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SUZANNE ADAIR is the nom de plume for Suzanne Williams, a native Floridian who currently lives with her family in North Carolina. In second grade, she wrote her first fiction for fun after the eye of a hurricane passed over her home, and she grew up intrigued by wild weather, stories of suspense and high adventure, Spanish St. Augustine, and the South's role in the Revolutionary War. She has traveled extensively and lived in England for half a year. After visiting the ruins of colonial-era Ft. Frederica on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, she began writing Paper Woman, the 2007 recipient of the Patrick D. Smith Literature Award from the Florida Historical Society. She enjoys participating in living history to commemorate events from the Southern Theater of the Revolutionary War -- a hobby that helps her depict colonial life in writing. www.suzanneadair.com TASHA ALEXANDER attended the University of Notre Dame, where she signed on as an English major in order to have a legitimate excuse for spending all her time reading. Following graduation, she played nomad for several years, eventually settling with her family in Tennessee. When not reading, she can be found hard at work on her next book. www.tashaalexander.com A former White House correspondent and political news editor in Washington, LIZ SCHEVTCHUK ARMSTRONG operates Scriptor Exemplar, a freelance editorial and historical research service. Recipient of an undergraduate degree in journalism, she earned a master’s degree in medieval history, mid-career. Honors include nine awards in journalism and mass communication. Seeing a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One, when she was twelve sparked an enduring passion for British history, in general, and the epic of Hotspur and Henry IV, in particular. Years later, in graduate school she explored the topic of their clash and subsequently wrote To Tread on Kings: A Novel of Hotspur (as yet unpublished). In the process she reviewed 600-year-old documents, translated medieval Latin, climbed mountains and castle walls, slogged across battlefields, and donned chainmail and broadsword. In her village in the Hudson Valley, she is involved in various civic and public-history projects and is helping restore her 140-year-old house. In off moments, she enjoys hiking, photography, making pastry, and trying to get her four parrots to behave. LANE ASHFELDT's historical short story “Dancing on Canvey” is this year's winner of the Fish/Historical Novel Society Short Histories prize, and will be published by Fish Publishing in July 2007. Lane has worked as an editor of short fiction for over ten years. Since she took up writing regularly in 2003, her short fiction has featured in The Guardian, Pulp Net and other literary magazines. Another of her stories came second in The Guardian/SciTalk short story competition. She recently edited and contributed to “Down the Angel,” a book of short fiction about Islington (Pulp Net, 2006). www.ashfeldt.com NANCY ATTWELL, author of The Fools Path and founder of Bowman’s Press, runs a fiction critique service specializing in plot, character, style, and grammar analysis. An author of eclectic interests, Nancy judges for the RWA Golden Heart Contest, critiques for the Fantasy Writer’s Workshop, reviews for the Historical Novels Review, and speaks to high school students about the joys of creative writing. As a publisher, she has been a presenter at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference and is currently an advisor to Zona Rosa as it prepares to launch a series of books written by ZR workshop participants. Nancy’s debut novel, The Fool’s Path, received a perfect score in the 2006 Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Contest. http://www.nancyattwell.com INA BERGMANN is Assistant Professor of American Studies at Wuerzburg University, Germany. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in American Studies from this institution. As a Visiting Assistant Professor she has taught American Literature and Women's Studies at the State University of New York at Albany in 2005. She is the author of And Then the Child Becomes a Woman (2003), a book-length study focusing on female initiation in the American short story, 1865-1970, and several articles on American women's literature, with an emphasis on the 19th century. She is also co-editor of a collection of essays on drama, Global Challenges and Regional Responses in Contemporary Drama in English (2003). Currently, she is working on her second book, which will be focusing on turn of the 21st century historical novels depicting 19th century America. Two of her present minor projects focus on reanimated classics, her term for literary re-imaginings of 19th century American novels, and on the serial killer in historical thrillers and mysteries. AUDREY BRAVER is a native of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She has a degree in Business Administration and is an alumna of Baruch College, CUNY, in New York City. About every fifteen years, she changes careers, one of which was Director of the Morris-Jumel Mansion, a historic house museum of the decorative arts in New York, the former home of Eliza Jumel Burr. Currently, she has observer status as a Non-Governmental Organization representative at the United Nations attached to the Council of Economic and Social Development, and is also Secretary of the NGO Committee on UNIFEM. In her spare time, when not reviewing books for the Historical Novels Review, Audrey is writing a fictional biography of Madame Jumel. Although she loves living in New York, London is her favorite city and she considers it her second home. DR. IRENE BURGESS has her PhD in English Literature from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She's taught and administered at several colleges across the Midwest, and is currently Provost at Eureka College in Eureka, IL. Her research interests are women writers of the 16th and 17th centuries, including Mary Wroth, Mary Sidney, Elizabeth Cary, and Margaret Cavendish. She is also an aspiring historical fiction novelist who writes about spirited women of the 16th century. BROOS CAMPBELL is the author of the Matty Graves series of American sea adventures, which are No Quarter, The War of Knives, and Peter Wicked (April 2008), all from McBooks Press. He was born on December 28, 1957, in Southern California. He was expected a few weeks later than that, but his mother had gotten food poisoning at Christmas dinner and he wanted out. His articles and short stories once appeared regularly in alternative newsweeklies and literary magazines. He liked a piece he