Who is the man with the infectious smile, charming personality, and overflowing generosity?  The answer can be found within ourselves.  Ridley Pearson represents the best humanity has to offer.  His love of life and the intricate balance it seeks is plainly evident in the stories he crafts.

Although he's quite modest about it, Ridley Pearson is a household name in more than 70 countries.  With over 12 million copies sold worldwide, his 38-plus books have been translated into 22 languages. 

Ridley's novels resonate with his readers because there's passion behind the words.  Simply stated, he loves to tell stories.  If he'd lived 15,000 years ago, he would've been the hunter sitting at the campfire recalling the day's hunt to a captive audience.   

Not many authors can take credit for helping the police solve a real-life homicide case.  Ridley's research for UNDERCURRENTS (1988) did just that.  Since then, Ridley has contributed to active police task force investigations on both the city and federal level.  His knowledge and understanding of police procedures adds realism and true-to-life color to his novels.  If he hadn't become an author, I think it's fair to say Ridley would've made a great detective.

Like Ridley said, authors don't work alone from beginning to end.  At some point, we turn our books over to editors and/or agents, people we trust and people with whom we share a common goal--making our manuscripts the best they can be.  Self editing is important, but an independent look is invaluable.

Ridley's path to publication didn't happen overnight.  His success is the result of countless hours in the chair, writing, editing, rewriting, and re-editing. 

"I think every writer remembers where he or she was when getting the call your first book sold," says Ridley.  "I know I do.  I was living in Idaho at the time and went outside and ran around the yard screaming.  I'd been writing 6 hours a day for 8 years at that point.  It was an important moment.  I was paid about enough to buy a microwave oven for each of my first three books.  I was still writing for the love of it when UNDERCURRENTS surprised us all and went (in paperback) onto national best seller lists.  Suddenly I could quit my day job(s).  It was a great moment."

A few years back, Ridley met an interesting man and it's been a literary match made in heaven.  Through an act of divine fate, they both became charter members of the infamous Rock Bottom Remainders band.  It's made-up entirely of authors.  How did such a controversial rock group form?  I asked Ridley for a brief history.  "The RBRs were put together by a author media escort in San Francisco, Kathi Goldmark.  I was asked to play bass in an all-author band.  Kathi had no idea who might end up in the band, but I agreed.  Three weeks later I found out the band included Stephen King, Dave Barry and Amy Tan.  I about fell out of my chair."

When asked if the band practices together, Ridley responded with, "Practice?"

What's it like being on stage with Stephen King and Greg Iles?  "Greg Iles is a monster musician," says Ridley.  "He probably shouldn't be in the band.  Steve is a monster.  And a musician.  He probably shouldn't be in the band.  Which goes for ALL of us."

There've been rumors flying around about the band members being pelted by female undergarments hurled onto the stage.  "Our first gig we had women's underwear thrown on stage.  Turned out it was staged by Random House.  We're too old and too lousy to have groupies.  But we have Roy Blount, Jr. so we're happy!"

More on this unusual collection of authors can be found here. But be warned, do not visit this website directly after eating.  Yes, I made that mistake!  In all seriousness, the band sounds pretty damned good.  It sounds even better after a few shots of tequila.  There are tons of YouTube videos, so if you want to see Ridley in action playing the bass, check them out.  The RBR's Wordstock Tour kicked off on April 19th as members of the band met to begin a week long trek starting in Washington D.C.  They also visited Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston. 

Ridley's 38 books break down into 25 crime novels and 13 young adult books, many of them co-written with the aforementioned Dave Barry.  Ridley's also contributed to 4 short story anthologies, including the ITW sponsored, THRILLER 2, edited by Clive Cussler.

The YA series are just terrific.  Have you ever wondered where Peter Pan came from?  Ridley and Dave got together and talked about it.  When the discussion was over, it had been decided--they were going to write a prequel to Peter Pan.  And it became an instant hit.  PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS (2004) had a print run of 350,000 copies!  There are 3 more books in the Starcatchers series,  PETER AND THE SHADOW THIEVES, PETER AND THE SECRET OF RUNDOON, and PETER AND THE SWORD OF MERCY.

The other YA series are Kingdom Keepers (3 books), Never Land (3 books), Steel Trap (2 Books), and Science Fair (1 book).  How many authors get permission from the Walt Disney Corporation to write books about its theme parks and characters?  An elite few.

Ridley attended his first ThrillerFest this year.  "I'd been trying to get to TF for the past several years but I always was on book tour during that time.  This year I finally made it and had a blast.  I really enjoy seeing and listening to other authors, and I have a lot of friends in the business, so a good time was had."

I was fortunate to be sitting next to Ridley for the book signing at ThrillerFest V.  It offered me an opportunity to personally thank him for helping me kick start my writing career.  I wouldn't be where I am today without his kindness and generosity.

