believes in happily ever afters, and can guarantee you will always get one with her stories.

Connect with Elle online, she loves to hear from you:

 

http://www.elleboon.com

http://www.elleboon.com/newsletter/

https://www.facebook.com/elle.boon

https://www.facebook.com/Elle-Boon-Author-1429718517289545/

https://twitter.com/ElleBoon1

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RacyReads/

http://www.amazon.com/Elle-Boon/e/B00K03HY42/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1415849092&sr=1-2-ent

https://www.facebook.com/groups/188924878146358/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1405756769719931/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wewroteyourbookboyfriends/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8120085.Elle_Boon

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/elle-boon

https://www.instagram.com/elleboon/

https://www.pinterest.com/elleboon/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RacyReads/

 

Adele M. Gill is a retired RN/BSN, a board certified Disability Analyst (ABDA), Chaplain, author of The Inspiration Café blog, and 3 books including her new inspirational, self-help book, ‘From Broken to Blest: Embracing the Healing that Awaits You,’ written with Dr. Verna Benner Carson. Adele is a tireless mental health advocate living in Maryland. 

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Award-winning Animal Communicator, Karen Anderson has been professionally communicating with pets for over 20 years. She earned the prestigious 1st Place Award for the 2013 Reader’s Choice Awards for ‘Best Animal Communicator’ and the 2nd Place Award the prior year. Karen discovered her special gift as a child and her abilities developed over the years and became particularly significant when she was a deputy sheriff. She discovered that animals on crime scenes could provide accurate eye-witness accounts about suspects and criminals. Karen is also a Psychic and an Evidential Medium with the ability to communicate with departed humans.

Karen has appeared on many shows including Coast to Coast AM with host George Noory, Darkness Radio, with host Dave Schrader, and Beyond Reality Radio with host Jason Hawes, Founder of TAPS and Lead Investigator of Ghost Hunters. Karen has written two books, including the bestselling, *”The Amazing Afterlife of Animals; Messages and Signs From Our Pets on the Other Side” and the popular, *”Hear All Creatures! The Journey of an Animal Communicator”*. Karen has also collaborated with Dr. Patricia Carrington, PhD. for her book, *”The Secret Inner Life of Pets” *and is a co-author for *”Amazing Paranormal Encounters, Vol. 2″.* Karen also offers online Animal Communication courses for those who want to develop their own skills of communicating with animals. Karen makes her home in the Inland Pacific Northwest where she lives on her farm with the animals she loves.

 

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Amy Lyle is an author, comedienne/actor and screenwriter that grew up in Marietta, Ohio, which is in the heart of Appalachia, known for a population that is partial to moonshine and prone to acts of violence. Obsessed with comedians and comedic writers she developed a writing style that is self-deprecating, hilarious and slightly neurotic. Amy has self-diagnosed herself with many conditions including: OCD (uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts vacillating from cleaning to running away), misophonia (having intense angry reactions to lip-smacking), Tourette’s Syndrome (yelling out random words), Sedatephobia (finds silence vexing and scary), apraxia (difficulty pronouncing words) and IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). She’s taking many, many natural, herbal supplements. Amy and her (second) husband, Peter, are having many issues raising their four teenagers and large dog together in the suburbs just north of Atlanta. Alma mater: The Ohio State University

 

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Rex Burns is the author of numerous books, articles, reviews and stories. 

The first in his series of police procedurals, The Alvarez Journal, won an Edgar for Best First Mystery and introduced the hard-boiled Denver homicide detective Gabriel Villanueva Wager. Another, The Avenging Angel, was made into a feature movie, Messenger of Death, starring Charles Bronson. With Suicide Season, Burns introduced Devlin Kirk, a Denver private detective specializing in industrial security. The latest Gabe Wager yarn, The Leaning Land, takes Wager to a Ute Indian Reservation.

Burns’ books are published in hardback and paperback and have been translated into a number of foreign languages. 

He is also co-editor, with Mary Rose Sullivan, of an anthology of detective stories entitled Crime Classics, and has published under the pen name “Tom Sehler.” 

For several years Burns wrote a monthly mystery book review column for the Rocky Mountain News, and other of his reviews have appeared in the Denver Post, the Miami Herald, and the Washington Post. His essays have appeared in scholarly publications as well as in popular periodicals such as The Writer. He is a contributor to Scribner’s Mystery and Suspense Writers, an advisor and contributor to the Oxford Companion to Mystery, and is the host of the Starz-Encore Mystery Channel television series, Anatomy of A Mystery.

He received his AB from Stanford University, and, after serving in the Marine Corps, his MA and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. 

He has published articles on American literature and culture, and a study of nineteenth century values entitled, Success in America: The Yeoman Dream and the Industrial Revolution. 

Retired Emeritus from the University of Colorado at Denver, he lives and writes in Boulder.

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Roger Johns is the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries. He is also a retired college professor and former corporate lawyer, with law degrees from LSU and Boston University. His checkered past includes, in no particular order, med school dropout, bookseller, ranch hand, drapery hanger, party photographer, hospital orderly, shoe salesman, and tuxedo rental clerk.

Roger was born and grew up in Louisiana and even though he has ‘lived away’ from time to time, he has spent most of his life in the Deep South. He and his wife have lived in Georgia for the past thirteen years.

He is a member of The Atlanta Writers Club – Sisters in Crime – Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. And, along with four other crime fiction writers, he co-authors the Murder Books blog.

His debut novel, Dark River Rising, published by St. Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books this past August, is the first in the Wallace Hartman Mystery series. The second in the series, River of Secrets, will be out on August 28, 2018. The stories are set in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and feature female homicide detective Wallace Hartman.

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