wrote about killing rats. His favorite rejection letter (so far) read, “No, I shouldn’t care to publish this. In fact, I can’t imagine who would.” He has no idea who wrote it or what the publication was, or even if it still exists. For a short while he was a crewman in the Lady Washington brig, but that was some time ago now. At any rate, he’d rather be on the water than in it. It is his life’s dream one day to own a private island or become a small-town crank. Some dreams really do come true. In Pizza for the Queen, NANCY CASTALDO’s first picture book, Raffaele makes the best pizza in all of Napoli. It is so good that even Queen Margherita herself has requested a taste. School Library Journal said, “The daylong process that follows will engage the imaginations and taste buds of readers.” This Junior Library Guild selection was inspired by Nancy’s Italian heritage and love of history. Nancy is also the author of several nonfiction books for children on the natural sciences, and she has completed two historical novels for young adults. Nancy has served as Village Historian for the upstate New York village of Valatie. She is a book reviewer for the Historical Novels Review, a member of the Historical Novel Society, Assistant Regional Advisor for the Eastern New York region of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, and co-chair of the Capital Region SCBWI Shoptalk. Her website is www.nancycastaldo.com. CHRISTOPHER M. CEVASCO is the editor/publisher of Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction. His own short fiction – mostly alternate history, historical fantasy and horror, and science fiction – has appeared or is forthcoming in The Leading Edge, Twilight Tales, Flashquake, Allen K's Inhuman, and Lovecraft's Weird Mysteries, among several other magazines and anthologies. His poetry has been published in Dark Wisdom magazine, and his reviews of historical novels have been featured online at Strange Horizons. Chris is a graduate of the 2006 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. He and his wife currently live in Brooklyn, NY. Visit Paradox at www.paradoxmag.com. ANN CHAMBERLIN is the international bestselling author of ten historical novels. Her Reign of the Favored Women trilogy set in 16th-century Ottoman Turkey spent over a year on he Turkish bestseller list. Her most recent book is the nonfiction A History of Women's Seclusion in the Middle East: The Veil in the Looking Glass from Haworth Press. A nonfiction history of women in the Middle East will appear in 2006. She also writes plays, including Jihad, named best new off-off-Broadway play in 1996. Her website is www.annchamberlin.com.
EILEEN
CHARBONNEAU
has published nine
novels to date, including historical fiction for adult audiences as well
as for young readers. A legion… battalion… ?
Well, perhaps a platoon of faithful and discerning readers have agreed
that a Charbonneau novel is “a must-read for those who love American
history.” Eileen’s
American Century Novel Series begins in Federal-era Virginia in The
Randolph Legacy, moving to the Trail of Tears and mid-century
Manifest Destiny in Rachel LeMoyne to California’s early
conservation movement in Waltzing in Ragtime.
Eileen's
young adult novels, The Ghosts of Stony Cove, In the Time of the
Wolves, and Honor to the Hills, comprise a trilogy set in the
Catskill Mountains from 1809 through 1852. Books in the series were
chosen as a Best Book by the Children's Book Council for Social Studies
curriculum, and have won the Golden Medallion for excellence in young
adult fiction. LYN COTE began writing in the late 1980s, but didn't find her home until she discovered the inspirational market in the early 1990s. In 1997, her first article on the emerging inspirational romance market was printed in Romance Writers of America's Romance Writers Report. Lyn continues to publish a yearly inspirational romance and fiction market update on her website to help aspiring authors. In 1996, Lyn's first inspirational historical manuscript was a finalist in the inspirational category in the RWA’s Golden Heart Contest. This became her first historical novel, Whispers of Love, in her “Blessed Assurance” series, published 1999 to 2000 by Broadman & Holman. This series went on to be awarded the Holt Medallion in 2001 and was a finalist in the Bookseller's Best Contest. Most recently, Chloe, the first novel in Lyn’s “Women of Ivy Manor” historical series published by Warner Faith, was a 2006 RWA Rita Award finalist for Best Inspirational, as well as a finalist for the Holt Medallion and the National Readers Choice Contest. Lyn still finds time to speak at writers' conferences. She lives in the lovely northwoods of Wisconsin with her husband and three cats. But she is quick to point out that she loves dogs, too. Visit her online at www.LynCote.net. STEPHANIE COWELLwas born in New York City, the daughter of artists, and fell in love with Mozart, Shakespeare, and historical fiction at an early age. She began to write stories very young and by the age of twenty had won prizes twice in a national story contest. In her early twenties, she left writing and trained her voice as a high soprano; she sang over thirty opera roles and appeared extensively as an international balladeer with guitar as well as forming a singing ensemble, a chamber opera company and producing an art series. She returned to writing fiction in her forties with the translation of a Mozart opera. Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier, Physician, Priest was published by W.W. Norton in 1993, followed by The Physician of London in 1995 (American Book Award 1996) and The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare in 1997. Marrying Mozart was published in 2004, and has been translated into seven languages. She has just completed a novel about a young artist’s model in Paris 1866 who fell in love with the 25-year-old poor and handsome Claude Monet. Stephanie is married to the poet and spiritual director Russell Clay. They make their home in New York City. Between them, they have five grown sons. Her website is www.marryingmozart.com.MADELAINE CULP was five years old the first time she walked across a stage playing Shirley Temple in a charity show. That experience introduced her to theater and created a love that she has pursued all her life. Living in Hollywood, she appeared in all the soaps: as a bag lady, a witch, and the prom chaperone on Passions, a burglarized lady on General Hospital, and the tearful Carol, the seamstress in Rick’s goodbye scene, on The Bold and the Beautiful. Madelaine has written and adapted plays for Children’s Theater, Scenes for Senior Actors, and a pilot half-hour TV sitcom. She was asked