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Martin Bodenham says: I am a writer of financial crime thrillers.   

My debut novel, The Geneva Connection, was published by Musa Publishing in December 2011.  The main character is John Kent, who thought he had it all. The phenomenal success of his private equity firm has propelled him into the world’s wealthy super-league. Self-made and from a poor background, he’s living his dream. Then he discovers his financial backers are a front for the world’s largest organized crime group, the Mexican Caruana drug cartel. It is run by Felix Safuentes, also known as “Jivaro” after the South American tribe famous for decapitating its enemies. Kent’s nightmare hasn’t even started... 

I was born in Leicester, England in 1959.  My American father was in the US Air Force while my British mother sterilized telephone handsets.  I was educated at the Duke of York’s Royal Military School in Kent and at the University of Leicester, where I read economics. 

After university, I trained as a chartered accountant, working in the UK and USA.  I have spent the last twenty-five years in private equity, working either as an investor or advisor.  Today, I am the CEO of Advantage Capital, a London-based private equity firm.  Along the way, I have been an investor at 3i and Close Brothers, and a corporate finance partner at both KPMG and Ernst & Young. 

I am married to Jules.  She is a psychotherapist and keeps me in check.  We live in Rutland, England’s smallest county.

 

Writer, teacher, and pastor Leaf Seligman is the settled minister at First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. She has a master’s degree in writing from the University of New Hampshire, and has taught writing at that university, at Franklin Pierce University, at Keene State College, and in New Hampshire prisons and jails.

Her essays have been published in Creative Nonfiction and New Thought Journal. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, where she won the Billings Prize for Preaching, she has served as a chaplain in both a hospital and a jail.

Her book, Opening the Window: Sabbath Meditations, is a collection of sermons that invokes poetry, thinking from diverse spiritual traditions, and stories from her own journey through life. It aims to help people find meaning in their lives and in the world.

Leaf lives joyfully with her dog among the trees of southwestern New Hampshire.

 

High-tech becomes high-risk in Denise Robbins' novels. The New Hampshire-based author uses two decades of experience in computers to explore the killer possibilities in technology. Denise integrates her knowledge of computers and technology along with secrets, intrigue, suspense, and even a little romance into all of her techno-romantic thriller novels. Readers and reviewers agree Denise writes stories that will keep you at the edge of your seat and clamoring for more.

Her fifth novel is about to be released and she's already at work on her sixth.

From her back deck, she sits outside, listens as the old roller coaster from the local amusement park inches its way up the wooden structure on its clanking chains, and waits to hear the kids scream in terror and delight. The best mental therapy a girl could ask for. The long, cold winter nights in New Hampshire provide the serenity and motivation to write excitement into the night.

In addition to writing, Denise enjoys scuba diving (only in warm water), snowboarding, running, and playing in her garden.

 

Michelle McCorkle always wanted to be a teacher and used to set up her dolls and teddy bears as if in a classroom. She gave them tests and corrected them with a red pen. As a teen, she wrote a lot of poetry and kept a daily diary.

Writing always came easy for Michelle. She read Sidney Sheldon’s Master of the Game in 8th grade and she was hooked on the plot twists. It was then she dreamed of writing her own stories. Life in the Fast Lane and Another Life in the Fast Lane are Michelle’s first two books. For her third book, Michelle was inspired by her own experiences with ghosts and has tied some of that experience into Angel of Mercy. Michelle's second ghost story is her fourth novel, Voices from Beyond. It released in December 2011.

Michelle has been teaching middle school English for 16 years including a Health curriculum for 6 years. She finds that a lot of parents don't like to talk to their children about adolescent issues because they're too embarrassed, but this is where communication needs to be the strongest. She usually likes to incorporate touchy adolescent topics and realistic experiences of what it was like growing up in the '80s into her books.

Michelle lives in New Hampshire with her husband and 4 daughters.

 
C. Hope Clark is founder of FundsforWriters.com, a well-known writer's reference for grants, contests, markets, publishers and agents for the serious writer. The website and newsletters have existed for a dozen years and been recognized by Writer's Digest Magazine in its 101 Best Websites for Writers for eleven of those years. 41,000 writers receive her newsletters each week. She's published in Writer's Digest, Writer's Market, Guide to Literary Agents (by Writer's Digest), The Writer Magazine, as well as multiple trades, glossy mags and numerous Chicken Soup books. She's interviewed often by both writing and business websites and speaks to writing conferences throughout the United States. Her book The Shy Writer: An Introvert's Guide to Writing Success, continues to sell steadily.

She is also author of The Palmetto State Mystery Series. Lowcountry Bribe is the first in the series published by Bell Bridge Books. The mysteries describe federally employed Carolina Slade's sleuthing abilities throughout rural, rarely seen South Carolina settings, facing crimes not found in your typical mystery. Lowcountry Bribe can be purchased mid-February 2012 via all typical book venues to include http://www.bellebooks.com/ .

