Authors Attending Writers for New Orleans
Jeff Ayers is the author of several books, and his first was a guide to the world of Star Trek novels for Simon and Schuster, Voyages of Imagination. He read over 550 books for that project and interviewed over 350 people, including William Shatner and John DeLancie. He has been a book reviewer for The Associated Press and Booklist and is currently reviewing for Criminal Element, Library Journal, and firstCLUE. Jeff has interviewed hundreds of authors in newspapers, podcasts, and magazines. He is a retired public librarian and the Co-Executive Director of Thrillerfest for International Thriller Writers. He writes thrillers about National Parks with Jon Land under the name A.J. Landau, and the first book in the series, Leave No Trace, came out in February.
Rebecca Barrett writes historical fiction, short stories of life in the South, and children’s stories.
Currently Rebecca is writing a detective series set in the deep South of the sixties featuring Hugo August, a Vietnam veteran, as her protagonist. The first book, The Rat Catcher, is available as of May 1, 2023. She is working on the second book of the series, She Had To Die, while rocking out to the great music of the sixties and delving into the good vibes, high times, and social unrest of that era.
To find samples of Rebecca’s short fiction, go to: www.rebeccabarrett.com
She can be reached by email at: barrett.author@gmail.com
Lisa Black is the New York Times bestselling author of 16 suspense novels, including the Gardiner & Renner series and the Locard Institute series. Her works that have been translated into six languages, optioned for film, and shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award. She is also a full-time Certified Latent Print Examiner and a Certified Crime Scene Analyst, beginning her forensics career at the Coroner’s office in Cleveland Ohio and then the police department in Cape Coral, Florida. She has spoken to readers and writers at numerous conferences, been a consultant for CourtTV, and was a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
Dr. Bill Brown likes nothing more than telling a good story or hearing one. He loves history and currently writes historical fiction of the 1813-1819 time in pre-statehood Alabama. His love of history may have originated with his mother. When Bill was a child, his mother told wonderful tales of growing up in rural Alabama and south Florida during the 1920s and 1930s.
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When Bill became an adult, he had her tell all those stories again. But this time, he recorded and transcribed them. He plans to use those as the basis for another novel series.
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Bill’s current project is a six-volume series, “An Elias James Adventure,” with the first three published already. West From Here begins the story of the Creek Indian Nation in turmoil that leads to Warpath detailing the prelude to the Creek War with the fledgling American Republic. Broken Lance is the story of the war and the surrender of the famous Creek war chief, Red Eagle, to General Andrew Jackson at Horseshoe Bend.
USA Today and Amazon Best Selling Author Don Bruns has 19 published novels and stories in five anthologies. Currently his New Orleans series, Casting Bones, is being optioned for a television series by CBS. The series features a homicide cop and a voodoo practitioner who form a tenuous relationship to solve murders in the Big Easy. Bruns’s anthology Hotel California released this past July and features stories by Andrew Child (Jack Reacher) Heather Graham, John Gilstrap and Reed Coleman among others.
July 11, his anthology Thriller releases with stories by Heather Graham, Jeffrey Deaver and others.
Pamela Ebel has been published in Shotgun Honey, YELLOW MAMA EZINE, Kings River Life Magazine, The BOULD AWARDS 2020 and 2021 Anthology, Tomorrow and Tomorrow 2021 Anthology and other venues. Her poetry has appeared in the Delta Poetry Review. A native of California, she now concentrates on tales from her original home state and tales from the highways of the South. She also knows, like the Ancient Greeks and the Irish, that as a southern writer you can’t outrun your blood.
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She has turned to writing full time as of 2020, obviously either perfect or bizarre timing, and this will be her fifth career. She lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband and two cats.
Marcia King Gamble fell in love with romance after reading her first Mills and Boon book at age six. Her mother, a school teacher, helped her learn to read at an early age. Of course having no television in the home helped as well. Reading fueled an overactive imagination. It still does.
Marcia was born on the island of St. Vincent in the sunny Caribbean. It’s a heavenly place where ocean and sky are the same mesmerizing blue. Sands are both white and black. St. Vincent has a dormant volcano and is also home to the oldest Botanical Gardens in the Western Hemisphere. The Grenadine islands (think Bequia, Mustique, Palm Island ... lifestyles of the rich and famous) are shared with Grenada.
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Degrees in psychology and theater were obtained in the United States which has been her home for most of my life. She made a comfortable living as a travel industry executive while moonlighting as a reader for Harlequin/Silhouette. That’s where her first venture into writing romances began.
Since 1998 Marcia has been published by Kensington, BET and St. Martin’s Press and Harlequin. Recently, she has been Indie publishing. Now she can write what she wants to write and pick her own book covers. Yea!
From cozy mysteries to seaside romance, USA Today bestselling author Traci Hall writes stories that captivate her readers. As a hybrid author with over sixty published works, Ms. Hall has a favorite tale for everyone.
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Mystery lovers, check out her Scottish Shire series, set in the seaside town of Nairn, or the Salem B&B Mystery series, co-written as Traci Wilton. Her latest project is an Irish Castle cozy as Ellie Brannigan. Whether it's her ever-popular By the Sea romances, an Appletree Cove sweet romance, or a fun who-done-it, Traci finds her inspiration in sunny South Florida.
​Jon Land is the USA Today bestselling author of more than 50 books, over 10 of which feature Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong. The critically acclaimed series has won more than a dozen awards, including the 2019 International Book Award for Best Thriller for STRONG AS STEEL. He is also the author of CHASING THE DRAGON, a detailed account of the War on Drugs written with one of the most celebrated DEA agents of all time. A graduate of Brown University, Land lives in Providence, Rhode Island and received the 2019 Rhode Island Authors Legacy Award for his lifetime of literary achievements.
Winner of the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense (2015) for her debut novel "Pure Death", author Liah Penn is an attorney who resides outside of New Orleans with her husband and two sons. A former prosecutor, she has worked in a major metropolis, on the Mexican border and on an Indian reservation before relocating to Louisiana with her family. She is also an accomplished artist and sells her work locally. The last few chapters of Pure Death were written on a laptop while on a driving trip across Texas.
​Michael Rigg has been an attorney for over four decades. He is a retired Navy Judge Advocate and a retired civil servant. He writes mysteries and thrillers set in two very different locations: Virginia Beach and New Orleans. He is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Hampton Roads Writers, and both the Sisters in Crime national organization and its Southeastern Virginia Chapter—Mystery by the Sea. He is the author of a novelette, Ghosts of the French Market, and has short stories in several anthologies. Visit him Facebook at: www.facebook.com/michael.rigg.author or on his website: www.michaelrigg.com. Mike recently signed with Level Best Books, with publication of his debut novel, Voices of the Elysian Fields, scheduled for March 2025.
Mark Zeid is a retired Marine and a former military police officer, journalist, English teacher, criminal justice instructor, and technical writer. He is currently the author of Media Murder Mysteries, two of which won honorable mention in the WhoDunIt Mystery Writing Contest. He is also the author of another series featuring the private investigator Jeff Terrell and his reluctant partner, Bud, whose primary concerns are eating and napping. He also holds writing workshops and does Holocaust education for local groups.