I first met Ridley on the 2005 Maui Writers Alaskan Cruise where I attended his week-long workshop.  I was floored when Ridley approached me after class and paid me a nice compliment.  He gave me his freelance editor's contact info and suggested I get in touch him.  He warned me that Ed Stackler is super busy and doesn't take on many new clients, but Ridley told me to contact Ed and use his name.  The rest is history.  Ed took me on, helped me polish and edit my debut novel, and then asked Ridley for a huge favor.

My publisher wanted a Ridley Pearson blurb and wanted it right away.  Well folks, the timing was bad.  It was one week before Christmas, he hadn't done his shopping yet, and he had a pressing deadline going.  But even with all that, Ridley stepped up to the plate, read my book, and wrote a terrific cover blurb:

"The most Brutally effective thriller hero to appear in years."  -- Ridley Pearson, author of KILLER WEEKEND.

I have no doubt the endorsement of such a high profile author helped sell many thousands of books.  I'm truly blessed.  Thanks Rid, you're the best!

Since that blurb, Ridley's written three additional books in the Sheriff Walt Fleming series;  KILLER VIEW (2007) and KILLER SUMMER (2009). His new release, IN HARM'S WAY (Aug 2010) unites Seattle's Lou Boldt with Sun Valley's Walt Fleming and promises to be the best crime novel yet.

Here's a quick snapshot of IN HARM'S WAY:

Sun Valley sheriff Walt Fleming's budding relationship with photographer Fiona Kenshaw hits a rough patch after Fiona is involved in a heroic river rescue and she attempts to duck the press.  Despite her job and her laudable actions, she begs Walt to keep her photo out of the paper, avoiding him when he can't.  Then Walt gets a phone call that changes everything: Lou Boldt, a police sergeant out of Seattle, calls to report that a recent murder may have a Sun Valley connection.  After a badly-beaten body is discovered just off a local highway, Walt knows there is a link--but can he pull the pieces together in time?

I like how Ridley's woven two separate series characters together into a single book.  There are 9 Detective Lou Boldt crime novels.

Ridley's good nature has crossed international boundaries.  In 2008-2009 he and his family lived in China for nearly a year.  "China is a fascinating place.  Our second daughter is adopted from there and we wanted to give her a year in the country of her origin.  I taught creative writing, in English (a first at the university level) at Fudan University.  An incredible year!"

The class was called, Mythic Three Act Structure in Contemporary Fiction.  The class Ridley taught on the 2005 Alaskan Cruise had a similar theme--a lesson I've carried with me to this day. 

Where does his generosity in helping aspiring writers come from?  The answer shouldn't surprise anyone.  "I was mentored by several accomplished writers for those 8 years I was trying to sell my fiction.  It meant the world to me, and it's the only reason I ever got published.  I try to pass that on whenever possible.  It's hard to now, because I'm crazy busy and traveling all the time, but if the opportunity arises to teach for a weekend or attend a conference, I try to do that."

During my interview, I used the word "icon" to describe him.  He resisted the label.  "I am anything but an icon.  That's Mike Connelly and Lee Child.  I'm a day laborer at best.  I write 11 hours a day; several books a year because I'm writing YA now as well."

Respectfully, I must disagree, not about Child and Connelly being icons, but about Ridley not being one.  Folks, he's writing about Disney characters!  Characters we all grew up with.  He and Dave Barry have crafted a brand new story about the origins of Peter Pan! And that's not iconic?  It absolutely is.  He plays in a rock band next to Stephen King, Greg Iles, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, and Mitch Albom to name a few.  And that's not iconic?  I admire Ridley's modesty, but honestly, he's barking with the big dogs--has been for quite awhile.

When all else is peeled away, what makes Ridley truly happy?  "My family is everything to me.  Everything."

That says a lot--a value many of us share.  Family must always come first.

Traditionally, I like to ask this question of all the Between The Lines guests:  What advice would you give to authors who have yet to get an agent and become published?

"Stay in the chair.  Carve out a specific amount of time and stay in the chair.  Be prepared to take criticism and DO something with it."

- - -

For a complete listing of all Ridley's novels and links to many additional interviews, I encourage you to visit his website at www.ridleypearson.com  You'll have a choice to go in one of two directions:  Toward his crime novel page or toward his young adult adventure page.  Each is masterfully crafted and easy to navigate.

* * *

In 1990, Ridley Pearson was the first American to serve as the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellow in Detective Fiction at Oxford University, England. In 2008-2009 Ridley served as a visiting professor in the College of International Language and Literature at Fudan University, Shanghai, China where he taught Mythic Three Act Structure in Contemporary Fiction. He lives in St Louis, MO with his wife Marcelle, and their two daughters.