Hope Clark lives in rural South Carolina, on the banks of the beautiful Lake Murray, amidst her wildlife and gardens, alongside her federal agent husband and chickens. Contact her:

Editor, FundsforWriters, www.fundsforwriters.com
Blog - www.hopeclark.blogspot.com
 
 
Barry Willdorf was born in New York City and grew up in Malden and Gloucester, MA, where he was one of the earliest surfers on the North Shore. He graduated from Colby College in 1966 with a B.A. in History and earned a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1969.  He also attended the University of Manchester in England in the mid-sixties.

Barry began his career as an investigator for the New York Legal Aid Society. In 1970, after a stint as a public defender, he founded the Southern California Military Law Project, to represent members of the armed forces court-martialed for opposition to the Vietnam War and/or racial discrimination. In 1972 he co-authored a legal self-help book for military personnel: Turning the Regs Around. Barry continued court-martial defense until 1975. In 2001, he published a semi-autobiographical novel, Bring the War Home!, fictionalizing his experiences at the Marine Corps base at Camp Pendleton. (Currently available as a free download on Scribd.)

Barry’s legal publishing credits include co-authoring How To Pass the LSATs, Monarch Press, 1969, contributions to content in Matthew Bender, California Forms of Jury Instructions and engagement as a contributing editor for Matthew Bender’s, Trial Master series. He has also has published several shorter works on the Second Amendment.

During a legal career spanning four decades, Barry has been lead counsel in well over 100 trials. He has extensive forensic experience and has often analyzed or discovered incriminating evidence of all kinds. His practice has run the gamut from every type of criminal offense to civil fraud, medical and legal malpractice, securities violations and complex real estate schemes. He enjoys the highest attorney rating (AV) given by Martindale and Hubbell. In 2005, the San Francisco AIDS Legal Referral Panel named him “Attorney of the Year”. He has been an acting judge and a certified arbitrator for many years. Barry draws on all of this education, training and experience to craft his fiction.

This summer, Barry received a Global E-Book Award (best historical literature) for his novel,The Flight of the Sorceress. (Wild Child Publishing, 2010.) He is currently a finalist for a “best historical novel” award for 2012 from the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition (EPIC). Set in the fifth century, The Flight of the Sorceress, recounts how the newly-empowered Roman Catholic Church combined with the Roman Imperial government to wage religious war against women, pagans, dissenters and “heretics”. 

Barry's most recent novel, Burning Questions, (Whiskey Creek Press, August 1, 2011) is the first part of the “1970s Trilogy”. Based on an actual homicide, as well as the author’s recollections of growing up in Gloucester MA,  Burning Questions is a mystery-thriller involving teenage suicide, corrupt real estate dealings and class prejudice. Part Two, A Shot In The Arm, is presently in editing for publication.

Barry is a member of the San Francisco Writers Workshop, The Blackpoint Writers Group and is represented by The Krista Goering Literary Agency.  He and his wife Bonnie live in San Francisco.

For  Part One of the 1970s Trilogy, Burning Questions, click on http://1970strilogy.blogspot.com/. For the award winning historical novel, The Flight of the Sorceress click http://flightofthesorceress.blogspot.com/.
For further information about the author and his work, log on to: http://agauchepress.com/.

 

Mary Johnson joined the Missionaries of Charity, the group commonly known as the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, at age 19. For fifteen of Mary Johnson's twenty years as a sister, she was stationed in Rome and often lived with Mother Teresa for weeks at a time. Johnson also lived and worked as a nun in the South Bronx, Washington DC, and Winnipeg.

Mother Teresa sent her to study theology at Regina Mundi, a pontifical institute aggregated to the Gregorian University in Rome, where she received a diploma in religious studies. Johnson was assigned to compose and revise some of the governing documents of the Missionaries of Charity, and for six years was responsible for the formation of sisters preparing to vow their lives as nuns.

After leaving the sisters in 1997, Johnson completed a BA in English at Lamar University and an MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College. She also married. A well-respected teacher and public speaker, Johnson has led retreats, workshops, classes, and training sessions of various kinds for nearly thirty years. Most recently she has taught creative writing and Italian to adults and is Creative Director of A Room of Her Own Foundation's (http://www.aroomofherownfoundation.org/) retreats for women writers.

Johnson's memoir, An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life released in the US in September.

 

Gary Braver is the pen name of Gary Goshgarian, the author of eight critically acclaimed suspense novels: three under his own name--Atlantis Fire, Rough Beast and The Stone Circle--and five under his pen name--Elixir, Gray Matter, Flashback, Skin Deep, and Tunnel Vision.

He is also the author of six popular college writing textbooks--Exploring Language, The Contemporary Reader, Dialogues, What Matters in America, Readings for Today, and Dialogue as Argument: A Concise Guide.

In the 1970s, Gary took up scuba diving and joined an Earthwatch team looking for Phoenician and Roman shipwrecks off the Spanish island of Mallorca. They discovered two Roman wrecks as well as modern-day pirates who attacked them underwater with anchors dragged behind fast speedboats. Unbeknownst to them, their little expedition had trespassed into the middle of an antiquities blackmarket involving dealers who were stealing booty from Mediterranean shipwrecks and selling it to museums around the world. Gary vowed that if he got out of that alive, he’d write a book about it. He did and moved the locale to the majestic island of Santorini, the ancient outpost of the Minoan empire. That book is called Atlantis Fire, which Stephen King called “a fine thriller seasoned with wit and sensibility…it blew me away."

