Dawn Anderson is the author of DAWN AWAKENS, a collection of spiritual / metaphysical prose . This work links together into Four different phases resulting in a human spiritual transformation from awakening to a state of heightened awareness and elevation.

The poetry is written with a simplistic approach to complex subject matter, the likes of DNA. Combining imagery and language patterns the collection emphasizes an almost- mystical approach to personal and collective growth . It explores the relative complexities of human nature and interaction, highlighting along the way qualities relating to belief and love in various forms. References to nature and the cosmos are interspersed placing the individual within what may be viewed as a wider context of being. DAWN AWAKENS leads the reader to explore the mind and even wonder just What does the writer believe?

Dawn Marie Anderson has worked in the Fashion and Entertainment Industries and in The Performing Arts as a dancer , actress and singer in New York City. After a personal crisis, she experienced a spiritual awakening. “These” writings came in sessions similar to “automatic writing” and are the results of that transformative time in her life. Set on a new path of healing, she was led to new work with crystals, flower essences, herbs, healing modalities, and vegetarianism. She became a Reiki Practitioner and moved to Los Angeles, California, where she currently lives and works on healing and the arts.

Her book of poetry, DAWN Awakens is by Joshua Tree Publishing.

http://www.dawnmarieanderson.com/

Mario Bernheim

Michael's Reward - Historically, there is only a handful of men whose lives crossed the spiritual intersection of three major religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Michael’s Reward tells the story of a very rich and happy family man whose life is turned upside down when Satan gets God’s permission to wage a battle against him in an effort to show God that Michael’s love for Him is directly tied to all his riches. The ensuing catastrophes in Michael’s life reduce him to living by the freeway in a box. But through is perseverance in faith, he is blessed with a visit from the Almighty, and his life is turned around. This beat-for-beat modern retelling of the Old Testament story of Job takes the classic duel between God and Satan and reshapes it to the challenges and test of our faith today. If Job were alive today, this would be his story.

Mario Bernheim began his career as an assistant to film director, Joel Schumacher on the Universal studio lot.  He worked for Joel in various capacities for several years before moving to New York City where he got involved with the story department’s of CBS, Fox and MGM as a story analyst. After which he returned to Universal Studios in Hollywood to be director of development for producer Topper Carew. 

In the late-eighties he became a founding staff member of Comic Relief (hosted by Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal) as seen live on Home Box Office. Over the course of twelve years, he rose in ranks to be Co-Producer for many of the specials including; “Comic Relief  ’90” at Radio City Music Hall, “Hurricane Relief”, for Showtime, “A Comedy Salute to Michael Jordan”, for NBC, and many other specials on HBO, ABC, FOX and COMEDY CENTRAL. As Co-Producer he was involved with the gamut of responsibilities that range from the creativity of the shows and production, to the administering of the $50 million dollars in donations throughout the nation. 

Since Comic Relief, Mario has been in active development with projects with such companies as Icon Entertainment, The Pitt Group and as Director of Development for Hit Entertainment, his principal objective was to search out and develop quality screenwriting properties. 

Mario is considered by many writers, story consultants, producers and production executives to excel in developing screenplays and has a keen intuition for story development. Recently, Mario has been a featured guest on panels at screenwriting expos and seminars in aiding up-and-coming screenwriters in their pitch and story techniques.

He’s completed two feature screenplays and finished a novel, Michael’s Reward.

An avid traveler, with an interest in cross-cultural and spiritual similarities, Mario has visited more than twenty-two countries on multiple continents. 

Contact information: (310) 709-1188 | michaelsreward@yahoo.com

Charles Domokos has taught post-production classes at the University of Southern California (U.S.C.) School of Cinema & TV and at the U.S.C. Summer Production Workshop from 1988 to 2003 (various Avid platforms). He has also taught TV and post-production courses at Loyola Marymount Univ. (Avid & FCP) and (currently) at Los Angeles City College School of Cinema-TV. He has served as an Avid consultant to TV post-production houses and edited short-form and long-form projects including TV documentaries and independent features. His most recent film RETURN TO VIETNAM won a 2007 Silver Telly (highest award) in the feature tv documentary category.