Andrew Peterson is the author of FIRST TO KILL, the debut in a series featuring Nathan McBride, a former marine sniper.  Andrew is currently finishing FORCED TO KILL, which should be available late summer or fall.

I have a very unusual relationship with the events of 9/11.

You see our house is one of the very few where we actually celebrate when that date falls, because that was the day our daughter was born. Our first girl and second child. September 11 2001.

Yes, that day.

It so happened that we were in Fiji at the time and so approximately 16 hours ahead of New York, but it nonetheless colours everything that happens in our household in the lead-in to that momentous day.

If you've ever had a young daughter, granddaughter or niece you'll know that it is flatout impossible to try to get them to see a particular day, their birthday, as anything other than an opportunity to scream, hyperventilate, screech, bounce off the walls, and generally dominate proceedings.

It's not that we don't try, we do. But we take the view that in her fiery enthusiasm for all of the rites of passage associated with growing up, she is a shining a little beacon of humanity - a Hannah Montana-flavoured beacon, for sure - but reminding us that life follows death. From bad things, good things can flow too.

Several reviewers have referred to my debut book as a post-9/11 thriller. I am not quite certain what that means except that I have tried to reflect in my book BOLT ACTION (Hodder) some of the very obvious changes that have occurred in our lives since those ghastly events.

Many of those will be familiar to readers - from some of the explicit changes, like the long and intensive process of passing through security to board, to some of the changes we feel inside, above all in our imaginations, a wariness perhaps about who we're sitting next to on a plane, heightened perhaps when someone uses prayer beads or incants a call to Heaven, maybe appearing agitated or distressed during takeoff.

I think you know what I mean ... the flying equivalent of that eerie sense, absent all proof, that someone is following you down the deserted alleyway. How the hair on the back of your neck prickles with alarm ...

One of the first things that happened after 9/11 was a requirement to make cockpit doors as impregnable as possible. The logic of that was obvious - it was through the relatively flimsy doors that the four sets of hijackers had taken control of the planes with deadly consequence.

Now, the specifications are onerous: the door has to be engineered to resist a clip of 9mm ammunition fired at close range, the detonation of a hand-grenade and the repeated impact of in excess of 200 joules worth of energy, the equivalent of a 300lb man running at the door at ten feet a second.

The what -if? at the heart of BOLT ACTION is, what if the plane you are travelling on is hijacked, and you and your fellow passengers have to get into the cockpit. Overlaid on top of this - what if that plane is a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Manchester to New York, where the defensive posture of the US government is to shoot down any hijacked aircraft. What if the first US fighter jets appear on your plane's wingtips and it's clear the countdown has begun to your flight being shot of the skies. And what if that door, with its 35lbs of armour and steel bolt action armatures that was installed to protect you, is now the refuge behind which the suicidal hijackers are hiding - wanting, wishing for the plane to be shot down.

BOLT ACTION tries to explore the law of unintended consequences - how something that was put in place to protect you is in fact the thing that guarantees you getting killed.

I always focus on the fact that there were four planes that took off on 9/11 but only three found their target. That the fourth didn't was because a) of the bravery and sacrifice of the passengers on United 93 and b) because the cockpit door was not an impregnable wall of steel but was capable of being breached a second and decisive time.

Someone who was fascinated by the law of unintended consequences and the whole issue of moral ambiguity that lies at the heart of the best spy-thriller fiction was Somerset Maugham.

Maugham was one of the best-selling writers of the 20th Century but rarely gets a mention these days, despite the fact his writing was much admired by and influenced talents as diverse as Ian Fleming, John le Carre, Raymond Chandler and George Orwell.

[Maugham was the first to wax lyrical about dry martinis, and having them stirred rather than shaken ('so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other') a subject Fleming took up as James Bond's leitmotif (although the film producers reversed the stirred, not shaken).]

Somerset Maugham entered my life because my mother - living in Fiji, where I grew up  - developed a fascination with an unexplained period of Maugham's life in the 1st World War when he spent nine months cruising through the Pacific with gay American lover. Maugham was many things, many revolting things, but he took serving his country seriously and had immediately signed up on the outbreak of hostilities.

Eventually he worked for the forerunner of M16 in Switzerland in the winter of 1915/6 and in Russia towards the end of 1917. So why this strange and uncharacteristic cruise around the Pacific, either side of work for British intelligence, when the mother country was in so much peril? My mother's working theory was that this was another covert trip on behalf of the British government. I don't think she quite nailed the case, in terms of definitive proof but there was a great deal of accumulated circumstantial evidence.

For me, the best thing was that it took me with my mother to some of the wonderful places Maugham visited (Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti) and, in time, was introduced to his wonderfully observed, character-driven stories, and his strongly sceptical take on the value of spies and their intelligence-product, as in the introduction to Ashenden, considered by many to be the Father of the Spy Novel:

"The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole extremely monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless; the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable."