by the Screen Actors Guild Conservatory Program for Young Performers to teach children how to act, which has resulted in a book tentatively titled Drama Teaching for Non-Drama Teachers. Madelaine is one of the founding members of the first California Chapter of Romance Writers of America and was a ten-year member before retiring from teaching and moving to Hollywood. She has completed four novels, including one 100,000-word historical Regency, and will be pursuing their publication now that she has reached her second retirement with her family in Oklahoma. jAY DIXON is an Englishwoman, freelance editor and independent scholar who is currently working on the history of the Regency novel. She published The Romance Fiction of Mills & Boon [Harlequin] 1909-1990s (UCL Press) in 1999. JOANNE DOBSON is currently completing Missionary Wife, a historical novel set in New York City in the mid-19th century. She is also the author of the Professor Karen Pelletier academic mystery series, most of which contain a historical mystery as well as a modern one. Until recently Joanne taught literature and creative writing at Fordham University. She is an Emily Dickinson scholar. As a founding editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers and a general editor of the Rutgers American Women Writers reprint series, she has been involved in helping to recover the various traditions of American women’s literature. Since much of that literature, especially in the 19th century, was popular fiction, she has learned to respect – even love – the complexity, cultural power and sheer fun of popular literary genres. SUSANNE DUNLAP is the author of two books, Emilie's Voice and Liszt's Kiss, both published by Simon & Schuster. A lifelong writer and musician, Dunlap’s passion for music led her to get a PhD in music history at Yale in 1999. Her work draws heavily on music history for its subject matter as well as on her particular interest in the history of women and music. Dunlap divides her time between her home in Northampton, Massachusetts, and her day-job as Associate Creative Director of Quinn Fable Advertising in New York. www.emiliesvoice.com SOPHIA EASTLEY's dance name is Sheherazade Bint Allat. She has been dancing for eleven years and teaching for six. As part of the dance troupe Ladies of the Shifting Sands, she has performed at many medieval events sponsored by the Society for Creative Anachronism. She has also performed at the Maine Belly Dance Festival, the Massachusetts Belly Dance Festival, and at the Moving Company in Keene, New Hampshire. She has also taught at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Concord, NH, and now teaches at the Adult Education Program in Concord. Sophia dances to manifest the energy of the earth goddess and the stars to the earth plane, to bring joy and healing to people. KATHY LYNN EMERSON writes two historical mystery series and one contemporary mystery series and occasionally ventures into non-fiction. In the Face Down series, featuring Susanna, Lady Appleton, 16th-century gentlewoman, herbalist, and sleuth, the most recent entry is Face Down Beside St. Anne’s Well (2006). The next book in the series, Face Down O’er the Border, will be out in September 2007. The Diana Spaulding 1888 Mysteries feature a late 19th-century American journalist. No Mortal Reason (April, 2007) follows Deadlier than the Pen and Fatal as a Fallen Woman and is set in Liberty, New York, where Kathy grew up. She has just completed work on How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries: the Art and Adventure of Sleuthing through the Past (Spring 2008). As Kaitlyn Dunnett she pens the contemporary Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (Kilt Dead, August 2007). Kathy lives in Maine with her husband and assorted cats. http://www.kathylynnemerson.com KATHLEEN ERNST is an educator, historical novelist, and social historian. Her historical fiction for children and young adults includes seven historical mysteries set between 1732 and 1936, and five novels set during the American Civil War. These titles have earned three Arthur Tofte Juvenile Fiction Awards, the Flora MacDonald Award, a WILLA Finalist Award, an Edgar Award nomination, and three Agatha Award nominations. Her latest book is Hearts of Stone (Dutton, 2006). Other titles include Midnight in Lonesome Hollow, Secrets in the Hills, and Danger at the Zoo from American Girl, and Ghosts of Vicksburg, Retreat from Gettysburg, The Bravest Girl in Sharpsburg, and The Night Riders of Harpers Ferry from White Mane Kids. Kathleen also authored a non-fiction adult work, Too Afraid to Cry: Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign, which was an alternate selection of the History Book Club. She has a Masters Degree in History Education and Writing from Antioch University, where her self-designed program focused on non-traditional methods of teaching and learning history – with a special emphasis on historical fiction, of course! She served for twelve years as a Curator of Education and Collections with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Historic Sites Division. www.distaff.net JUDITH GEARY joined Bob and Barbara Ingalls in forming High Country Publishers (now known as Ingalls Publishing Group) in 2001. Geary’s background includes a BA and an MA in Education from George Peabody College and continued graduate work in writing, editing, literary criticism as well as a twenty year involvement in a regional writers' group. In her other life, Geary teaches at Appalachian State University and edits for High Country Publishers / Ingalls Publishing Group, Inc. She discovered her love of historical fiction in writing classes with Orson Scott Card, who at the time was known only for his speculative fiction. Tapping history for tips on world building, she was hooked by the real thing. GETORIX: The Eagle and The Bull is her first published novel. http://www.judithgeary.com ROBERTA GELLIS has been one of the most successful writers of historical fiction of the last few decades, having published more than forty meticulously researched historical novels since 1965. Most currently Roberta has been writing historical mystery (A Mortal Bane, A Personal Devil, Bone of Contention, and Chains of Folly) and historical fantasy (This Scepter’d Isle, Ill Met By Moonlight, and By Slanderous Tongues). Gellis has been the recipient of many awards, including the Silver and Gold Medal Porgy for historical novels from the West Coast Review of Books, the Golden Certificate from Affaire de Coeur, The Romantic Times Award for Best Novel in the Medieval Period (several times) and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Historical Fantasy, and