“Non-linear Editing: The Cutting Edge” provides the foundation for the college-level media student to make the leap into the world of film and HD-based professional post-production, as practiced in the Hollywood media community. This soft-cover text covers basic techniques and generic procedures fundamental to popular visual non-linear editing software from AVID, ADOBE and FINAL CUT and PRO TOOLS audio editing software. This book teaches the basic procedures including synchronization of audio to visuals, film-to-tape conversion, output to tape, output to film, standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD) conversions, and everything in between. There is special emphasis given to sound editing techniques to achieve professional level sound quality. “Non-linear Editing: The Cutting Edge” has been chosen to be part of the Los Angeles Public Library film book collection.

Gardner’s Guide to NLE: The Cutting Edge: ISBN 1589650212; available from www.Amazon.com, www.Barnes & Noble.com, and the Garth Gardner Publishing Company,
1 866 GO GARDNER or www.GoGardner.com

Carole Eglash-Kosoff

Apartheid in South Africa has been gone more than fifteen years but the heroes of that struggle are still being revealed. Some individuals toiled publicly, but most worked tirelessly in the shadows to improve the welfare of the population that had been so neglected. A white, Jewish, middle class woman, joined with Tutu, Millie, Ivy, Zora and other concerned Black women, respectfully called Mamas, helped those most in need, often risking being beaten and arrested.

The Human Spirit is the story of these women and others who have spent their lives making South Africa a better place for the country's most disadvantaged.

Carole Eglash-Kosoff lives and writes in Valley Village, California. She graduated from UCLA and spent her career in business and in teaching. In 2006 her husband, mother, and brother died within a month of one another,causing her to reevaluate her life. She volunteered to work with the American Jewish World Service and was sent to South Africa to teach. She returned there a year later, having met an amazing array of men and women who had devoted their lives during the worst years of apartheid to helping the children, the elderly, and the disabled of the townships. These people cared when no one else did and their efforts continue to this day. It is their stories that needed to be told. They are apartheid's unheralded heroes and The Human Spirit is their story. Carole has also completed a historic fiction novel, a pre- and post- Civil War interracial love story set in Louisiana, 'When Stars Align".

http://www.thehumanspirit-thebook.com/

All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to Ikamva Labantu and other South African charities.

Available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Booksonboard.com, Authorhouse as either a paperback or hardcover or e-book and Vroman's Bookstore.

New Historical Novel, When Stars Align, Follows Interracial Louisiana Lovers Through the Carnage of The Civil War and Hopefulness of Reconstruction

Carole Eglash-Kosoff’s first novel, WHEN STARS ALIGN, is set in 19th century Louisiana, at a time and place where mixed-race relationships are both illegal and unacceptable. How can these defiant lovers–and their love–survive?

The time is a crucial period in American history–the Civil War and the years of Reconstruction following it–and the characters are Thaddeus and Amy, who share a forbidden love that can get them both killed. For he is a mulatto ex-slave, and she is white. In the novel, whenever Amy asks if she and Thaddeus will ever be together, his answer is “When stars align.”

The place is Louisiana, where Moss Grove, a large Mississippi River cotton plantation, has thrived from the use of slave labor while its owners lived lives of comfort and privilege. Thaddeus, conceived from the rape of a young field slave by the heir to the plantation, is raised as a Moss Grove house servant. His continued presence remains a thorn in the side of the man who sired him.

Deepening divisiveness between North and South launches the Civil War and changes Moss Grove in ways no one could have anticipated. With the war swirling, we see the battles and carnage through Thaddeus’ eyes.

When Stars Align
412 page hardcover, $28.95; ISBN: 978-1-45673-888-4
Paperback, $17.95; 978-1-45673-890-7
Published by AuthorHouse (February 21, 2011)
Available at amazon.com, bn.com, authorhouse.com, and booksonboard.com
Website: www.whenstarsalign-thebook.com

Sheila FInch

Sheila Finch is the award winning author of eight science fiction novels. Her novel, Infinity's Web, recieved the Compton Crook award and her young adult book, Tiger in the Sky, won the 1999 San Diego Book award for best juvenile fiction.

In1998, she won the Nebula Award for her novella, "Reading The Bones."

Sheila's work has been collected in numerous anthologies and she's a regular contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

She is most well known for her many stories about members of the Guild of Xenolinguists, the translators for the languages in the worlds we will explore in the future.

