Lee County Reading Festival Authors - 2001
Check out the authors who will be appearing at the Lee County Reading Festival on March 10, 2001 in Centennial Park in Ft. Myers!
Ace Atkins - Ace Atkins covers crime for the Tampa Tribune. He was born in Alabama, and he frequently returns to the Deep South to listen to the blues and blues musicians. His love of the music led to his mystery series featuring Nick Travers, an ex-New Orleans Saint turned blues historian. Crossroad Blues and Leavin’ Trunk Blues are the first two books in the series, to be followed by Blues Before Sunrise.
Ace Atkins’ web site is: http://www.aceatkins.com
Clinton L. Black - Clinton L. Black is a Florida native who graduated from Florida A & M University with a Bachelors of Science Degree in biology/premed. He served in the United States Air Force, and has taught school in Virginia and Florida. He has written two poetry anthologies. His book, We As a Black People Our Time Has Come! is an essay/lyric collection about the truth on the state of today’s African-Americans.
Ben Bova - Dr. Ben Bova not only writes about the future; he has helped create it. The author of more than 90 futuristic novels and nonfiction books, he has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the Space Program. Dr. Bova is President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and a widely-popular lecturer. He has also been an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry.
Ben Bova’s web site is: www.benbova.net
Connie Bransilver & Larry Richardson - Larry and Connie are widely published photographers and writers. Larry Richardson has photographed nature and animal behavior for more than twenty years in the Rocky Mountains, Central and South America, and in Florida. Connie Bransilver has photographed nature on all seven continents, but is best known for her in-depth studies of lemurs, the great apes, and other African and Asian motifs. They have just completed their first joint book of photographs and text on southwest Florida, Florida’s Unsung Wilderness: The Swamps.
Scott Ciencin - Fort Myers author Scott Ciencin recently completed a deal to write the adaptation of Jurassic Park III, due for release in July 2001. He will also be launching a series of original Jurassic Park adventures for young readers for Random House. His other works include books in the Godzilla science fiction series, books based on Dinotopia by James Gurney, and juvenile fiction in the Dinoverse series. He is the best-selling author of over 40 books in a variety of genres including fantasy and suspense, and he also writes for DC Comics.
Nancy Cohen - Nancy Cohen introduces her Bad Hair Day mystery series with Permed to Death, the first book to feature Marla Shore, a beauty salon owner in Palm Haven, Florida. The owner of the Cut ‘N Dye Salon will return in December in Hair Raiser. Cohen, a Florida resident, has also written romances under the name Nancy Cane.
Nancy Cohen’s web site is: http://home.att.net/~ncane
Evelyn Coleman - Atlanta author Evelyn Coleman writes children’s books and adult suspense novels. She is the author of a mystery series featuring Patricia Conley, an Atlanta journalist, beginning with What A Woman’s Gotta Do. Her first American Girl History Mystery book, Mystery of the Dark Tower, will be followed in February by Born in Sin. She has written numerous children’s books, including White Socks Only, which was made into an award winning movie from Phoenix Films.
Evelyn Coleman’s web site is: http://www.evelyncoleman.com
Jasmine Cresswell - Jasmine Cresswell is the author of over forty romance novels. Her efforts have gained her numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Rose Award. Born in Wales, and educated in England, she met her husband while working at the British Embassy in Rio de Janeiro. The author of The Inheritance and The Disappearance, Cresswell now lives in Sarasota.
Millie Criswell - Millie Criswell is a multi-award winning romance novelist, who writes both historical and contemporary romances. Her awards include the Maggie Award from the Georgia Romance Writers, the Reviewer’s Choice Award, and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. Criswell started writing when she needed something to combat the boredom of staying home while her two children were at school. Her husband suggested she take her love of reading romances one step further and try to write one - and she did! The author of The Marrying Man and the forthcoming The Trouble with Mary lives in Virginia with her husband and her neurotic Boston terrier.
Millie Criswell’s web site is: http://www.tlt.com/authors/mcriswell.htm
Wes DeMott - Wes DeMott, who lives in Naples, Florida, is the author of two exciting novels. DeMott is a graduate of Old Dominion University, and is a former FBI agent and SWAT team member. He has also worked as a general contractor in Florida. DeMott has a new novel scheduled for publication in June 2001. It is another thriller with unique characters. Interestingly, DeMott has been in most situations his characters find themselves in. He’s been shot at, stabbed and had his nose broken twice. His two other novels, Walking K and Vapors are available for your reading pleasure.