Romance Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award. www.robertagellis.com ALAN GORDON is the author of the Fools Guild Mysteries, following the adventures of Theophilos and Claudia, a pair of 13th century jesters. The first book, Thirteenth Night, debuted in 1999, and takes the characters from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night some fifteen years later. The subsequent books, Jester Leaps In, A Death in the Venetian Quarter, The Widow of Jerusalem, An Antic Disposition, and the latest, The Lark’s Lament, follow the two through Crusades and civil wars in such settings as Constantinople, the Holy Land, Denmark, and Languedoc, interweaving actual events and historical characters with the fictional mystery and intrigue. The series has been translated into Italian, Greek, German and Russian. Alan’s short fiction and essays have been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies. The next, “Bottom of the Sixth,” will appear in Queens Noir this fall. He is also an aspiring lyricist who is inordinately proud of writing the book and lyrics to Math Anxiety, with composer Michael Hunsaker, premiered by the Raw Impressions Musical Theater as part of an evening of ten-minute musicals in 2005. Ever the underachiever, Alan’s musical was nine minutes long. He lives in New York City with his wife, Judy, and son, Robert. SANDRA GULLAND is author of the Josephine B. Trilogy, the internationally bestselling novels based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte, Napoleon's wife. The Trilogy is now published in fourteen countries, and in twelve languages. An American-Canadian, Sandra was born in Miami, Florida, and lived in Rio de Janeiro, Berkeley and Chicago before emigrating to Canada in 1970 to teach in an Inuit village in northern Labrador. Settling in Toronto, she worked as a book editor for a decade before moving with her husband and two children to a log house in northern Ontario, where, in 1985, she began writing full-time. Ten years later, the first of the novels in the Josephine B. Trilogy was published. She and her husband now live half the year in Ontario, and half in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She has just completed Bone Magic, a historical novel set in mid-17th century France. It is inspired by the life of Louise de La Vallière, an extraordinary equestrian and mistress of the Sun King. It is due to be published in 2008. For more information about Sandra, her research and work, go to www.sandragulland.com. MELINDA HAMMOND (Linda Hooper) was born in the West Country and now lives with her husband in Yorkshire, on the edge of the Pennines. With the family now (almost) flown the nest she has more time to write the historical novels that are her obsession. Linda left school at sixteen to work in a cigarette factory but soon moved on, gaining office experience in companies as varied as stockbrokers, marine engineers, insurance brokers, biscuit manufacturers and even a quarrying company. Her twelfth book, The Belles Dames Club, has just been accepted by Robert Hale, and she has three e-books available with Belgrave House. http://www.melindahammond.com DIANA TIXIER HERALD is the author of several readers’ advisory guides including four editions of Genreflecting: A Guide to Reading Interests, Teen Genreflecting (now in its second edition), Fluent in Fantasy, and Strictly Science Fiction co-authored with Bonnie Kunzel. She has also written articles for School Library Journal and is a regular reviewer for Booklist. She is the series editor for Library Unlimited's Genreflecting Series of readers' advisory guides. A lifelong passion for historical fiction allowed her to graduate early from high school after scoring a 99% on the final for a history class she never attended. After obtaining a masters degree in Librarianship from the University of Denver she served as a library director in North Carolina and a Popular Materials Librarian in Colorado. Wanting to spread the word on readers' advisory and the legitimacy of genre fiction, she has since 1995 concentrated on writing genre readers’ advisory guides, consulting, and presenting lectures, workshops, and other programs to public libraries, library systems, regional, state, and national conferences, civic clubs, correctional facilities, and schools. She lives on the edge of a canyon at 7,000 ft. altitude with her husband in a sustainable house they built from recycled materials. BRAD HOOPER is the Adult Books Editor at Booklist, the book review magazine published by the American Library Association for school and public libraries. Brad has served on many panels and programs throughout the US, speaking on book reviewing. He is the author of The Short Story Reader's Advisory (ALA Editions), The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist (Praeger), Read On....Historical Fiction (Libraries Unlimited), and a forthcoming book on the fiction of Alice Munro (also from Praeger). C. C. (CHRIS) HUMPHREYS was born in Toronto, and grew up in Los Angeles and London. An actor, favorite roles have included Hamlet; Caleb the Gladiator in NBC’s Biblical-Roman epic “AD - Anno Domini”; and Jack Absolute in Sheridan’s “The Rivals.” He is also a playwright and fight choreographer. The Fetch was published in July 2006 by Knopf. A heady brew of Norse myth, runic magic, time travel, Viking battles and horror, it is the first in a series for teens. The sequel, Vendetta, will be published in August 2007. A schoolboy fencing champion, Chris turned his love of bladed weaponry into historical fiction. His first novel, The French Executioner, about the man who killed Anne Boleyn, was runner up for the CWA Steel Dagger for Thrillers 2002. Its sequel, Blood Ties, was a bestseller in Canada. Having played Jack Absolute, he has now written three books on this “007 of the 1770s.” The first, Jack Absolute, was published in October 2006 by Thomas Dunne. The prequel, The Blooding of Jack Absolute, will appear in 2007, and Absolute Honour in 2008. He is translated into five languages. Chris now lives in Vancouver, Canada, with his wife and young son. You can learn more about him at www.cchumphreys.com. DOUGLAS JACOBSON is an engineer, business owner and World War II history enthusiast. Doug has traveled extensively in Europe and has family in Antwerp, Belgium. Inspired by the war-time experiences of his Belgian relatives and his own Polish ancestry, Doug began a five-year research effort that resulted in his debut novel, Night of Flames, scheduled for publication by McBooks Press in 2007. The novel, which tells the story of a Polish cavalry officer’s search for his wife through war-torn Europe, is a chronicle of the perseverance