Sheila spent many years as a teacher of creative writing at the college level in souther California as well as at conferences and conventions around the world. A large number of her students have themselves become published authors. Now retired from El Camino College, she continues to teach through many venues.

At the request of former and would-be students, Sheila is now conducting private, small-group critique and workshop sessions. For more information, please visit SheilaFinch.com.

Synopsis: Guild of Xenolinguists

The Guild was founded on Earth in the middle of the 22nd century after first contact with a race from somewhere in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. This alien visit was traumatic enough to bring the last holdouts into a united world government that made exploration and research of extra-solar space a priority. A few early linguists, neurolinguists, ethnographers and computer scientists established the Guild which then took over the responsibility for training xenolinguists to make first contact and to record alien languages in the field. Later, the Guild provided translation services for the expanding commerce and colonization of the following centuries.

http://www.sheilafinch.com/

http://www.sff.net/people/sheila-finch/

Ann Finnin

“I was only an apprentice. I swear it. By all the angels in Heaven.”

Condemned to death by the Holy Office for sorcery, fifteen-year-old Michael de Lorraine is about to be consumed by flames when he is saved by Abbot Francis and granted refuge at Sainte Felice, a Benedictine monastery in fifteenth-century France. Michael learns that this strange and wonderful place, famous for its healing wine, harbors renegade monk-sorcerers, enchanted gargoyles, and a closely guarded secret that could spell violent death for the Abbot.

As the church intensifies its cruel pursuit of Michael, Abbot Francis and the brotherhood find themselves in grave danger. Michael will do anything to protect his mentor, but are his powers great enough to save the monastery from the merciless, bloodthirsty Inquisition?

Ever since escaping from a convent school at 15, the life of Ann Finnin has been a continuous journey into magic, mysticism and fantasy. She has studied a variety of esoteric traditions and has experience in many schools of magic and mysticism. Not content with being stuck in the twenty-first century, Ann has been active in historical re-enactment groups and renaissance fairs and has been, at various times, a Celtic Druidess, a Renaissance scholar, a pirate, a saloon floozy and a gypsy dancer.

In the ordinary world, Ann has degrees in Biology and Experimental Psychology and currently works as a technical writer. In-between forays into other times and places, Ann and her husband Dave live in the hills of Tujunga, California with a big black Lab named Hunter.

Brennan Harvey

Brennan Harvey is an award-winning author, capturing first place in the International Writers of the Future Contest for the first quarter, 2010. His novelette, "The Truth, From a Lie of Convenience," is available in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Vol 27 at Amazon and local bookstores.

Brennan has always enjoyed science fiction. The television show "Star Trek" and the movie "Beneath the Planet of the Apes are two of his earliest SF memories. When a friend loaned him Robert Heinlein's novel Friday, Brennan started reading science fiction regularly. Years later, Mike Resnick's short story "Kirinyaga" ignited his desire for writing.

Brennan began writing fiction in 1998. He took creative writing classes and attended workshops, seminars, conventions, and conferences. Brennan's first short story was a finalist in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest in 2004. In the first quarter of 2010, his persistence finally paid off when he won first place.

Brennan has been a member of GLAWS since 2009.

Book Copy

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future holds the best new science fiction and fantasy stories and illustrations of the year, discovered by the judges of the Writers & Illustrators of the Future Contests; a veritable who's who in the field of speculative fiction writing and illustrating.

...the best-selling SF anthology series of all time.—Locus Magazine

The Writers of the Future Contest has not only provided a place where new writers could break into print for the first time—but it also has a record of nurturing and discovering writers who have gone on to make their mark in the science fiction field. Long may it continue!—Neil Gaiman, Author

Here's skill and storytelling fervor aplenty—these writers of the future have already arrived!—Robert Silverberg, Author

This collection shows why I'm happy to be a judge for the Writers of the Future Contest—it always finds great stories by the new writers who will be winning Hugo and Nebula Awards a few years from now.—Tim Powers, Author

Writers of the Future is a terrific program for new writers, and goodness knows, there are few enough of those. It has my heartiest support and unqualified recommendation.—Terry Brooks, Author

Brennan Harvey
First place winner, WotF--1st Quarter, 2010
Brennan at BrennanHarvey dot com
http://www.brennanharvey.com

Gillian Lee Hutshing knows a good story when she sees one. As a feature film editor in Los Angeles for over twenty years, she has worked with acclaimed directors Ridley Scott, Peter Weir, Kevin Costner, among others.