Tim Dorsey - Tim Dorsey grew up in Riviera Beach, Florida. A graduate of Auburn University, he joined The Tampa Tribune in 1987. He left the paper last August to devote himself to writing full time. He has two novels to his credit, Florida Roadkill, and its sequel, Hammerhead Ranch Motel. If you like the mix of a Florida setting, and black humor that pokes fun at zany characters, you’ll enjoy both of these novels.
Tim Dorsey’s web site is: http://www.timdorsey.com
Grace F. Edwards - Grace F. Edwards was born and grew up in Harlem, the setting for her mystery series featuring ex-cop Mali Anderson. Edwards brings Harlem’s past and present alive as Mali helps her friends and family. Do or Die, the latest in the series, takes Mali on a jazz cruise aboard the QE2. Film and TV rights to the series have been sold.
Grace F. Edwards’ web site is: http://members.aol.com/malmystery
Dennis Fried & Genevieve - Dennis Fried has enjoyed careers in college teaching, marketing, advertising, nightclub ownership, software development, and stand-up comedy. Along with his two-year-old papillon, he has written Memoirs of a Papillon, The Canine Guide to Living with Humans without Going Mad. Together they reveal canine secrets never before shared with humans.
Heather Graham - Heather Graham is the keynote author for this year’s Lee County Reading Festival. She is a bestselling romance writer, whose latest book, Dying to Have Her is due out in March. It’s a sexy novel of passion and murder. Graham is best known for her contemporary and historical romance novels, but she is equally at home in other genres, including time travel and horror. Graham also writes as Heather Graham Pozzessere and Shannon Drake. Graham used her native Florida as the setting for a series of six historical novels, beginning with Runaway.
Heather Graham lives in Florida with her husband and their five children.
Karen Harper - A former college and high school English teacher, Karen Harper is the author of contemporary suspense and historical mystery novels. The third book in her Elizabeth I Mystery Series, The Twylight Tower will be out in March 2001. Books one and two, The Poyson Garden and The Tidal Poole are now available in paperback. Harper's new contemporary suspense, Down to the Bone, set in Ohio Amish country, was a USA Today bestseller. Shaker Run, which will be out in May 2001, is set in the author's hometown of Toledo, Ohio. Harper's books have been published in a variety of foreign languages, most recently Japanese and Greek. She and her husband divide their time between Columbus, Ohio and Naples, Florida.
Jeremiah Healy - Jeremiah Healy is the creator of John Francis Cuddy, a Boston-based private investigator. He started the series in 1984, when he was still teaching at the New England School of Law. He is a past president of the Private Eye Writers of America. Healy is also a winner of the Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel of 1986. In his latest novel, Spiral, Healy brings Cuddy to Florida to help an old Vietnam-era friend.
Note: On October 5th, in Prague, Czech Republic, Healy was elected to a four-year term as the president of the International Association of Crime Writers, an organization with nearly 1,000 members worldwide and over 250 in North America alone. Healy is the first American president of the International Association of Crime Writers.
Hilary Hemingway - A BFA graduate of University of Miami, Hilary Hemingway is the award-winning screenwriter of A Light Within the Shadow, co-author of the hardcover and paperback novels Dreamland and Dreamchild and the Timeblender series for Forge/St. Martins & Harper-Collins. She has worked for Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures, and as a journalist for Interview Magazine, The Miami Herald, and Harpers Bazaar. She has been featured in numerous publications including Time, Newsweek and People Magazine. She has had two theatrical plays produced and won a national award for directing a holocaust documentary, I Believe, narrated by Leonard Nimoy. She produced the evening news for FOX television and currently produces the PBS television talk show, Media Watch. Hunting with Hemingway is Hilary’s fourth book written with her husband and co-author, Jeff Lindsay.
Beverly Taylor Herald - Beverly Taylor Herald often says that writing with your twin is murder. She should know. She and her identical twin sister, Barbara Taylor McCafferty, write the humorous Tatum Twin mystery series published by Kensington. The next hardcover mystery in the series, Double Date, will be published on Valentine’s Day, 2000. The latest paperback in the series, Double Dealer, with a publication date of December 2000, deals with the antique business. Beverly has been an antique dealer for years, and in the book, she draws upon her own experiences. Double Dealer, unfortunately, also deals with the murder of an unscrupulous antique dealer. According to Barbara, a lot of dealers are now avoiding Beverly. "It’s sad," she reports.