His archaeological thriller, The Stone Circle, got good reviews and, for awhile, had attracted the interest of Jack Nicholson who was looking to do a horror movie on the success of “The Shining.” He eventually passed, choosing to make “Wolf” (1994) instead.

In 1995, Gary's next novel Rough Beast was published. Because of its reception, the publisher asked that he do more of the same—high concept bio-medical thrillers centered on the family. That led to Elixir, which got optioned for a movie by director Ridley Scott. Because of that option and the publisher’s perception that the book was going to take off, Gary was asked to adopt a pen name to fool the bookstore chains which base their prepublication purchases on the sales figures of an author’s previous title. Thus, Gary Braver was born. The movie was not made, even after a second option, but Elixir did well.

Gary then published more thrillers—Gray Matter, Flashback, winner of the 2006 Massachusetts Honor Book Award, and Skin Deep, a psychological thriller centered on cosmetic surgery. His newest thriller, Tunnel Vision, released in June 2011.

Gary is an award-winning professor of English at Northeastern University where he teaches Fiction Writing and courses in popular culture (Science Fiction, Horror Fiction, Detective Fiction, Modern Bestsellers, and Edgar Allan Poe.) He has taught fiction-writing workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe.

He lives in Massachusetts.

 

Beth Groundwater's first forays into fiction writing were her Freddie stories when she was in fifth and sixth grade. Her protagonist, Freddie, had all sorts of wild adventures, including visiting an underground mole city after burrowing down in a giant screw-mobile. Freddie was a boy, because back in the sixties, Beth thought girls weren't supposed to have adventures. She knows better now!

She obtained a college degree in Psychology (useful in character development) and Computer Science. She wondered why she double-majored in the two fields that attracted the weirdest students at the college. She now thinks it's because of her lifelong interest in developing solutions to convoluted puzzles, be they software algorithms, understanding what makes a person tick, or solving a mystery story's "what if?"

She's been a software engineer and software project manager. Once management discovered she was a rare commodity--a software engineer who could write--she wrote countless manuals, design documents, final reports, marketing proposals, and technical papers. She also married, obtained a Masters Degree, and produced two children.

Beth has been writing fiction since retiring and has finished six novels, a novella, and numerous short stories. She was active in two critique groups for over five years, but now meets with one. To learn the craft, she studied writing books, took workshops, went to conferences, and entered contests, some of which she won or placed in. She's a big believer in networking. She belongs to the following writing organizations: Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Pikes Peak Writers, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Between writing spurts, she defends her meager garden from marauding mule deer and wild rabbits, and tries to avoid getting black-and-blue on the black and blue ski slopes of Colorado. She also loves water sports, particularly whitewater rafting/canoeing and snorkeling. If a water slide is around, she's on it--more than once. Growing up as a military brat, she enjoyed and thrived on travel. She's the family travel agent and has planned trips for her family to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and all over the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Beth's newest Rocky Mountain Outdoor Adventures mystery, Deadly Currents, released in March. Her novel A Real Basket Case was nominated for Best First Novel Agatha Award in 2007 and releases in paperback in November.

 

John Everson is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th,  Siren and The Pumpkin Man, all released in paperback from Dorchester Publications. Limited collector's hardcover editions have also been released from Delirium, Necro and Bad Moon Books. He has had several short fiction collections issued by independent presses, including Creeptych, Deadly Nightlusts, Needles & Sins, Vigilantes of Love and Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions. Over the past 20 years, his short stories have appeared in more than 75 magazines and anthologies. His work been translated into Polish, Turkish, Italian and French, and optioned for potential film production. He is also the founder of the independent press Dark Arts Books (www.darkartsbooks.com).

John shares a deep purple den in Naperville, Illinois with a cockatoo and cockatiel, a disparate collection of fake skulls, twisted skeletal fairies, Alan Clark illustrations and a large stuffed Eeyore. There's also a mounted Chinese fowling spider
named Stoker courtesy of Charlee Jacob, an ever-growing shelf of custom mix CDs and an acoustic guitar that he can't really play but that his son Shaun likes to hear him beat on anyway. Sometimes his wife Geri is surprised to find him shuffling through more public areas of the house, but it's usually only to brew another cup of coffee. In order to avoid the onerous task of writing, he holds down a regular job at a medical association, records pop-rock songs in a hidden home studio, experiments with the insatiable culinary joys of the jalapeno, designs photo collage art book covers for a variety of small presses, loses hours in expanding an array of gardens and chases frequent excursions into the bizarre visual headspace of '70s euro-horror DVDs with a shot of Makers Mark and a tall glass of Newcastle.

For information on his fiction, art and music, visit John Everson: Dark Arts at www.johneverson.com .

 

 

           

 

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