Ms. Hutshing has also worked on many films for children including Ferngully: The Last Rainforest for 20th Century Fox and Oliver & Company for Walt Disney. Ms. Hutshing grew up in La Jolla, California, and attended the University of California at Davis.

Sparky the Wonderfish: A story of how love creates magic is her first children’s book. She is currently working on a series of books to teach children big words in a fun and humorous way. Sparky the Wonderfish: A story of how love creates magic is a charming story of triumph over adversity. Based on a true story, Sparky the Wonderfish is about a little girl who manages to save a tiny feeder fish from becoming dinner for six ferocious Oscar fish. Although feeder fish aren’t expected to live longer than a few days, the real-life Sparky lived happily for thirteen years in his bowl. Thanks to the little girl in the story, the fictional Sparky thrives as well, proving that with love, truly anything is possible!

Ms. Hutshing was a featured author and title at the Book Expo America New York and has had numerous signings at Borders Bookstores throughout Los Angeles. She is currently promoting her book with readings and signings at schools, libraries, bookstores and more. Ms. Hutshing lives in Santa Monica, California, and cooks, photographs, gardens and is hard at work on her next children’s book.

Get more Sparky at www.GillianLeeHutshing.com or Amazon.com or Borders Bookstores

Tom Miller

Tom Miller is a consummate adventurer. He has completed over 1,000 dives as a recreational scuba diver and over 1,000 hours piloting everything from small Cessna’s to Lear jets. He has sailed over 65,000 miles throughout the Pacific, including the Hawaiian Islands. He has also run three marathons. He frequently lectures on cruising the canals of Europe as well as sailing the South Pacific. Miller has a degree in Geology from the University of Southern California. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society. THE WAVE is his first novel.

Brief Synopsis:
The Big Island of Hawaii is surrounded by undersea landslides of unimaginable size, some of them over 1,000 cubic miles. If spurred by the force of an earthquake or volcanic eruption the unstable flanks of the islands many volcanoes have the potential to generate staggering tsunamis—perhaps even more staggering than the ones that rocked the prehistoric world. Scientists have recently identified deposits left by ancient waves towering an incredible 1,200 feet above sea level. While the last mega-tsunami struck the Hawaiian Islands about 100,000 years ago, that doesn’t mean the next one couldn’t strike tomorrow. When it does strike, despite modern seismometers and other state-of-the-art devices, there may not be any warning…or any hope of surviving its cataclysmic impact.

Inspired by harrowing scientific facts, Tom Miller presents a taut, gripping work of fiction, THE WAVE (Sherman Asher Publishing; $18.95; Paperback Original (SBC Distributors). Set in present day Hawaii, this action-packed epic unfolds through the eyes of its narrator and reluctant hero, 38-year-old Chuck Palmer. A newlywed with a precious baby daughter and a booming business as a fitness trainer, Palmer is thrust out of his dream life in Malibu, California, and into an unthinkable, inescapable, real-life nightmare. Fast-paced and unflaggingly breathtaking, THE WAVE follows Chuck through a succession of nail-biting events. From nearly crashing and burning in a sabotaged Cessna to getting trapped in a submersible and nearly dying from lack of oxygen, from narrowly escaping an exploding sports-fisher with only his boxer shorts to getting stuck on a plane, in a clownish pair of borrowed coveralls, sitting in the direct path of devastation, Chuck rebounds to face the worst scenario imaginable. Could Mauna Loa collapse in a fiery rage and provoke a 2,000-foot tsunami to spread across Hawaii and beyond? Could this violent act of nature wind up wiping out the entire population of the Pacific Rim? Could it mark the beginning of the dreaded end of the world? Will Chuck find a way to see the wife he loves—and forgives—and hold his darling daughter before they all die?
Driven by a cast of vivid, flawed, and likable characters, THE WAVE is an impressive debut page-turner. For fans of Nelson Demille, Michael Crichton, Clive Cussler, and Tom Clancy, Tom Miller is definitely an author to seek out, avidly read and watch.