Beverly Taylor Herald’s web site is: www.mysterytwins.com
Michael Impellizzeri - Michael Impellizzeri is an award-winning nature photographer. His latest book, Nature’s Artistry: There’s More to See, contains 120 full-color photographs, captions, and passages to help readers find the hidden dimensions of nature’s art. His 1997 book, Impressions of the Natural World, won the prestigious National Association of Independent Publishers Book Award for Best Coffee Table Book.
Franklyn A. Johnson - Franklyn A. Johnson is a retired president of three universities, two national foundations, and the National Job Corps under LBJ. His published works include a biography of Lord Mountbatten, an analysis of British defense organization, and One More Hill, a paperback which sold 150,000 copies in three editions. His most recent novels are Santori and Key West to Cuba. He has lived in Bonita Springs for nearly twenty years.
James Kaserman - James Kaserman is the author of Gasparilla Pirate Genius. He is presently working on a children’s novel with his wife called, The Legend of Gasparilla, A Pirate Tale for All Ages. Kaserman now lives in Ft. Myers, after a distinguished career in education, coaching, and politics in his native Ohio.
Dr. Carol Kennedy - Dr. Carol Kennedy’s book, The Encyclopedia of Parenting - From A to Z - So Help Me God is in it’s second printing. It is a Christian workbook that provides home application with Biblical references, and will be available Spring 2001. Dr. Kennedy manages Kennedy Consulting and Tutoring, providing reading and writing tutoring. She assists others in the publication process, providing individual action plans and editing. Dr. Kennedy’s experiences span three decades of teaching, supervision, and consulting.
Dr. Carol Kennedy’s web site is www.drcarolkennedy.com.
Peter King - Peter King sold his first story when he was seven years old, and he has been writing ever since. His Gourmet Detective series features Goodwin Harper, a food consultant to Scotland Yard. The first book in the series, The Gourmet Detective, was named a Beach Book of the Week by People magazine. Four other books in the series have been published, with A Healthy Place to Die being the most recent. Swedish, German, Dutch, Polish and Japanese rights have been sold. Movie and TV rights are under discussion. The Sarasota resident will start a new series of novels, featuring Jack London and set on San Francisco’s Barbary Coast in summer 2001.
Christine Lemmon - Christine Lemmon has been a radio news producer and on-air host for the local NPR affiliate in Fort Myers. She has been a newspaper reporter, managing editor of a business magazine, and a publicist. She is the author of Tablecloth Scribbles, a novel based on her own grief over a close friend’s death. She is presently writing her second novel.
Jeffry P. Lindsay - Jeffry P. Lindsay has a double masters degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and a BA from Middlebury College. He has eight published books, including the acclaimed, Tropical Depression, Dreamland and Dreamchild, Timeblender and Hunting with Hemingway. He has had over twenty produced plays and has worked as a rock, country and jazz musician, as well as a stand-up comic. Recently, he was Silver Medalist in the Master’s Division at the World Karate Championships, and coached his daughter’s soccer team to a perfect season.
Currently he writes a syndicated humor column called Fatherhood, and hosts the PBS televison talk show Media-Watch. Jeff also teaches writing at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Doug MacGregor - Doug MacGregor is the editorial cartoonist for The News-Press. He is best known for his cartoons in that newspaper, MacGregor’s Boulevard and Sunny-Side Up. He is also the author of a collection of his cartoons called Refrigerator Door Gallery.
Trish MacGregor - As T.J. MacGregor, Alison Drake, and Trish Janeshutz, Trish MacGregor is the author of 21 suspense novels. The most recent, Vanished, will be published in 2001 by Pinnacle Books. She is the author of three astrology books, including Your Intuitive Moon, which will be published in December 2000. She is also the co-author of The Lotus and the Stars with her husband, Rob MacGregor. This book combines astrology and yoga, and will be published in 2001.
