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Where Awesome Book Readers Meet Awesome Writers

1. Bachelorettes on Parade by Felicia Mires - Felicia Mires began her writing career years ago when she became bored with what she found available in the Christian Fiction market. Hoping to entertain herself and provide inspiration to other Christians, she wrote her first novel, Diamonds are for Eden. Since that time, she has written more than 20 Christian novels (all with a bit of romance), even becoming a finalist in the ACFW competition. Along the way, she has judged multiple writing contests, edited scores of books for other writers, and discovered a wealth of fascinating Christian fiction. But, God did not create man, or woman, for books alone. Thankfully, there is relationship. Felicia has been married for over 25 years to Gene Mires, from whom she gains a plethora of hilarious and creative ideas. Felicia and Gene have three incredible children. They also enjoy pastoring Young Adults at Life Church. Ahh, the drama...and unending plot ideas. Life is full of relationship. If you need a bit of inspiration or encouragement, try Christian Fiction by Felicia Mires.
   
2. The Syrian by Felicia Mires - Felicia Mires began her writing career years ago when she became bored with what she found available in the Christian Fiction market. Hoping to entertain herself and provide inspiration to other Christians, she wrote her first novel, Diamonds are for Eden. Since that time, she has written more than 20 Christian novels (all with a bit of romance), even becoming a finalist in the ACFW competition. Along the way, she has judged multiple writing contests, edited scores of books for other writers, and discovered a wealth of fascinating Christian fiction. But, God did not create man, or woman, for books alone. Thankfully, there is relationship. Felicia has been married for over 25 years to Gene Mires, from whom she gains a plethora of hilarious and creative ideas. Felicia and Gene have three incredible children. They also enjoy pastoring Young Adults at Life Church. Ahh, the drama...and unending plot ideas. Life is full of relationship. If you need a bit of inspiration or encouragement, try Christian Fiction by Felicia Mires.
   
3. The Hierophant by James Tripp - James Tripp is a Los Angeles based stand-up comedian. Before entering show business, he was a political aid, a reporter for The Martha’s Vineyard Times and was the news director for WMVY-FM radio. In July of 2012, James published his first novel, the Hierophant. It is available on Amazon.com.
   
4. THERE’S ONLY ONE QUANTUM - William Bryan Smith is a graduate of The Bennington Writing Seminars program at Bennington College, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature. His writing has appeared in such magazines and journals as Fresh Ink (the journal of the California Writers Club), Conte: a Journal of Narrative Writing, and Papyrus (the art history e-journal of Mansfield University). His short story, “Scottie’s Room,” has appeared in Spectrum, the literary journal of the University of California-Santa Barbara, College of Creative Studies. In addition to There’s Only One Quantum, he is the author of two previous novels: Buddy & the Jack (2002); and Starry Night (2005). He lives in Pennsylvania.
   
5. The Wizard’s Council by Cody J. Sherer - Cody J. Sherer was born and raised in Southern California. An avid reader from a young age, Cody found his want to write when he started writing on an online roleplaying website during college. His goal at the time was to graduate and become an accountant. Somewhere along the way, he got caught up in the love for writing and has been doing so ever since. Though much of his work is unpublished, he has one fantasy ebook and one science fiction ebook available via Amazon. His writing has helped him to get through recent family hardships and he believes that he has become a better writer through the circumstances. He is currently working on numerous novels that he expects to release in the coming months and years. On a more personal note, he is less than fifty days from getting married to the woman of his dreams. His hobbies include reading, writing (duh! lol,) watching basketball, playing sports, weight lifting, hiking, biking, playing video games, watching tv, and more. Among his influences you will find J.R.R. Tolkien, Raymond E. Feist, C.S. Lewis, Star Wars, Firefly, Star Trek, and many more Science Fiction and Fantasy books, series, authors, etc.
   