Learn more and order books at: www.tommillerauthor.com

Nora Novak

Originally from Antwerp, Belgium, Novak is featured in a new European Reality series "Vlaamse Hollywoodvrouwen". Novak currently resides in Newport Beach and is the author of 'Art Damaged', her first novel of contemporary fiction. Ms. Novak is a mixed media artist, actress and writer. Novak has worked in both commercial galleries and a contemporary art museum. Originally from Antwerp, Belgium, she currently resides in Newport Beach and has recently published her first novel of contemporary fiction, Art Damaged which received the Editor’s Choice award.

Art Damaged is a glossy insider’s tale that is set behind the scenes of the contemporary art world in Orange County. The story follows Nina Valliere, a glamorous and alluring artist who works in a contemporary art museum. Nina copes with a man-hungry boss from hell, an alcoholic director and juggles the men in her life while pursuing credibility as an emerging artist. Complications arise and a scandalous turn of events threatens to compromise the museum and Nina’s future. A stylish romp through the recesses and chicanery of the art world, museum administration politics, and inner office intrigues, Art Damaged is an insightful debut novel that gives the reader a peek into the life of an up-and-coming mixed media artist.

For more information on Nora Novak and Art Damaged, please visit:

noranovak.com  |  artla.com |  artdamaged.net

Kathy Porter

Kathy Porter grew up in Endicott, NY the birthplace of IBM and only a short distance away from where one of her favorite TV series creator, Rod Serling was raised. Kathy’s lifelong interest in Science Fiction ignited when her father, a science teacher, showed her craters on the moon and taught her the constellations. She grew up watching science fiction movies and TV shows. Ray Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles” was her first delve into a science fiction novel and she has been hooked ever since.

“I think I was born telling stories,” Kathy explained during a recent interview. “As second to the oldest of seven children, my sisters and I shared a bedroom. I loved making up bedtime stories, with an eerie edge and frightening my sisters. Things about fairies, leprechauns, and aliens even back then. If they couldn’t sleep I knew I succeeded.”

In September of 1961 reports of Barney and Betty Hill’s alien abduction claims took the media by storm. Kathy has been fascinated by their story and any story that delved into the “we are not alone” theory ever since.

Earth's Ultimate Conflict is the first novel in Kathy Porter's Gray Guardians Series. Escape From Nuur, the second in the series will be released next year.

What if the treat of a world-wide pandemic, increased seismic activity, and global warming, were all linked to alien abduction?

In the near future this frightening senerio forces Rosa De Angelo t flee Earth with her three alien hybrid children. In doing som she leaves behind Tony, her soul-mate and husband. Ellen McCarthy is faced with the agonizing choice of abandoning her love-starved hybrid children or finding a way back to her three-month-old human child Griffin, before it’s to late.

With Earth’s inhabitants faced with seemingly insurmountable illness and destruction, two rival alien species offer them salvation. United States President Barbara Unger will make the ultimate decision of who to trust the Grays or the Guardians.

www.grayguardians.com
http://www.booktour.com/author/kathy_porter

Deborah M. Pratt is a significant force in Hollywood. She is a five-time Emmy nominee, a Golden Globe nominee, and the recipient of The Lillian Gish Award from Women in Film, The Angel Award, The Golden Block Award, and Six B.E.N. Awards. From the award-winning series Quantum Leap to the internationally acclaimed Masterpiece Theatre's Cora Unashamed, Deborah M. Pratt’s vision is an inspiration to audiences worldwide. A master storyteller with a spiritual dream for a better world, Deborah M. Pratt breaks the mold of science fiction and creates a genre of science fantasy with the soul of the universe and a key to the human heart. Intricately layered with scientific fact and fascinating detail, The Vision Quest is a riveting journey.

The Vision Quest Trilogy opens when the harmony of Book One’s The Age of Light is torn into factions of the beings—human and the array of new species that now share our planet—who must grapple with forces and technologies at once ancient and frighteningly new. Here we find seventeen-year-old Cole “Lazer” Lazerman, a young man bent on both revenge and redemption. With his beloved father murdered and his Atlantian home under the control of the biodroid Black Guards and their evil leader, Five, Lazer enters a series of explosive battlefields—spiritual, virtual and real. His personal fight to control his own emotions can ultimately bring salvation or the world’s impending doom.