Somehow that feels like we're back at square one - 9/11 again - and a question that Maugham would no doubt ask: in an era of unparalleled surveillance and intrusion, with billion-dollar conglomerations of spy and law enforcement networks, Do You Actually Feel Any Safer?

Charlie Charters was born in London but raised in Fiji. He's been telling sometimes truthful, mostly improbable stories all his life - from a horse-racing tipster, to sex-shop salesman, war reporter and radio disc jockey, all the way up to a senior vice presidency with a Swiss sports marketing behemoth whose collapse almost bankrupted the governing body of football, FIFA. Now it was time to put his stories down in print.

Print the Big Thrill list and head on down to your favorite bookstore, or download your selections to your electronic e-reader, and enjoy a month's worth of great reading from your friends at the International Thriller Writers.

Hot off the press:
Click on a book title to read the feature story

• FEAR: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror edited by R.L. Stine
• Santa Fe Edge by Stuart Woods
• The Detroit Electric Scheme by D.E. Johnson
• Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Blood Ties by Kay Hooper
• Skating Around The Law by Joelle Charbonneau
• Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
• Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer
• The De Valera Deception by Michael McMenamin & Patrick McMenamin
• Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman
• No Place To Die by James L. Thane
• WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE: Vampire Hunters and Other Kick-Ass Enemies of Evil by Janice Gable Bashman with Jonathan Maberry
• In the Echo of Violence by Jordan Dane
• American Devil by Oliver Stark
• Trail of Blood by Lisa Black
• The Postcard Killers by James Patterson and Liza Marklund
• Eureka: Substitution Method by Cris Ramsay
• Death On A Budget by Michael W. Sherer
• The Darkest Edge of Dawn by Kelly Gay
• Bolt Action by Charlie Charters
• While Galileo Preys by Joshua Corin
• Lost Empire by Clive Cussler and Grant Blackwood
• Never Wave Goodbye by Doug Magee
• Bachelor Sheriff by Paula Graves
• Ghost Moon by Heather Graham
• The Dragon's Mark by Alex Archer
• Galway Noir by Pat Mullen
• An Ordinary Decent Criminal by Michael Van Rooy
• Fly By Wire by Ward Larsen
• Scoop to Kill by Wendy Lyn Watson
• You are Next by Katia Lief
• Tough Customer by Sandra Brown
• Killer Heat by Brenda Novak
• The Mullah's Storm by Thomas W. Young
• Judgment Day by Wanda L Dyson
• Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him by Laura Caldwell
• A Between the Lines interview with Ridley Pearson
• International News from Mike Nicol

Coming next month: a Between the Lines interview with Karen Dionne, and the latest thrillers from Yasmine Galenorn, Hilary Davidson, JT Ellison, Katia Lief, Seth Harwood, Ben Coes, John Lutz, Alan Jacobson, Reed Farrel Coleman, Gary Corby, Bonnie Hearn Hill, Jeff Sherratt, Tara Taylor Quinn, Gary Alexander, Allison Leotta, Sandra Balzo, Ken Follett, Vince Flynn, James Patterson, Howard Roughan, Gary Phillips and more. It's gonna be a thriller!

New Release! FEAR: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror

Turn the pages if you dare. . . . In this collection of thirteen fabulously chilling stories from thirteen true masters of suspense, including five New York Times bestsellers and a number of Edgar Award nominees, all edited by none other than R. L. Stine - nothing is what it seems. From cannibalistic children, to an unwitting date with a vampire, to a crush on a boy who just might be a werewolf, no scary stone is left unturned. A must-have for all fans of the genre!

Read more

ITW Publications: The Big Thrillers

The list of ITW publications is growing! Now there's a brand-new website where you can find information about all of ITW's terrific anthologies, audio books, and serial novels in one place - Thriller, Thriller2, Watchlist, The Chopin Manuscript, The Copper Bracelet, First Thrills, and Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads.  Check it out! www.thebigthrillers.com

ThrillerFest VI - Sneak Preview

Registration will begin soon for ThrillerFest VI, to be held July 6 - 9, 2011, again at The Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

Special guests include ThrillerMaster R.L. Stine, Robert Crais, and John Lescroart. Mark your calenders!

www.thrillerfest.com

New! Watchlist iPhone and iPad App

Vanguard Press is extremely proud to support the ITW and to announce that Watchlist, the killer collaboration between 22 bestselling authors from the ITW, is now available as an interactive App for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Jefffery Deaver, who conceived of the idea for Watchlist, created the main characters and set the plots in motion. Each author wrote a chapter and then Deaver brought both novellas to their startling conclusions.  Watchlist for the iPad presents both The Chopin Manuscript and The Copper Bracelet novellas in one suspenseful thriller and features insightful video interviews with select authors. It also includes excerpts narrated by Alfred Molina and more. Download the App from iTunes now!