Trish MacGregor’s web site is: http://www.booktalk.com
Barbara Taylor McCafferty - Barbara Taylor McCafferty is the oldest of identical twin sisters who co-author the humorous Tatum Twin mystery series, but she continues to hope that no one can tell. In fact, according to Barbara, when she is around her twin, Beverly Taylor Herald, she tries to act particularly immature. So far, she believes this plan is working. The Tatum Twins Series features identical twin amateur sleuths, Nan and Bert Tatum. The Tatum twins were born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, just like their creators. Unlike Nan, Bert and Beverly, Barbara is now a resident of Estero, Florida. She is also the author of the Haskell Blevins mystery series, of which Funny Money was published by Pocket in 2000. She also writes the Schuyler Ridgeway mystery series, under the pseudonym, Tierney McClellan. According to Beverly, half the time Barbara does not know who she is. "It’s sad," she reports.
Barbara Taylor McCafferty’s web site is: www.mysterytwins.com
C.C. Medina - C.C. Medina is actually a husband and wife team of authors, Carlos Medina and Carolina Hospital. Hospital is a Cuban American professor of writing and literature at Miami Dade Community College. She has written four non-fiction works, as well as short fiction, essays and poems. Medina is also Cuban American and a teacher at Ransom - Everglades School. A well known freelance storyteller, he is a founding member of the National Writer’s Voice. Their novel, A Little Love, is the story of four professional Latinos living in Miami. Movie rights to A Little Love were recently purchased by Alcorn Entertainment.
Mary Alice Monroe - Mary Alice Monroe writes fiction as Mary Alice Monroe and romances as Mary Alice Kruesi. The Four Seasons will be the novel written as Monroe that will be out by March 2001. Her novel, The Book Club, features the lives of five women who share an appreciation of books. As Kruesi, she writes enchanting, magical romances. The Chicago native now lives and writes in South Carolina.
Mary Alice Monroe's web site is: www.MaryAliceMonroe.com
Doris Parker - Doris L. Parker spent over fourteen years as a nun, working a year in France and a year in Belgium. While in Antwerp, she studied for the missions at the Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine. Her experiences as a nursing missionary in a remote village in Belgian Congo during the following three years are the subject of her book, Outstanding in White. After leaving the convent, Parker became an activist in politics, then the peace movement in Chicago in the 1960s. She lives in Ft. Myers.
Kayla Perrin - Kayla Perrin is originally from Toronto, Canada, but now lives in Miami. Romance Writers of America recently voted her novel, Sweet Honesty, one of the top 10 Favorite Books of 1999. It has also been optioned for a television movie by the BET network, scheduled to air June 1, 2001. Kayla recently published a children’s book, The Disappearance of Allison Jones. 2001 looks busy for her with a new romance novel and a mainstream novel scheduled for publication.
Kayla Perrin’s web site is: http://www.romance-novels.com/kaylaperrin
Nancy Pickard - Nancy Pickard is well known for her lighthearted mysteries featuring Jenny Cain. In addition to this series, she also penned the conclusion to Virginia Rich’s unfinished The 27 Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders, featuring Eugenia Potter. Pickard’s most recent novel, The Whole Truth, is set in south Florida. It is an unusual blend of mystery and thriller that will appeal to readers of true crime novels as well.
Martha Powers - Martha Powers, a Cleveland, Ohio native, is now a Florida resident. The author of nine historical romances turned to writing thrillers a few years ago. Sunflower, her first thriller, featured a single mother tracking a serial killer. In her latest book, Bleeding Heart, Maggie Collins’ father has been murdered while investigating a serial kidnapper. Maggie decides to take on her father’s case, only to find her own young son threatened.
Frank Remkiewicz - Frank Remkiewicz is an author who also illustrates greeting cards, posters, and children’s books. Remkiewicz is the illustrator of the popular Froggy books written by Jonathan London and the Horrible Harry series. Other efforts include current illustrations for Curious George and the artwork for the well-known Nabisco Animal Cracker box. Mr. Remkiewicz is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He has worked in New York and San Francisco and currently does his art work from the Gulf Coast of Florida.
Patricia Rice - Patricia Rice is a best-selling romance writer of over 25 books, with several million copies in print. Her emotionally charged historical romances have garnered many awards for Rice, including the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice and Lifetime Achievement Awards. Be sure to check out her latest, Merely Magic, another enchanting historical romance.
Patricia Rice’s web site is: http://www.patriciarice.com
Frederick Schofield - Frederick Schofield has a law degree from Stetson University Law School in St. Petersburg. He has served as a prosecutor and defender, Director of Public Affairs for the Republican Party, and as a New York radio personality. His life has led to two novels of suspense and intrigue, A Run to Hell, a page-turner set in South Florida, and Megasino: The 13th Casino.