6. 101 Ways to Make Yourself Indispensable at Work by Carol Silvis - In addition to 101 Ways, Carol Silvis authored Job Hunting After 50 and college textbooks. Her article “Time Management and Organization for Writers” is in the 2012 Writers Market. She has had ten creative non-fiction stories and an inspirational piece published in national magazines and nearly 40 published in newsletters. Her children’s story won a 2007 St. David’s One-Day Conference Award. She is president of Pennwriters, Inc. and won the 2008 Meritorious Service Award. Ms. Silvis appeared in a video interview with Tory Johnson for ABCNews.com, was interviewed for CBSMoneywatch.com, AARP Online and was a guest on HMC-TV, WIUP-TV, and Cornerstone TV. She has a master’s degree in Adult Education and provides workshops on career management, customer service, effective communication, and time management/organization.
   
7. The Mediator Pattern by J.D. Lee - J.D. Lee is an Author of fiction based in Los Angeles, Ca. I draw influence from thinkers such as Philip K Dick, Orwell, Zeno, Pythagoras, Tesla, Edward Leedskalnin, Gödel, Hofstadter, Stephen King. I love anything that makes my brain tingle, from super heroes and recursive patterns to hauntings and quantum mechanics. While focusing on my own cosmological theory and economic models, I have begun introducing my ideas of existence in story form. My entirely original works focus on understanding the universe, science, and the perceptions of self and reality. I like to play with paradoxes and cyclic thinking. I want my readers to experience my stories, not just read them. I am currently pursuing an education in Economics and Physics and I consider myself to be an "acosmic pan-solipsist".
   
8. Switched - Catalina Tyner is a developer by day, fantasy writer by night. She lives in a small Mediterranean town with her boyfriend and her cat.
   
9. The Whiskey Tide - After nine novels from traditional publishers, M. Ruth Myers joined a growing number of independent authors. Her works have been translated into numerous languages, optioned for film and condensed for magazine publication. She has been a popular instructor at writers conferences from coast to coast. Ruth and her husband have one grown daughter. They live in Ohio as domestic staff to an over-empowered cat. You can find her on Facebook at MRuthMyers.author or at www.mruthmyers.com . She loves to hear from readers.
   
10. Disappearance - Niv Kaplan was born on Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar in Northern Israel in 1959. At age 11 he moved with his parents to NYC for three years. After completing high school, Niv served three years in a special-forces reconnaissance outfit and had taken an active part in forming the IDF's Alpine unit which he served in reserve duty. Niv received his Bs.C degree in Business Development (Marketing) from Cal State University Northridge (CSUN) in 1992, spending close to ten years in New York and Los Angeles. He started writing "Disappearance" right after receiving his University degree, completing it in 1997. The book was written in English, translated and published in Hebrew in Israel in June, 2012, and had since sold over 6000 copies, received praise for its suspenseful plot, precise structure, and identifiable characters, and is considered a surprise success for a first time author in Israel. Niv's second book has been completed in English this year, translated to Hebrew and will be in bookstores this year. Niv has been working in the Aerospace industry for the last 19 years, marketing electro-optical sensors to fighter aircraft. He lives in Tel Aviv with his wife Tali and their seven children.
    
11. The Quiet End: Episode 1 - Steven writes in many different genres, but his favorites are science fiction and horror. Especially the more "speculative" varieties. He currently lives in Canada with his wife, Tori. He hopes to continue writing for as long as he can, because he has plenty of ideas of great stories that he feels need to get out there!
    
12. Diary of a Dancing Drama Queen (Book#1 The Secret Ramblings of Harriet Hughes) - Louise Lintvelt is a chemical engineer, who prefers writing great stories to chemistry. Louise lives in South Africa. You can contact Louise using the following e-mail address: louiselintveltauthor@gmail.com
    
13. Small Spaces, Big Yields - Read Spear began cultivating in the late 80’s. His medical marijuana dispensary was the second one to be issued its Medical Marijuana Center license in the state of Colorado. He remains active in the industry as a consultant and owns Scientific Soils, LLC. He has two degrees in philosophy, a Bachelor of Arts from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Arts from The Duquesne University of the Holy Ghost in Pittsburgh. He lives in Colorado with his hound dog when he is not traveling.
    