A number of these titles will be published - or have already been published - in the UK, US and in translation (Meyer, Smith, Mackenzie, Ebersohn).  Unfortunate thing is, that with the exception of Meyer, they are not read as widely in South Africa as they should be.  Which is a pity as they are getting international recognition and attention, let alone being good reads in their own right.

The other factor behind the cultural cringe stems from our past.  Apartheid literature was heavy - we were a nation besieged and at war with itself, so this is not surprising - and most of those books induced guilt and shame in their readers.  We've come a long way since the advent of the new in 1994, but we can't quite get to believe in ourselves yet.  Or so it seems, I'm not totally sure I'm convinced.

Meanwhile if you want a portrait of South African society read the books I've listed above: the Marnewick brings up some traumatic events from our past; Mzobe looks at fast living and drugs in the townships; Meyer launches his chase thriller from the increasing phenomenon of people trafficking, a topic that also features in Mackenzie's novel; Smith stays tightly focused on the traumatised coloured communities of Cape Town, ravaged by gangsterism and drugs; and Ebersohn shifts his sights to the horrors of Zimbabwe's dictatorship.  Slightly to the side of these stories is Lotz's funny legal thriller.  It's central story is about a father capitalising on the suffering of his stepson who has been attacked by a hyena.  I guess that makes it about venality, but with a very local take.

Recently I did interviews with both Deon Meyer talking about Thirteen Hours and Sarah Lotz talking about Tooth and Nailed on my blog Crime Beat.  Please click through as they both had fascinating comments to make.

ITW International Committee Chair for South Africa, Mike Nicol, is a journalist and writer and now a hard-core crime fiction addict. He's published two crime novels - Payback and Out to Score (a co-authorship), and is a founder of the blog Crime Beat.  He lives on Cape Town's peninsula, up a mountain, in the teeth of the wind. 

What sparked the idea for Lost Empire?

When Clive and I started talking about the second Fargo book, we came back to an idea we'd toyed with for the first book: The Aztecs.  There are a lot of unanswered questions about their empire, and we thought it would be a perfect adventure for Sam and Remi Fargo.  Once I got into the research a theme kept emerging that eventually grew into the plot of Lost Empire.  The theme was based on straightforward, if not simple question: What if the accepted history of the Aztec Empire is only the tip of the iceberg?

How is the collaboration with Clive?

I've said it before, and there's really no better way to say it: Working with Clive is a dream come true.  Not only is he the reason I got into this business, but he's a hell of a nice guy.  I couldn't be happier.

The response has been fantastic.  Fans love Sam and Remi.  The books are all about pure adventure:  lost treasures, ancient history, riddles lost to time....  Speaking as an avid reader, it doesn't get any better than that.  Plus, Clive's idea of Sam and Remi Fargo, a husband-and-wife treasure hunting team, is unique.   Readers have a blast following them around the world.

What's next for the Fargos?

I just started on the third Fargo Adventure.  As we speak, Sam and Remi are high in the Himalayas hunting for a relic related to ancient Tibetan mythology.

Jeff Ayers is the author of VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION: THE STAR TREK FICTION COMPANION Pocket Books-November 2006. He frequently reviews thrillers for Library Journal and regularly interviews authors for LJ, the Seattle Post-Intellgencer, and Writer Magazine.

A legend has resurfaced about a sword that should be feared. A sword that seeks a master as bloodthirsty as itself. It is wielded by an assassin known as the Dragon who initiates a terrible game of cat and mouse. Eventually, the two swords--light and dark--must meet...and only one shall triumph.

Joe Nassise is the author of more than a dozen novels, including the internationally bestselling Templar Chronicles series, , the forthcoming Jeremiah Hunt trilogy, and several books in the Rogue Angel action/adventure series from Gold Eagle/Harlequin.

In September of 1935, two boys were passing over the train tracks in a valley known as Kingsbury Run on the edge of Cleveland, Ohio, when they encountered a man. A very dead man, wearing nothing but a pair of socks and missing a head, not to mention a few of his more personal parts. Another victim lay about thirty feet away, this one missing even his socks. The heads of both men were found buried nearby, with just their hair sticking out among the weeds and grass. This killer wasn't making any effort to hide his work; quite the contrary, he seemed to be making a statement which no one has ever been able to decipher, or perhaps just creating an extremely bizarre example of performance art.

Neither man had been murdered at the scene; in fact, the second had already been dead for at least a week. The fresher corpse was one of the very, very few victims ever identified--as a local ne'er-do-well, but a thorough investigation of his life never did lead detectives to the killer.