and courage of ordinary people swept up in the most cataclysmic event of the 20th century. Doug and his wife Janie have two grown children, seven grandchildren and reside in Elm Grove, Wisconsin. Doug is currently working on a sequel. A longtime movie critic and columnist at an alternative California weekly, LISA JENSEN also reviewed books for the San Francisco Chronicle for thirteen years, where her specialty was historical fiction. Her swashbuckling historical novel, The Witch from the Sea, was published in 2001. Her short story, Proserpina’s Curse, an unorthodox view of Captain Hook's journey from Restoration-era privateer to villain (and victim) of the Neverland was published in the Summer 2006 issue of Paradox Magazine. Her work can be sampled at www.lisajensenonline.com. SARAH JOHNSON is Book Review Editor for the Historical Novels Review, the quarterly magazine of the Historical Novel Society. Her second book, Historical Fiction: A Guide to the Genre (Libraries Unlimited, 2005), serves as a guide to over 3,800 recent and classic historical novels. It was named an Editors' Choice title by Booklist, who called it "an outstanding reader's advisory reference work... an essential tool for understanding the genre." Sarah has written articles and book reviews for Booklist, Bookmarks Magazine, Library Journal, CHOICE, and many other publications. She also writes regular columns for NoveList, a library reader's advisory database. In 2002, Sarah moved with her husband from the Boston area to rural Charleston, Illinois, where she works as a reference librarian at Eastern Illinois University. Visit her weblog at http://readingthepast.blogspot.com. M. E. KEMP was born and raised in Oxford, MA, the town her family settled in 1713. After years of writing nonfiction, including articles in national and regional magazines, Kemp turned to a life of crime. Her historical mystery fiction uses two nosy Puritans as detectives. Hetty Henry, twice widowed, has the wealth and the connections to get information while young minister Increase “Creasy” Cotton has the ability to ferret out the guilty secrets of the human soul. The first book in the series, Murder, Mather and Mayhem, introduced not only Hetty and Creasy, but a perspicacious porker named Priscilla. Kemp's subsequent short story featuring Priscilla won first prize in the NEWN short mystery story contest. Her latest short story will appear in an anthology called New York Stories. Her new book, Death of a Dutch Uncle (Hilliard and Harris), finds Hetty and Creasy in Dutch Albany with a cast of oddball characters, land fraud, kidnappings and Piracy on the High Hudson before they uncover the poisoner of the Patroon's nephew. Kemp lives in Saratoga Springs, NY with husband Jack and two cats, Boris & Natasha. http://www.mekemp.com/ KEN KRECKEL's historical novel, The Rommel Mission (Red Engine Press, 2007), focuses on the attempted surrender of German forces just after D-day. He has also published a geologically based mystery, Rocked By Murder (PublishAmerica, 2005). One of his short stories was included in the anthology Foreign Ground: Travelers Tales (Pronghorn Press, 2004). He has contributed articles to the Mensa Bulletin and other publications, including the cover article on 20th-century history for the May 2007 issue of Solander. He regularly writes for the online newsletters Yarnspinners & Wordweavers and Salute!, in addition to reviewing books for the HNS. His writing covers a variety of subjects, including travel and history, with a particular emphasis on the World War II and the Cold War eras, both of which have been lifelong interests. An oil & gas geophysicist who has lived in such diverse places as London, England and Tyler, Texas, he is currently working on an another WWII historical novel at his home in Casper, Wyoming. http://home.bresnan.net/~kreckel11/iwp2.htm CLARE LANGLEY-HAWTHORNE was raised in England and Australia. She practiced law in Melbourne until 1995 when she moved to the United States and began work as a health economist. Clare has since put her pursuit of a PhD on hold to focus on her career as a writer. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and twin sons. Consequences of Sin is her first novel. http://www.clarelangleyhawthorne.comChildren of mixed races have their own set of rules. As the daughter of a Shanghai native and a staunch Indiana Hoosier, JADE LEE struggled to find her own identity somewhere between America and China. Her search has taken her throughout Asia and the United States. In the end, the answer was found not only at home, but in her own head. Her imagination allows her to explore pre-Communist China in her Tigress series, paranormal energy and werewolf fun in her Crimson City books, and of course, the amazing power of love in all of them. A USA Today bestseller, “[Jade] Lee has made her mark with sizzling romances whose unique settings, intriguing backdrops and exotic characters lure you into worlds where heaven is reached through the highest meeting of mind and body. It’s a world at once mysterious and erotic, secret and mind-expanding.” (Romantic Times BOOKReviews on Cornered Tigress.) Jade’s other joys include playing racquetball, rollerblading with a very large golden retriever, and watching her two daughters play volleyball. She loves getting mail from readers, so please e-mail her at jade@jadeleeauthor.com. Or visit her on the web at www.jadeleeauthor.com. JUDITH LINDBERGH is the author of The Thrall’s Tale, a novel about three women in the first Viking Age settlement in Greenland in A.D. 985. Published by Viking in January 2006, and in paperback by Plume in December 2006, The Thrall’s Tale was both a Booksense Pick and a Borders Original Voices selection. Ms. Lindbergh's short works have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Archaeology Magazine, The World & I, Scandinavian Review, and the Canadian literary journal, Other Voices. Also an accomplished photographer, Ms. Lindbergh's images of Greenland and Iceland were exhibited at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City and published in conjunction with the Smithsonian’s exhibition Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga. She lives in New Jersey, where she is currently working on a new novel and also teaches a class called the “Writers Support Circle.” http://www.judithlindbergh.com JEANNE MACKIN is the author of several historical novels: The Sweet By and By (St. Martin’s Press), based on the life of 19th-century spiritualist Maggie Fox; Dreams of Empire (Kensington Books), a domestic comedy set in Napoleonic Egypt; The Queen’s War (St. Martin’s Press) a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Courts of