In Book Two’s The Odyssey Lazer, along with his friends—and the newfound love of his life—must master the Visionistic Arts, harness the limitless power of the human mind and spirit, survive the perilous odyssey to get home in time to save himself, his mother, his war torn home in Atlantia and ultimately the world from Five and his biodroid army.

The Vision Quest is an action-packed, Science Fantasy adventure based on the science and technology of today--projected into a very probable tomorrow. Get your books here »»

Darlene Quinn

Darlene Quinn is an author and journalist from Long Beach, California. Webs of Power, the first novel of her Web Series, was the Winner of the 2009 National Indie Excellence Award for Fiction and a Finalist for the National USA Best Book Award for General Fiction. The highly anticipated sequel, Twisted Webs, also won the National USA Best Book Finalist Award for General Fiction. Webs of Fate, the prequel to Webs of Power, will be released October 2011, and currently, Darlene is working on Unpredictable Webs for a Fall of 2012 release. Quinn's first published novel, Sizzling Cold Case, published in January of 2007, was a somewhat unusual collaboration as well as labor of love for her dear friend, Buddy Ebsen. His work-in-progress was a Barnaby Jones novel, which at his widow's request, Quinn was thrilled to complete.

In addition, she has published articles in both "Inskeeping World" and "Savvy Magazine" highlighting the business knowledge she gained during her time as Corporate Training Director for the Bullock's Department Stores and as Director of Personnel/Organization Development for Bullocks Wilshire (West Coast Divisions of the former Federated Department Store conglomerate, which is now Macy's Inc.)

As part of a nine-member management team for the Bullocks Wilshire Specialty Department Store Division, Darlene Quinn has the insider's perspective on the rise and fall of major department stores. Twisted Webs, continues the saga of corporate greed and raw human struggles with characters we have come to know and love.

Quinn became interested in storytelling at an early age but did not begin writing until her adult life. Prior to being an author, Quinn was a teacher in the public school system, a self-improvement and modeling instructor, a private contractor for various department stores (Bullock's/Robinson's) and hospitals. She has two children, John and Jodie, six wonderful grandchildren, and happily lives with her husband and greatest supporter, Jack, a restorer of valuable art, in Long Beach, California.

Readers crisscross America, from LA to New York, as vivid Scenes of luxury, envy, retail empire power plays, back stabbing, lust, haute couture, and manipulation play out among the supporting cast of spirited, talented, and oftentimes snarky personalities.

“On first opening the pages of Darlene Quinn’s Webs series, readers may well feel that they are in for an engaging ‘all about’ novel-- in Quinn’s case all about the glamorous, dangerous, byzantine, and ultimately exciting world of fashion and high-end retail—and those readers would be right. But wait! There’s more! Quinn develops her storylines and plot in a way that keeps the world engaging and the books charging forward. And don’t get complacent—nothing is what it seems and no character is without great secrets that will twist events and surprise the reader in breathtaking ways. There’s a great deal of fun and entertainment to be had in falling into these beguiling webs.”

--Frank Gaspar, author of Stealing Fatima and endowed chair/distinguished professor and writer in residence, University of Massachusetts.

Learn more and order books at:www.darlenequinn.net

Linda Reid

Fired from her job as a Washington TV producer, Sammy needs a second chance. Her midnight to 3 am show “Sammy Greene on the LA Scene” at a small radio station soon has her ruffling the feathers of a popular Orange County congressman. And everyone is listening.

December, 1999. Ten days before the new millennium, Already on edge with Santa Ana “devil wind” fanning fires threatening to engulf the city and Y2K looming, Sammy’s callers imagine Armageddon- the perfect setting for a rogue CIA operative to manipulate fears as cover for his deadly plot.

A young woman’s burned body identified as the wayward daughter of old friend, Gus Pappajohn, spurs the ex-campus cop to join Sammy in what may be a murder investigation, along the way exposing the seamy underbelly of Tiinseltown. If Sammy’s not careful this time, someone will make sure she’s off the air for good.....

Linda Reid: I began my own neighborhood newspaper at age 10 and continued to write in high school and at the University of Maryland, where I also worked at the campus radio and TV stations. In medical school, I became “The Doc Around the Rock” on radio until I started my clinical training. Then, after my residency, I wrote for the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Tribune International, Salon.com, the Baltimore Sun, and the Huffington Post. I also worked as a medical feature reporter for the CBS-affiliate in D.C., and as a medical editor and host for Lifetime Medical Television. The first Sammy Greene thriller, Dead Air, was awarded the 2010 Royal Palm Literary Award for best thriller, and my sci-fi novel Where Angels Fear to Tread/Renegade Paladins was awarded the 2010 Mensa Best Young Adult Novel award. I feel truly blessed to be part of the brotherhood of physician-writers.