In 1935, Cleveland was the seventh largest city in America. The Depression was out in full force, with men riding the rails from coast to coast. They stopped in Cleveland to ask for jobs at any of its many industrial centers, but these businesses had been decimated by the economic collapse, and the inner city began to collapse as well. Eliot Ness, of Untouchables fame, was the safety director for the city, the chief over both the police and fire departments.

Still a young man, he had already cleaned up Chicago, then went to work for the feds, got bored and wanted to get out from behind a desk. He did a great deal to rid Cleveland, and specifically the police department, of the organized crime groups who had taken over the city during Prohibition, but would prove to have much less success with the man who came to be called The Torso Killer. The Torso killer was anything but organized. He had no logical goal in mind, like running numbers or collecting protection money, and so the usual methods of crime fighting didn't apply.

Serial killers had existed, of course, throughout history, but each incidence was considered an unholy eruption of madness and not a recurring phenomena. It had not been studied in any methodical way. Investigators assumed that anyone who would perform such atrocities had to be insane, therefore they combed the city for cases of insanity. The fact that the victims were emasculated put them on the trail of "perverts", meaning anyone connected with any sort of sexually oriented crime. This included homosexuality and interracial marriage.

Fast forward about eighty years. Anthony Sowell is caught after murdering 11 women and burying them in and around his house. He did not fit anyone's idea of a crazy person. He had a low-level job that allowed him to scrape by. He had a brief police record, served his time and got out without major drama. Neighbors and even ex-girlfriends considered him a nice enough guy. It doesn't surprise us, in this day and age, that he was not a slobbering, obviously raging monster, because after decades of study and hours of watching Criminal Minds we know that serial killers present a lot more like Jeffrey Dahmer than Vlad the Impaler. But in 1935, no one had ever heard of DNA, Blackberry Pearls, 'profiling' or the term serial killer.

The Torso Killer went on to murder at least twelve people, possibly twice that. He was never caught.

Today, we would know that the serial killer would be likely to keep a low profile. Today, his victims would leave a trail of photographs, medical and dental records, computerized missing person reports and maybe fingerprints to help identify them. Today, when these bodies arrived at the coroner's office where I used to work, I could analyze the fibers found on them and compare the hairs. With an infrared spectrometer I might be able to identify the chemical used on the skin and the glue used in the bushel baskets and spray ninhydrin on the pieces of newspaper to develop fingerprints.

These are all the techniques that my character, forensic scientist Theresa MacLean, uses in Trail of Blood. In the book, Theresa is called to an abandoned building where a decapitated body has been found in a walled-up space. When she finds change in his pocket from the 1930's, Theresa realizes that the body has been there for much longer than any of them had guessed. When she finds a badge in his other pocket, she realizes that their desiccated victim was a police officer. Theresa, knowing her Cleveland history as she does, realizes that this could be a previously unfound victim of the Torso killer--which is interesting, but not particularly frightening--until the series of murders begin over again With the bodies piling up it doesn't take her too long to convince the police detectives that this new killer is following a plan, and she needs to use both science and history to stop him.

Lisa Black spent the five happiest years of her life in a morgue. As a forensic scientist at the Cleveland coroner's office she analyzed DNA, hairs, fibers and gunshot residue. Now she works as a certified latent print examiner at a police department in Florida. Her books have been translated into six languages. This is her fifth novel.

It's never easy. If you want to know about Aaron Roseneurg-the-orthopedist or Aaron Rosenberg-the-professor, then your curiosity can be easily slated at a number of web sites. If you want to know about the many books, computer games, and stories authored by Aaron Rosenberg-the-author, there is also plenty of material.

But Aaron Rosenberg himself? Nothing.

OK, I did find a couple of pictures on his web site, but who's to say they're really him? In one, he was background for some other author. Another he posted sideways so I had to turn my computer on it's side to see it. There is a good head shot at one of his web sites that tells us nothing about him, but on the other two (here and here), he's a cartoon.

When I tracked down the elusive Mr. Rosenberg, the first thing I asked him was about was this whole secret identity thing. "Cris Ramsay was the name the publisher selected."

That was it. No further details. Apparently a man of few words unless they are in one of his hundred or so books. So I asked him why there isn't more information available about Aaron Rosenberg.

"I'm terrible at self-promotion, so I don't talk myself up much. And I haven't taken advantage of various promotional avenues, including the Internet, even half as well as I should."

And yet he's sold more books than, I don't know, anybody, I think.

Cris Ramsay's (that Aaron's pseudonym in case I haven't mentioned that previously) first book is titled Eureka: Substitution Method. It is based on the characters and settings of the popular Eureka television show, and two more books are in the works. Here's Cris/Aaron's summary:

"Founded by Albert Einstein and Harry Truman after WWII, Eureka is home to the greatest minds in science and technology. But the creations of these eccentric geniuses threaten to destroy the world as often as they save it. Jack Carter is the everyman sheriff who must use his common sense and unique street smarts to keep a lid on this Pandora's Box of a town. Especially now, when Eureka's people, cars, and buildings are being swapped with people, cars and buildings from other places."