Love; and The Frenchwoman (St. Martin’s Press), a romance set in revolutionary France and the Pennsylvania wilderness. Writing as Anna Maclean, she is author of the Louisa May Alcott mystery trilogy (NAL); the most recent is Louisa and the Crystal Gazer. She is also the author of the Cornell Book of Herbs and Edible Flowers (Cornell University publications) and co-editor of The Norton Book of Love (W.W. Norton.) She was the recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society, and her journalism has won awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, in Washington, D.C. She teaches creative writing at Goddard College in Vermont, and has taught or conducted workshops in Pennsylvania, Hawaii and New York. Jeanne lives with her husband in a 19th-century farmhouse in upstate New York. http://www.historiesmysteries.net/ TAMARA MAZZEI is the managing director of Trivium Publishing LLC, a Louisiana press that has followed a stormy path to its present home on Whidbey Island on the Washington coast. She has been a professional writer and editor for twenty years. In addition to her business and publishing interests, her primary interests are history and historical fiction. She was on the National Committee for Australia's Women's History month for three years, sponsoring Australia's website for WHM and leading online discussions. She has also designed the online version of a Royal National Theatre exhibition for the Richard III Society and worked with professional historians on methods of explaining the Middle Ages to authors to improve the level of accuracy and color for readers of historical fiction and historical fantasy. http://www.triviumpublishing.com MICHELLE MORAN was born in California and educated at Pomona College where she received a degree in English Literature with an emphasis on Chaucer and the Bard. Following several summers in Israel, where she worked as a volunteer archaeologist, she earned an MA from the Claremont Graduate University. Michelle has traveled to all seven continents, and her experiences at archaeological sites around the world inspired her to write historical fiction. A public high school teacher for six years, Michelle is currently a full-time writer residing in the mountains of San Bernardino. Her debut fiction Nefertiti: A Novel will be released by Crown Publishing Group in July 2007. The sweeping epic of an Egyptian queen, Nefertiti has sold in over a dozen languages and will be followed in July 2008 by Ramses’ Queen. You can visit her website at www.michellemoran.com. BEVERLE GRAVES MYERS writes the Baroque Mystery series featuring Tito Amato, an 18th-century castrato singer. Cruel Music (2006), her latest title, sends Tito from Venice to Rome to become embroiled in the intrigue swirling around the election of a new pope. Earlier titles include Interrupted Aria (2004) and Painted Veil (2005). Booklist has said of her series, “Like a grand opera, Myers’ story transports us to a world of glamour, deceit, intrigue, and passion. Bravo!” Bev also writes short mystery fiction set in a variety of times and places. Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock, Futures, Woman's World, and numerous anthologies. Two of her stories have been nominated for the Derringer Award given by the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Bev lives and writes in Louisville, Kentucky. Before she turned to writing as a fulltime career, Bev practiced psychiatry in a public mental health clinic. Visit her website at http://www.beverlegravesmyers.com. JAMES L. NELSON was born in Lewiston, Maine. He graduated from UCLA Film School in 1986, and after working in the television industry for two years, realized that he could not stand a) the television industry, b) Los Angeles and c) being ashore. In 1988 he joined the crew of the Golden Hinde, a replica of Sir Francis Drake’s vessel of 1577, and was soon promoted to bosun. Nelson spent a year aboard the ship, sailing from Los Angeles to Houston, Texas. During that year he found a new career and (unbeknownst to him then) a wife. Nelson went on to work aboard the brig Lady Washington and the ship “HMS” Rose. In January of 1994, Nelson finished By Force of Arms, his first book, and married former shipmate Lisa Page. They now live in Harpswell, Maine, with their four children. Nelson has fourteen books either published or in the process of being published, both fiction and nonfiction. His books have sold in the United States and the UK and have been translated into several languages. For more information visit www.jameslnelson.com. GEORGINE OLSON has an MLS from Dominican University and has worked with readers in libraries for more than thirty years. She is a founding member of the Chicago-area Adult Reading Round Table, the now-defunct Mid-Illinois Readers’ Advisory Group, and the Alaska Library Association Adult Readers’ Roundtable. She is a frequent presenter of genre-fiction related sessions at library conferences, coordinates library book discussions and author visits, and writes author Read-Alike articles and What We’re Reading columns for NoveList, an online database for librarians and readers of fiction. JUILENE OSBORNE-MCKNIGHT is the author of four historical novels based in ancient Irish history: I Am of Irelaunde, Daughter of Ireland, Bright Sword of Ireland and Song of Ireland. She has also worked as a newspaper and magazine columnist and as a book reviewer. She is Assistant Professor of Humanities at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches Celtic and Native American myth and culture and a variety of writing courses. http://www.jmcknight.com ANN PARKER earned degrees in Physics and English Literature before falling into a career as a science writer. Iron Ties is the second in her Silver Rush series featuring saloon owner Inez Stannert in the 19th-century silver mining boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. A starred Publishers Weekly review says “Outstanding ... Plenty of convincing action bodes well for a long and successful series.” Booklist adds, “This sequel . . . will not disappoint Parker's fans. The characters have depth, their motivations are subtle, and their pain very human. Add carefully researched and fascinating period detail, and one has a well-crafted novel that will appeal to readers of mysteries, historical fiction, and genre westerns.” Her debut, Silver Lies, won the Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction as well as the Colorado Gold Award and was named a best mystery/thriller of 2003 by both Publishers Weekly and the Chicago Tribune. Ann, her husband, and their two children reside in the San Francisco Bay Area, whence she has observed numerous high tech