14. How to Photograph Architecture and Real Estate like a Pro - Steve Rutherford, multi award winning professional photographer, trainer, best selling author of the "How to Photograph Anything like a Pro" book series, and editor of Photographic Fanatic Magazine was born in Sydney, Australia in 1972. Over the past decade Steve has built himself a reputable name in the international photographic world. A multitude of international awards, high demand for his creative commercial vision in fine art, and hundreds seeking his training courses, seminars and now books. Steve has an easy to understand practical approach to teaching photography and has captured his photographic secrets in the "How to Photograph Anything book series" so you can discover photography at your own pace. Previously a high level manager within the Australian Federal Police, a Prison Officer with the notorious Long Bay Prison's Riot and Emergency Response Squad in Sydney and Border Protection Specialist for the Australian Customs Service, Steve Rutherford's background has been as diverse as the images he captures. With this past Steve has seen both the best and the worst that humanity can be. Steve uses this experience when adding his own unique perspective to the world. Such a perspective can expose the story of a single floating leaf on a tropical island paradise, or the grandeur of midnight in New York. Steve is highly recognised as a leading and trusted professional, by the photographic industry worldwide. He is an Accredited Associate and North Queensland Chapter President of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP), and Master of Photography of New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography (NZIPP). He is also a member of the Professional Photographers of America (PPA). Visit www.steverutherford.com
    
15. Blood Betrayal - Emmy® Nominated Motion Picture Director / Screenwriter / Author "I write History and Action-Adventure Thrillers - and sometimes combine the two." Professional Bio: After spending 15 years in New York directing and technical directing some of the most widely viewed programs on network and cable television; Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Emeril Live, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Robert Child followed his passion for history in 2005 and produced a series historical films including; Silent Wings, Lincoln and Lee, The Wereth Eleven and others. He is the winner of more than 25 writing and directing awards and is one of only a handful of directors whose work has screened in the Congress of the United States. Silent Wings debuted on Capitol Hill on the day of its release in 2007 and became the catalyst for New York Congresswoman, Carolyn McCarthy's, House sponsored, Joint Resolution honoring America's WWII glider pilots. He has been fortunate in his films to work with several Hollywood name collaborators. Hal Holbrook narrated Silent Wings, which featured Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney. Civil War theatrical director, Ronald F. Maxwell, (Gettysburg, Gods & Generals) narrated, Lincoln and Lee at Antietam: The Cost of Freedom. Corey Reynolds (The Terminal, The Closer) narrated, The Wereth Eleven and actor Dale Dye, Stephen Spielberg's Senior Military Advisor on Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers narrated the, USS Franklin: Honor Restored, film in 2011. In 2008, he began writing screenplays and both of his first two feature film screenplays HAMILTON and BLOOD BETRAYAL reached the finals in two separate screenwriting competitions. Hamilton was declared an Official Finalist in the 2011 Hollywood Screenplay Contest and Blood Betrayal reached the semi-finals in the 27th Write Movies International Writing Contest out of thousands of entries. Both Blood Betrayal and Hamilton (Rush On, Boys) have been adapted to novels.
    
16. Borrowed Life – Volume I-II by V.S.Vashist - Varun.S.Vashist is a firm believer in destiny and does believe that every ordinary thing around us has an extraordinary story. These stories become the basis of his novels. Stories that are believable and that touch positively are the one that he likes and tries to convey the same through his novels.A nature lover, his stories involves people travelling for their quest. Ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations is a running theme in his stories.
    
17. Picture Perfect by Alicia Roberts - Alicia Roberts has always enjoyed writing. She believes in "happily ever after", true love triumphing, and everyone getting what they deserve - and she tries to make sure it happens, at least in her fiction. Alicia loves animals, coffee, cake and laughter. She loves travelling and will never tire of Paris.
    