Digging further into the Aaron Rosenberg identity (if that's who he really is), I found that he has worked, at various times, as a creative director for an animation studio, a script editor for a film company, submissions reader for a publishing house, English composition and literature teacher at two colleges, and a graphic designer for an insurance company. Besides the obvious question of why an insurance company needed a graphics designer, I asked him about these jobs.

"As a script editor, I had a great boss, and really enjoyed working on the scripts. I'd love to do more of that, both script editing and script doctoring, and ultimately some scriptwriting of my own. I miss teaching, actually. It's funny because I can be a bit shy but I had no problem teaching thirty some-odd students at a time."

A bit shy? That's like saying Glenn Beck has an opinion or two.

And then there is yet another identity, used at his various web sites and blogs - The Gryphon Rose. Like the Scarlet Pumpernickel and the Green Lantern, I thought this might be his crime-fighting identity, the cloak he uses to test the new weapons found in his imaginative interactive games. But alas, no. "It's actually a holdover from my college days, a nickname I picked up back then and decided to keep around."

So, with all of this work and research, here's what I know about the elusive Aaron Rosenberg. When he's not churning out books and computer games from his condo in the famed Dakota building in New York City, he can be found at his estate on Shelter Island with his family, former Miss America Patty Jean Henderson and his two precocious children, Albert and Amelia, both attending Columbia University despite their tender ages of 13 and 14. On weekends, he tours Long Island Sound in his vintage ChrisCraft runabout or, when the weather permits, goes whale watching from above in his Quicksilver GT500 ultralight aircraft. For exercise, you can find him on the courts at the Westhampton Country Club with his mixed-doubles tennis partner, Anna Kournikova.

OK, that's the part I made up.

John Darrin is a consultant on radiological emergency preparedness for homeland security. His work has taken him all over the world, and includes many unique and first-ever projects.  A widower, John lives full-time in his RV and travels the country on the Go Places / Meet People / Do Things Tour. 

Monthly Book Giveaway

Congratulations to Ruth Utterback, the winner of this month's BIG THRILL giveaway. Dan will receive an assortment of signed thrillers including Cheat the Grave by Vicki Pettersson, L.A. Bytes by P.A. Brown, Death on a Budget by Michael W. Sherer, The Insider by Reece Hirsch, Colby Velocity by Debra Webb, Damage Control by Amy J. Fetzer, Justice in June by Barbara Levenson, Deadly Trust by JJ Cooper, A Sudden Dawn by Goran Powell, Fly by Wire by Ward Larsen, Never Wave Goodbye by Doug Magee, The Mullah's Storm by Thomas W. Young, Dark Road Home by Karen Harper, Blind Man's Alley by Justin Peacock, No Place to Die by James L. Thane, A Rancher's Brand of Justice  by Ann Voss Peterson, and The Underbelly by Gary Phillips.

All subscribers to THE BIG THRILL webzine are automatically eligible for the monthly drawing. Click here to subscribe to the BIG THRILL email.

Fear: 13 Stories of Suspense and Horror, is a collection of terrifying original stories from the hottest names in thriller writing today, including R.L. Stine (widely considered the king of children's horror writing, who edited and contributed to the collection), Meg Cabot, Heather Brewer, Tim Maleeny, Heather Graham, Alane Ferguson, Jennifer Allison, Walter Sorrells, Peg Kehret, Suzanne Weyn, Jim Rollins, F. Paul Wilson and Ryan Brown.

Edited by the father of scary children's stories, Stine presents this delightfully chilling collection of thirteen short tales featuring more then just vampires. From Stine comes a series of twists on an initiation challenge that leaves readers guessing, did he or didn't he. Heather Graham serves up a Halloween treat where the hunter unexpectedly becomes prey and although most readers will see through the plot from the first, its still fun seeing how it plays out. A babysitter with a knack for soothing a troubled yet talented blind boy is the subject of Ryan Brown's "Jeepers Peepers" while the babysitter in Jennifer Allison's "The Perfects" discovers the family has a taste for exotic meat.

Though marketed for younger readers, adults may enjoy the plot twists and surprises of these imaginative quick-to-read tales which are just the ticket for getting in the mood for Halloween. 

"It is rare for a collection of stories to maintain the same quality from beginning to end, but Fear succeeds in delivering all the suspense, terror, irony, and twisted endings that any horror addict could crave." -- Jamie Hansen for VOYA

Robert Lawrence Stine began career as an author writing short stories and joke books -- but in the early 1990's, he introduced the wildly popular Goosebumps series. The books sold millions of copies, and made reading frighteningly fun again for kids.