Brenda Seabrooke - Brenda Seabrooke grew up in south Georgia, a land of storytellers. Her three dogs and three cats often appear in her children ’s books, including The Haunting of Holroyd Hill. Seabrooke writes about some of the interesting places she’s lived in many of her books, using her children as characters. Haunting at Stratton Falls is Brenda Seabrooke’s latest book.
Brenda Seabrooke’s web site is: http://www.childrensbookguild.org
Linda Shute - Linda Shute grew up in Miami. She thinks she became an author/illustrator because she was an only child whose mother worked. After school, she lost herself in books. Two of her children’s books, Clever Tom and the Leprechaun, and Jeremy Bean’s St. Patrick’s Day will be very timely with the Lee County Reading Festival falling in March.
Linda Shute’s web site is: http://www.childrensbookguild.org
Charles Sobczak - Charles Sobczak is a realtor from Sanibel Island. He published his first novel, Six Mornings on Sanibel by forming his own publishing company, Indigo Press. This first novel sold over 5,000 copies. Sobczak is now working on his second novel.
Patricia Houck Sprinkle - Patricia Houck Sprinkle is a multi-faceted writer. She has written a number of non-fiction books, a few short plays and two different mystery series. Her first mystery series features Sheila Travis and her elderly rich aunt, Mary Beauford, an Atlantan who nudges her niece into detecting because she likes a little excitement in her life. Her second series is the Magistrate series, featuring MacLauren Yarbrough. Before her mystery writing days, Sprinkle worked as a trade magazine editor, public relations director, and college English professor. She lives in Miami with her husband and two teenaged sons.
Faye Stephens - Faye Stephens, also known as the Walking Catfish Lady, is the author, designer, and publisher of the children’s book, The Walking Catfish Family Go Looking For Water. The book focuses on the water problems in the Everglades. Faye’s daughter, Janet Stephens, designed and illustrated the fish characters for the book. Faye is a 17-year resident of Southwest Florida.
Kathy Hogan Trocheck - Kathy Hogan Trocheck is the author of two mystery series. One series features Callahan Garrity, an ex-cop who owns a housekeeping business in Atlanta. The second book in this series, To Live and Die in Dixie, was nominated in 1993 for the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards for the best mystery fiction. Her other series stars retired newspaper reporter Truman Kicklighter, who lives in St. Petersburg, Florida. Trocheck received a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. She has written for various newspapers including the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Trocheck is married and lives with her husband two children in Atlanta.
Kathy Hogan Trocheck’s web site is: http://kathytrocheck.com
M. Diane Vogt - Diane Vogt has practiced law for almost twenty years, and presently practices in Tampa. Her mystery novel, Silicone Solution, features Judge Willa Carson, a United States District Court Judge in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. Willa will reappear in the next book in the series, Justice Denied.
M. Diane Vogt’s web site is: http://www.mdianevogt.com
Tina Wainscott - Tina Wainscott, a romance writer, has lived in Naples, Florida all her life. She says she has been writing all her life. Wainscott wrote short stories before writing her first novel at the age of 24. She sold the third novel she wrote, On the Way to Heaven. Wainscott’s newest novel, A Trick of the Light, is set in Naples. It’s the story of Chloe Samms, who is in a tragic car accident. She has a near-death experience that sends her on a search for a young boy. Wainscott’s hobbies include travel, in-line skating and reading.
Tina Wainscott’s web site is: http://www.tinawainscott.com
Chassie West - Chassie West began her writing career as a young adult novelist, writing everything from teen romances to two of the updated Nancy Drew Files. She moved to romantic suspense novels under the name Joyce McGill. Her career as a mystery writer began with Sunrise, published under her own name, and nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Original Paperback. Killing Kin, the sequel to Sunrise, has just been published.
Chassie West’s web site is: http://www.chassiewest.com
Darryl Wimberley - Darryl Wimberley’s mystery novels feature Barrett Bear Ranier, a police detective in a small town in northern Florida. Wimberley himself was born in St. Augustine, Florida and is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. He now writes full time at his home in Austin, Texas. Look for his newest novel, A Tinker’s Damn, to be published this October. The story takes place on the edge of Laureate, Florida, just before the outbreak of World War II, and focuses on the rivalry between two families.
David Wimberley’s web site is: http://www.darrylwimberley.com
visits since 9/8/00.