18. Three At The Center Of Rage by Martin J. Ryan - I was born in New York City in 1928. My father had flown airplanes made of canvas and sticks in WWl, in France, while my mother had sung and danced in vaudeville. Everything was fine until the Crash of 29. What I recall is a series of one-bedroom apartments and hard times, but my older sister and I had no complaints since this was simply the way things were, and many were worse off than we were, some of whom we occasionally took in for a week or two. People shared back then.  As a child I was always drawing with pencil and crayon, and painting with oils on cardboard. But most important at the time, I was a street kid along with hundreds of others and loved it. I shined shoes, sold newspapers, carried wet wash for Wong’s laundry, delivered groceries, then worked in a ping-pong paddle factory and various warehouses. For a few months in 1945 I served below decks in the engine room in the U.S. Maritime Service, before segueing that winter into the Army Engineers, which consisted of building things, blowing up things, and running machinery.  I worked as an accounting clerk for a steamship line, shared driving big rigs interstate (first trip about 3800 miles, no super highways), then as a wire lather (way up) constructing high-rise apartment buildings. In 1949 I began using my G.I Bill: Fine art at the Art Student’s league of New York, and in 1950 at the Workshop School of Advertising and Editorial Design and Illustration, where I met my future, and very talented, wife, Lorraine, to whom I’ve been married for 59 years. After one semester she left to attend The Parson’s School of Design. When my G.I. Bill expired I returned to the Art Student’s League at night, paying my way for a couple of years by running elevators, including the “tower car,” in the Wall Street Bank that was the model for the one I used in Three At The Center Of Rage. Yes, as my character Charlie did, I had occasion to climb from the boardroom to the bank’s roof at 2 or 3 in the morning, absent Charlie’s rage, of course, to admire the amazing view.  I designed record album covers but never went into advertising or illustration. Rather, having seen my wife’s work in decorative product design, I followed suit working on staff as a designer for 3 companies before, in 1963, creating my own design studio in midtown Manhattan. Thrilling, perilous in terms of no real security, I managed to hold on while employing two artists, eventually becoming a consultant designer and design director for a number of corporations. Meanwhile we had two beautiful daughters, Aimee and Betsy, and by 1968, talented freelancer Lorraine would come in on a part time basis; then in 1973 she became my full time partner. While all this was going on I attended a writer’s workshop, at night, at what was then known as the New School for Social Research. Eventually, lucky for Lorraine and me, Aimee and Betsy provided us with 5 wonderful grandchildren.  Retiring to Connecticut, Lorraine and I returned to fine art. Lorraine has shown in galleries and won many awards in juried shows. I focused on wildlife/nature in my paintings, then out of curiosity bought a computer, tinkered with it and studied web development at Western Connecticut University. I produced two websites (still on view): www.RyanArtDuo.com which is a gallery of our paintings, and www.UncleSammySays.com, a decidedly left-of-center blog featuring my political rants and cartoons, most of which were devoted to trashing the Bush/Cheny administration. I say was because I have not updated either site since 2007, due to the fact that I was writing my novel. But while the Uncle Sammy blog itself is old news, I am using this same site as a lead-in for my novel, providing sample chapters, etc., having superimposed a new Three At The Center Of Rage web page. Thanks for reading this.
    
19. Peasants Come Last - Serving many years on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. J. Larry Brown riveted national attention to the existence of hunger in America in the 1980s, when he led a team of prominent doctors on field investigations into 25 states. The founding director of the Center on Hunger and Poverty, Dr. Brown also founded the Feinstein Famine Center and the Institute on Assets and Social Policy. Dr. Brown chaired the board of Oxfam America, and also chaired the medical task force of USA for Africa and Hands Across America. He is the author of numerous articles in both lay and scientific journals, such as Scientific American and Encyclopedia Britannica, and several books including Living Hungry in America. He has appeared often on national television including CNN, Good Morning America, Today Show, and network news programs, and testifies frequently before Congress. A young Peace Corps Volunteer in rural India in the late 1960s, Brown later served under President Carter as Assistant Director of the Peace Corps. He recently served a stint as Country Director of the Peace Corps in Uganda, and now resides with his wife, Judi Garfinkel, in Oman, where they direct the Center for International Learning (www.omancenter.org).
    