Short: Deborah Shlian is a physician, healthcare consultant, and author of five award winning medical mystery/thrillers, three co-authored with her husband, Joel. Linda Reid is a physician-broadcaster-author and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UCLA. Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid are also authors of Dead Air, which won first prize in the Thriller category of the National Indie Excellence 2010 Awards.

www.sammygreene.com | Sammy Greene's blog: http://sammygreene.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/hello-world/

Tom Ruck

Late in 2004, Tom Ruck had an idea for a book to honor the American Veteran and scribbled the idea down on a cocktail napkin.  The next morning he read the napkin and decided he had to make this idea a reality and started the process of creating and publishing that idea. Since he was not a known author or photographer, the journey to publication was difficult and most interesting. He created this book as a labor of love to honor the truest of American heroes, our veterans. The result of Tom’s efforts, "Sacred Ground, A Tribute to America’s Veterans," was released by Regnery Publishing and achieved a #5 ranking on Amazon in its’ category.

Acting Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs Gordon H. Mansfield presented Ruck with a Special Commendation Award in Washington, DC.  “Tom Ruck has brought honor and recognition to America’s heroes and the VA,” said Mansfield. “His respect and admiration for the service and sacrifices of our veterans and their families is reflected on every page of this book. Sacred Ground has heightened the public’s awareness of the courage, commitment and sacrifices of America’s Veterans.”   

Mr. Ruck is a frequent guest speaker to veteran support groups around the country and has appeared on over 100 radio and television stations promoting the causes of our America’s Veterans. In 2008, Tom was honored to deliver the opening remarks at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery on Memorial Day, presented the keynote address at Irvine College on Veterans Day, and was a guest speaker at the Defender of Freedom Symposium in Washington D.C. Most recently, Tom served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Riverside National Cemetery program this past Memorial Day and was the Keynote Speaker at the 2009 Los Angeles National Cemetery Veterans Day event “Honoring all Veterans.”

Mr. Ruck has been presented to the President of the United States for consideration to the position of Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs in the Department of Veterans Affairs. If the President nominates Mr. Ruck, he would require Senate confirmation before assuming the post.

Sacred Ground was awarded with a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Soceity of America in non-fiction for 2009. It was named the Overall Grand Prize winner at the Branson Stars & Flags Book Awards, which is part of America’s largest veteran celebration, The Branson week-long “Celebration of Veterans.” And as the Winner in the 2009 USA Best Book Awards in the Military History category.

Learn more and order books at: Barnes & Noble , Amazon and other fine booksellers.

madeline Sharples

Although Madeline Sharples worked for most of her professional life as a technical writer and editor, grant writer, and proposal manager, she fell in love with poetry and creative writing in grade school. She pursued her writing interests to high school while studying journalism and writing for the high school newspaper, and she studied journalism in college. However, she only began to fulfill her dream to be a professional writer later in life.

Madeline’s memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On (Lucky Press LLC, 2011), is the harrowing but ultimately uplifting tale of the course of years from her son Paul’s diagnosis with bipolar disorder, through his suicide at her home to the present day. It details how Madeline, her husband and younger son weathered every family’s worst nightmare.

In addition to Leaving the Hall Light On, Madeline co-authored Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press, 1994) a book about women in nontraditional professions and co-edited the poetry anthology, The Great American Poetry Show, Volumes 1 (Muse Media, 2004) and 2 (2010). Her poetry accompanies the work of photographer Paul Blieden in two books, The Emerging Goddess and Intimacy as well as appearing in print and online on many occasions.

Madeline is now a full-time writer and is working on her next book, a novel, based in the 1920s. She and Bob, her husband of 40 years, live in Manhattan Beach, California, a small beach community south of Los Angeles. Her younger son Ben lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife Marissa.

For more information and to buy books, please visit:

LuckyPress | www.MadelineSharples.com | Book trailer | Blog

V.J. Waks

V.J. Waks has been telling stories since childhood. This normally can get one into trouble unless you write the stories down. Society then forgives, and people begin to notice.