boom-and-bust cycles. Her website is http://www.annparker.net. ROSEMARY POOLE-CARTER writes novels and plays focusing on the history, mystery, and eccentricity of the 19th century South. Her young adult novel, Juliette Ascending, is scheduled for a spring 2007 release from Top Publications, which also published her historical mystery, What Remains. Her novel Women of Magdalene is scheduled for a fall 2007 release from Kunatic, Inc. http://www.poole-carter.info JUDSON ROBERTS has, over the course of a long and varied career, been a police officer, federal agent, organized crime prosecutor, and private investigator. He is also reputedly a distant descendant of Rollo, also known as Rolf or Hrolf, the Viking leader who in 911 AD entered into a treaty with the King of the Western Franks and was granted the lands located around the mouth of the Seine River which became known as Normandy. Roberts’ historical fiction series set within the world of the Vikings, The Strongbow Saga, published by HarperCollins, follows the adventures of Halfdan Hroriksson, a young Dane, across the Viking world of the latter half of the 9th century, weaving his fictional tale in and out of actual events of the period and the lives of the historical figures who shaped them. Please visit www.judsonroberts.com and www.strongbowsaga.com. PRISCILLA ROYAL grew up in Canada and has a degree in world literature from San Francisco State University. Until 2000, she worked for the federal government, which provided an excellent education in human experience and motivation. She is the author of a medieval mystery series, set in late 13th century England, featuring Prioress Eleanor and Brother Thomas of the Order of Fontevraud. The first three books are: Wine of Violence, Tyrant of the Mind, and Sorrow Without End. The fourth, Justice for the Damned, is scheduled for June 2007 publication. www.priscillaroyal.com MARTHA TUCK ROZETT is Professor of English at the University at Albany. She writes about the reception and transformation of Shakespeare's plays and about contemporary historical fiction. Her most recent book is Constructing a World: Shakespeare’s England and the New Historical Fiction.MARY FREMONT SCHOENECKER drew inspiration to write poems and stories about American history while growing up in the Revolutionary War village of Schuylerville (Old Saratoga), New York. She earned a B.S. at SUNY College, Oswego, an M.S. at the University at Albany and an Ed.D. at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Dr. Schoenecker taught in New York State public schools and spent the last sixteen years of her career as Associate Professor of Education at SUNY College, Oneonta, NY. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Sarasota Fiction Writers and the Historical Novel Society. Published in non-fiction since 1991, her love of history found its place in a weekly column, “Reflections,” for a small press in Saratoga Springs, NY, and in feature articles in regional magazines in Florida. Her first young adult novel was chosen as a publisher’s component of a history proposal for a NEH grant. True characters, diary excerpts and authentic letters enrich her debut historical novel, a Civil War epic, Four Summers Waiting, published by Five Star in 2006. Mary’s workshop, “Historical Fiction – From Research to Voice” is a popular one. She lives with her husband, Tom, in Florida. When not speaking, reading or writing, Mary enjoys dancing, golf, and the Gulf beaches. MARY SHARRATT is an American writer living in the north of England. Winner of the 2005 WILLA Literary Award for Fiction and a Minnesota Book Award Finalist, she is the author of three critically acclaimed historical novels: Summit Avenue (Coffee House), The Real Minerva (Houghton Mifflin), and The Vanishing Point (Houghton Mifflin). She is the co-editor of the subversive UK fiction anthology, Bitch Lit (Crocus Books), which was featured in The Guardian and on BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. Sharratt’s short stories have been widely published in journals and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic, including the recent Twin Cities Noir (Akashic Books). She has led writing workshops at literary festivals across England, at the Geneva Writers Conference in Switzerland, and at the Loft Literary Center in her native Minneapolis. A Reviews Editor for the Historical Novels Review, her feature articles and author profiles have been published or are forthcoming in HNR and Solander. Website: www.marysharratt.com ANNE EASTER SMITH is a native of England who has lived in the United States for thirty-three years. Her love of English history goes back to age ten, when the British education system mandated history as part of the curriculum through graduation. She grew up with London on her doorstep and has walked much of the countryside described in her first novel, A Rose for the Crown, inspired by her fascination for Richard III after reading Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey in her youth. She is a member of the Richard III Society. Anne began her writing career as a freelancer for a small monthly publication in Plattsburgh, New York in 1980 (about three hours drive north of Albany). From 1986 until 1995, she was the Features Editor of the daily newspaper there. A Rose for the Crown was published in March 2006 by Simon & Schuster and her second, Daughter of York will be out in Spring 2008. Books three and four will also be published by Simon & Schuster over the next few years, and will cover the Wars of the Roses from beginning to end. Anne is delighted her agent, Kirsten Manges, is also a panelist at the conference. http://www.anneeastersmith.com CINDY VALLAR, a retired librarian, first researched pirates for The Rebel and the Spy, a historical novel about Jean Laffite and the Battle of New Orleans. Today, she is the Editor of Pirates and Privateers. Aside from her monthly column on the history of maritime piracy, she reviews fiction and non-fiction books on piracy and maintains an annotated list of the best piracy websites. Cindy is an associate editor for Solander and writes the “Red Pencil” column where she compares a selection from an author’s published novel with an early draft of that work. She also reviews for Historical Novels Review. She is a freelance editor and an editor for Wings Press. She belongs to the Historical Novel Society, the Texas Coalition of Authors, the Laffite Society, the Louisiana Historical Society, the National Maritime Historical Society, the Red River Branch of Clan Cameron, and the Scottish Clans of North Texas. She is the author of The Scottish Thistle, her debut historical novel about the Camerons and MacGregors during