20. The Seventh Crane - Czech-American author Birgitte Rasine writes literary fiction that pulls the beauty and the pain of the human experience out into the open by their very roots. Compared by readers to Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Joyce, Ms. Rasine’s work cracks open the vast and varied depths of the human psyche to illuminate our eternal quest for freedom, success, and fulfillment. Published works include “The Serpent and the Jaguar,” “Confession,” “Verse in Arabic,” and “Bakaly,” among others. A former journalist and screenwriter for the Hollywood film industry, Ms. Rasine also currently serves as the Chief Evolution Officer (CEO) of LUCITÀ Inc., a hybrid design and communications firm based in Silicon Valley. She holds a BA in Film Aesthetics from Stanford University, studied cinematography at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and completed a professional masters degree in international relations in Spanish at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset in Madrid, Spain. A member of various literary and professional organizations including Pen Parentis and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, she is also a Founder’s Circle member of the Association of Women in Water, Energy and Environment and sits on the Board of Directors of the American Fund for Czech and Slovak Leadership Studies, a non profit organization in New York City that supports young leaders in healthcare, education, and the environment.
    
21. The Slave Trader’s Wedding by A.J. Hartley - A.J. Hartley is the SIBA award winning and New York Times bestselling author of 10 novels in more genres than makes any kind of sense. He is also a Shakespeare professor. No, really.
    
22. Gaspar And The Fanastical Hats by David A. Lindsay - Born and brought up in Dundee, Scotland, David A. Lindsay lives with his wife near St Andrews in Fife. After practising as a court lawyer for twenty years, mainly in criminal and family law, David now operates a successful web design agency.
    
23. Death in the Theatres and Other Stories - Jenell Diegor was born in Cebu, Philippines and grew up in the oldest city in North America, St. John's, Newfoundland. She enjoys learning about human behaviour and reading mystery novels, with the Queen of Mystery herself, Agatha Christie, as her favorite author. She currently resides in Toronto, Ontario and lists traveling as her favorite hobby.
    
24. The Voice of the Victim by Robert Trainor - Over the past seven years (since I retired at the age of 60), I've written five novels, all of which you can find in the Kindle Store. What I am attempting to do in my books, besides writing entertaining and original plots, is to present themes and dilemmas that are thought provoking and don't have any easy, simplistic answers. I do my very best to fairly present both sides of an issue--such as having a negative character express my own personal views, while a more positive character will express intelligent opposition to those views. All of this occurs, of course, in relation to the plots that are contained in the books, which are intended to mirror or illustrate the underlying philosophy. For instance, in The Road Map to the Universe, the protagonist feels that because the universe is so enormous, our lives here on earth are meaningless and that we all suffer from taking ourselves far too seriously. Do humans really have any significance, or is that just a self-serving illusion of the ego? And then, when the plot is resolved, one realizes that many of the incidents that occurred during the book were essentially mirages created by ego-driven motivations. There! I've just given you an important clue to solving the murder mystery that is at the center of this book. I spend a great deal of time revising my novels. After finishing the first draft, I go through the book about ten times--first page to last page. Each journey through the book is slow and painstaking--no more than ten or fifteen pages a day. Sometimes, one or two pages will take a whole day. From my experience, the kind of errors that pop up on some of the later readings can be rather surprising, if not downright alarming! I particularly look for inaccurate punctuation, repetitive sentence structure, and inaccurate or repetitive vocabulary; however, you will not need a dictionary to read my books. I also do not permit unclear sentences to stand--I can't imagine that any reader will want to read a sentence twice because I couldn't find a way to explain myself. I also spent numerous hours formatting these novels so that they would convert to Kindle. As you probably all know, it isn't just a matter of hitting the upload button, and all I can say is that these books (after doing this, that, and the other thing) looked great on the Kindle Previewer, so I'm hopeful that they converted properly. My thanks to Charles Spender and his $0.99 book, Formatting of Kindle Books, which was quite helpful.