And so came TAU 4, Book One in this author’s series of sci fi novels. A story of deceit and betrayal, of obsession and determination, TAU 4 takes the reader to savage worlds of storm and jungle, the life and death struggle of a warrior people and the inevitable conflict of creator and created.

Nothing is as it appears to be in TAU 4 or in HAMMERSPACE, Book Two, of the series.The continuing story of Gerda Tau takes a deadly and unforeseen turn. A new, more dangerous enemy surfaces in this taut drama of conspiracy, world domination and revelation for the creature made by Dyle Carzon.

Scheduled for launch in early summer 2010, HAMMERSPACE will be available through Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, and all major distributors, as well as from the author’s site at vjwaks.com, where readers can sample both books.

The author of TAU 4 still finds time to pen a script or two.  A Nicholl’s Fellowship Screenplay Competition Quarterfinalist, this native New Yorker now abides in a haunted carriage house in Los Angeles.

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Maralys Wills

Maralys Wills calls herself a “genre-hopper.” Her twelve books span no fewer than six different genres, though this wasn’t her intention when she began witting. “In the beginning,” she says, “I just wanted to write. The genre-hopping was an accident.”

Her fiction works include four romance novels published by Harlequin and Silhouette, and a techno-thriller about airplane sabotage. The N.Y. Times called SCATTERPATH “exciting, down-to-the-wire stuff . . . her cockpit sequences all but put the reader at the controls.”

After years of teaching creative writing, Wills was gratified that Stephens Press also published her writing book, DAMN THE REJECTIONS, FULL SPEED AHEAD: The Bumpy Road to Getting Published. Within three weeks, the book won First Place in its category from USA Book News, and later a First Place from the Indie awards.

For the past 22 years, Wills has taught college novel-writing, and in 2000 was voted “Teacher of the Year.” In addition to frequent speaking engagements, she has given numerous writing seminars---at UCLA, UC Riverside, UCI, Orange Coast College, Cerritos College, and at writers’ conferences across the country. She is a past president of the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America.

Synopsis: Damn the Rejections, Full Speed Ahead

A treasure trove of sage advice for the new writer packaged in easy to digest and fun to read anecdotes. Damn the Rejections, Full Speed Ahead offers real world suggestions for writing novels or non-fiction and turning them into not only saleable, but bestseller works.

Synopsis: Higher Than Eagles

The family was changed by a boy—a stubborn, relentless, infuriating—but ingenious and creative boy.

He was the first in a family of six children, with parents who initially balked at his fantasies. Yet almost everything that captured the world’s attention—double-decker bicycles, international hang gliding records, the drama of “flying” a motorcycle, a British championship won by landing on one foot—all these were part of young Bob Wills’s singular vision.

Prevailing against all the people who called him impractical, a dreamer, Bobby became a legend in the fledgling sport of hang gliding. Sports Illustrated wrote of him, “Like Paul Elvstrom, the great Danish sailor, he seems now to own a special part of the wind that not even he can see and no one else can find.”

In the end, Bobby not only profoundly changed his family and the pilots who flocked to emulate him, he did what he’d intended all along. He lived a life that had never been lived before.

More about Maralys:

Among her non-fiction works are MANBIRDS: HANG GLIDERS & HANG GLIDING (Prentice-Hall), a party game book, FUN GAMES FOR GREAT PARTIES (Price/ Stern/Sloan), and her family story about the sons who were hang gliding champions, HIGHER THAN EAGLES (Longstreet Press—in 2010 re-published by Stephens Press). Sadly, the Wills family lost two sons to the sport, and Wills’ account of those years--initially exhilarating, then tragic--earned her high marks in Publisher’s Weekly and Kirkus. HIGHER THAN EAGLES garnered five movie options, including from Disney, and today is once more under consideration by film makers.

Wills’ book on addiction, SAVE MY SON, is the result of years of trauma with an addicted son. During several years of research in four states, Wills found not one, but many solutions to the addiction problem.

Her recent, light-hearted memoir, A CIRCUS WITHOUT ELEPHANTS, earned a national award from Writer’s Digest. In 2008, Stephens Press published the sequel, A CLOWN IN THE TRUNK, (an Indie award winner).