Scotland’s Rising of 1745, and Odin’s Stone, a romantic short story of how the Lord of the Isles settled the medieval feud between the MacKinnons and MacLeans on the Isle of Skye. She invites you to visit her award-winning website, Thistles & Pirates (http://www.cindyvallar.com), to learn more. BRENDA RICKMAN VANTREASE is a former librarian and English teacher from Nashville, Tennessee. She grew up and was educated in the Middle Tennessee area, where she graduated in 1967 with a B.A. in English from Belmont University. During the twenty-five years she served as an educator in Nashville, she earned a master's degree and a doctorate from Middle Tennessee State University and did summer study in London, England. In 2003 Brenda sold her first novel, a historical novel of art, love, and religion set in 14th-century England, to St. Martin’s Press. It was released in March of 2005. The Illuminator, a national bestseller, was translated into thirteen languages and received starred reviews in both Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal. The paperback edition (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006) was a reading group gold selection from Holtzbrinck publishers and was chosen by Book Sense, a publication of the Independent Booksellers Association, to be included on their 2006-2007 list of recommended books for book clubs. Her second book is entitled The Mercy Seller and will be released from St. Martin’s in February, 2007. For more information on Brenda and her work go to www.brendarickmanvantrease.com and www.readinggroupgold.com. GIGI VERNON was born with the gene for history. She loves all things historical – fiction, manuscripts, film, ruins, museums, monuments--you name it. Any place, any time period, except the present, is her personal motto. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, the land of Civil War battlefields and civil rights battles, she studied history and foreign languages at Georgetown. She moved to beautiful, often snowy, upstate New York for grad school at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She first began writing historical fiction to avoid her dissertation, but still managed to eventually receive a Ph.D. in European history. Her historical mystery short stories – several time periods, several places – have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and elsewhere. She is currently working on historical mystery novels. Gigi is a member of the Historical Novel Society, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and an outstanding local writing group to which she owes a huge debt of gratitude for their insightful critiques and support. http://www.geocities.com/gigivernon/ In Finest Kind, the latest of LEA WAIT's historical novels, a family moves to Maine after the Panic of 1837, so the father can work in a lumber mill. Jake, age 13, must prepare his family for the winter – and ensure the family secret they brought with them from Boston is not revealed. Kirkus Reviews said it is “story that will linger in the hearts of readers.” Lea’s historicals have been lauded for their accurate use of historical detail, and honored by listings on student choice award lists in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, South Dakota, Arkansas and Florida. Stopping to Home was named a “notable children’s book of 2001” by Smithsonian Magazine and is on the Bank Street College’s “best of the best” list. Seaward Born, also a Bank Street College “notable book,” is an International Reading Association’s teachers’ choice. Wintering Well was called “a treasure waiting to be found” by Kirkus Reviews, was her third Bank Street College “notable book” and is the Pennsylvania State Librarians’ Young Adult Top Forty List. Lea is also the author of Scribner’s contemporary award-winning Shadows Antique Print Mystery series for adults. Her website is http://www.leawait.com. "Not all who wander are lost." JULIET WALDRON earned a BA in English, but has worked at jobs ranging from artist’s model to brokerage. Twenty years ago, after raising her children, she dropped out of 9-5 and began to imagine and research her way into the Past. She reviews for the Historical Novel Society. At the 2005 HNS Conference in Salt Lake City, she served as a panelist. She has spent the last twenty years dedicated to the solitary discipline required of a writer. Her novels, on the surface romantic, are subtly built around issues of gender and class. Most are set in the late 18th Century. At the 2001 Virginia Festival of the Book, Mozart’s Wife won the 1st Independent e-Book Award for Best Fiction. Genesee, set during the Revolutionary War, won the 2003 Epic Award for best historical novel, as well as receiving five stars from Affaire de Coeur and Romantic Times. Independent Heart, another New York State novel, has recently been published by Hardshell Word Factory. Her website is www.julietwaldron.com. ALANA WHITE is the author of Sacagawea: Westward with Lewis and Clark, a nonfiction biography recommended by the Tennessee Cumberland Center for Justice and Peace. Come Next Spring, a novel set in 1940s Appalachia, was nominated for the Mark Twain Award by the Missouri Association of School Librarians and for the Volunteer State Children’s Book Award. She has traveled extensively in Italy and has completed a historical novel set in Renaissance Florence featuring lawyer and diplomat Guid’Antonio Vespucci and his adventurous nephew, Amerigo. Her first short fiction featuring the Vespucci family was nominated for the 2005 Macavity Award, given by Mystery Readers International. Upcoming publications include a new Guid’Antonio short story in Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine and a nonfiction article on artist Sandro Botticelli in Renaissance Magazine. Alana is a book reviewer for the Historical Novels Review, a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Authors’ Guild and is immediate past-president of the Middle Tennessee Chapter of Sisters in Crime. She resides in Nashville with her husband, cat, and a feisty Schnauzer named Fedo. www.alanawhite.com PATRICIA WYNN has a degree in history from Rice University and is the author of thirteen published novels, including the award-winning Blue Satan mystery series. Her second mystery, The Spider's Touch, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Genre Novel of 2002. The Motive from the Deed, released in February 2007, received a starred review from Library Journal, which said, “. . . settle back for a journey to England in 1715, full of romance, adventure, and heart-stopping action.” Patricia lives in Newport Beach, CA. http://www.patriciawynn.com
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