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Lori Z. Scott
remembers three main things about growing up: laughter, prayer,
and Super Cat. As a child,
Lori spent hours around the dinner table giggling at lame jokes, puns, and punch lines.
Laughter is still a vital part of her everyday life and her writing. (No joke!)
 Prayer
played a key role in Lori’s life too. After all, with three boisterous sisters, talking to
God was about the only place she held a prayer of getting a word in edgewise.
Lori wrote
“The Adventures of Super Cat” in the margins of her high school science notebook. (She just
couldn’t leave her creative streak out of the equation.) This daydreaming/doodling
phenomenon has occurred several times throughout her life, but that information remains
strictly confidential.
It’s
no wonder laughter, prayer, and Super Cat all show up in Lori’s new children’s fiction
series. The first two titles—Meghan Rose on Stage!
and Meghan Rose Has Ants in Her Pants—are funny (she figures, if it
doesn’t amuse her, why write it?) and bursting with
energy. The main character, named after her own daughter, is a
 strong,
out-spoken first grader. Her best buddy Ryan and duck-loving pal Kayla help round out the
cast.
As a
speaker, teacher, and award-winning author, Lori Z. Scott has contributed to more than a
dozen books and published over fifty short stories, poems, puzzles, articles, and devotions
for children, teens, and adults. Her web site—www.MeghanRoseSeries.com—highlights
the Meghan Rose series. Meghan Rose All Dressed Up and Meghan Rose Has a
Secret will be released this April.
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Elizabeth Zelvin is a New York City
psychotherapist whose debut mystery, Death
Will Get You Sober, is the latest turn in a lifelong path as a writer that has included
poetry, songs, and academic and professional materials on addictions and mental health.
After majoring in English in college, she spent two years in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa,
where she taught English to French-speaking students. On her return, Liz found a job in
publishing and began writing poetry. Her work appeared in numerous journals and eventually
was published in two books, I Am the Daughter and Gifts and Secrets: Poems of the
Therapeutic Relationship.
 Liz
returned to school for a master’s degree in social work and a credential in alcoholism
counseling. Her first clinical internship took her down to the Bowery, where her mystery
Death Will Get You Sober begins. Ten years later, she went back to the Bowery to
develop and run an outpatient program for homeless alcoholics and drug addicts.
In 2000, Liz left her day job to launch an online therapy website at
LZcybershrink.com and write Death Will Get You Sober. First in a series, it’s about a
recovering alcoholic whose formula for sobriety is, “Don’t drink, go to meetings, and
investigate a murder.”
A related short story, “Death Will Clean Your Closet,” has been
nominated for an
Agatha award for Best Short Story. Another story, “Death Will Tie Your Kangaroo Down,”
received an honorable mention in the first annual CrimeSpace Short Story Competition.
For more information, visit Liz’s author website at
www.elizabethzelvin.com . Liz blogs on
Poe’s Deadly Daughters at
www.poesdeadlydaughters.blogspot.com .
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 Diana Castilleja
has been writing as a career since 2004, but it wasn't the very
beginning. Her first attempt was more than ten years ago. Her first try at writing was
nearly straight plagiarism of a Jo Beverley title, a historical story that she still owns
(and loves). Since then, she's moved several times, divorced and remarried, and was once
again bitten by the writing bug. Since 2004 she has written 18+ novel length stories,
ranging in Romantic Suspense, Contemporary, and a definite favorite of her own tastes for
reading, Paranormal.She knows that she wouldn't have made it
this far without the support and camaraderie of her friends and writing mayhem makers. With
their constant pushes and online support, there's no question what an asset they have been
to her progress. She works everyday to pay back a little of that support, and to make a
positive impact on those around her with her stories.
She is a member of RWA, Austin RWA, EPIC, RWAOnline, is an active
member of the Romance Divas and is a proud co-owner in Sweeter Romantic Notions. To learn
more about her and her writing, visit her website:
www.dianacastilleja.com
(Diana has been a member of TWC for years, and did a short stint as part of the TWC
team.)
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Susan
Meier is the
author of over 30 books for Harlequin and Silhouette and one of Guideposts' Grace Chapel Inn
series books, The Kindness of Strangers. Her books have been finalists for
Reviewers Choice Awards, National Reader's Choice Awards and Cataromance.com Reviewer's
Choice Awards.
 Her
latest book, Her Pregnancy Surprise, an October, 2007 release for the
Harlequin Romance Line made both Walden’s Bestseller List for Series Romance and Bookscan.
The Millionaire’s Nanny and a not-yet-titled Christmas story are her 2008
releases.
Susan loves to teach as much as she loves
to write and is a popular speaker at RWA conferences. Can This Manuscript Be Saved?
and Plot Points, Taking the Train to Somewhere! are her most
requested workshops. Her article, “How To Write a Category Romance” appeared in 2003
Writer’s Digest Novel and Short Story Markets. Susan has also given workshops on
earthlycharms.com and her articles regularly
appear in RWA chapter newsletters.
 One
of eleven children, Susan was born and raised in Western Pennsylvania and continues to live
there with her husband, three children and two very personable cats. Susan is an avid, but
terrible golfer, and a woman who desperately wants to lean to cook without having to involve
the fire department. Her 2006 goals include getting involved with blogging -- she but hopes
no one is holding his or her breath waiting for that, losing fifteen pounds -- don't hold
your breath on that one either -- and figuring out the financing for an ocean front condo in
Virginia Beach. She swears she will wear Number 30 sun block and never subject anyone to the
site of her in a bikini! (Unless asked -- and paid…handsomely.)
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 Maya
Reynolds
is a high-energy, low-tolerance-for-boredom person. As the result, at varying times of
her life, she has been a teacher, a stockbroker, a psychiatric social worker and an
administrator. For five years, she was the VP of Operations for the public mental health
system of Dallas County.
When she decided to get serious about writing, Maya used her business expertise to draw up
a five-year plan for getting published. Her plan was so detailed, she achieved her goals
in three and a half years.
Her first novel, BAD GIRL, an erotic romance, was published by NAL Heat, a division of
Penguin, in September, 2007. She is currently under contract to NAL for a second novel to
be titled BAD BOY and published in 2009. She is also at work on an urban fantasy.
Maya has a popular blog where she posts about the writing life and business at:
http://www.mayareynoldswriter.blogspot.com
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THE
WRITER'S CHATROOM