Dodge's mind may be a haze of disturbing memories and bad decisions, but he arrives in Houston knowing with perfect clarity that his daughter, Berry, is in danger. She has become the object of desire of a co-worker, a madman and genius with a penchant for puzzles and games who has spent the past year making Berry's life hell, and who now has vowed to kill her.Dodge joins forces with local deputy sheriff Ski Nyland, but the alarming situation goes from bad to worse when the stalker begins to claim other victims and leaves an ominous trail of clues as he lethally works his way toward Berry. Sensing the killer drawing nearer, Dodge, who's survived vicious criminals and his own self-destructive impulses, realizes that this time he's in for the fight of his life.

From acclaimed best-selling author Sandra Brown, Tough Customer is a heart-pounding tale about obsession and murder, the fragile nature of relationships, and, possibly, second chances.

Already a successful romance novelist in the 1980s, Sandra Brown struck gold when she pushed past the category s boundaries to take chances with more intricate plotting, richer characters, and surprising plot twists. Her string of bestsellers feature strong, capable career women in extreme circumstances.

Kanon's daughter, Kimmy, and her boyfriend were murdered while on vacation in Rome. Since then, young couples in Paris, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, and Stockholm have become victims of the same sadistic killers. Now Kanon teams up with the Swedish reporter, Dessie Larsson. Every killing is preceded by a postcard to the local newspaper--and Kanon and Larsson think they know where the next victims will be. With relentless logic and unstoppable action, The Postcard Killers may be James Patterson's most vivid and compelling thriller yet.

"Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves the plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind." -- Michael Connelly

James Patterson had been working as a very successful advertising copywriter when he decided to put his Masters degree in English to a somewhat different use. Inspired by bestselling hair-raising thrillers like The Day of the Jackal and The Exorcist, Patterson went to work on his first novel. Published in 1976, The Thomas Berryman Number established him as a writer of tightly constructed mysteries that move forward with the velocity of a bullet. For his startling debut, Patterson was awarded the prestigious Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel -- an auspicious beginning to one of the most successful careers in publishing.

A string of gripping standalone mysteries followed, but it was the 1992 release of Along Came a Spider that elevated Patterson to superstar status. Introducing Alex Cross, a brilliant black police detective/forensic psychologist, the novel was the first installment in a series of bestselling thrillers that has proved to be a cash cow for the author and his publisher.

Examining Patterson's track record, it's obvious that he believes one good series deserves another...maybe even a third! In 2001, he debuted the Women's Murder Club with 1st to Die, a fast-paced thriller featuring four female crime fighters living in San Francisco -- a homicide detective, a medical examiner, an assistant D.A., and a cub reporter. The successful series has continued with other numerically titled installments. Then, spinning off a set of characters from a previous novel (1998's When the Wind Blows), in 2005 he published Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. Featuring a "flock" of genetically engineered flying children, the novel was a huge hit, especially with teen readers, and spawned a series of vastly popular fantasy adventures.

In addition to continuing his bestselling literary franchises, Patterson has also found time to co-author thrillers with other writers -- including Peter de Jonge, Andrew Gross, Maxine Paetro, and Howard Roughan -- and has even ventured into romance (Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, Sam's Letters to Jennifer) and children's literature (santaKid). Writing at an astonishing pace, this prolific author has turned himself into a one-man publishing juggernaut, fulfilling his clearly stated ambition to become "the king of the page-turners."

The star of the novel, Suzanne Kidwell, is also the star of Judgment Day, a popular investigative news TV show.  Her mission is to expose the darkest secrets of the rich and famous.  And that's what gets her in trouble!  While the reader comes to care about Kidwell's fate, Author Dyson shows us the darker side of her character's world.  Dyson says she thinks there's a fine line between reporting that informs us and the sensationalism reporting that is just looking to titillate.  The danger comes when the truth doesn't matter - ratings do.

"I got the idea for this book after watching a cable news reporter decide to take the law into her own hands and "interrogate" someone she felt was guilty--something that was clearly the police's job, not hers," Dyson says.  "The woman she "interrogated" was so distraught, she went home and committed suicide.  In typical writer fashion, I couldn't help asking myself, "what if," and Suzanne Kidwell and her show Judgment Day were born."

"Readers may like her, but I doubt they will love her through the first half of the book," Dyson says.  "But as she begins to see, as well as accept, the truth about herself and tries to make some positive changes in her life, I would hope the reader will begin to care about her the way they would about the misguided people in their own lives."

Dyson also says that Kidwell may not be a hero, but she does heroic things, even if at first it is merely to get a sensational story that would give her ratings.

 Dyson is the author of numerous critically acclaimed suspense novels.  Her fans love the fact that there is so much action in her books that it forces them to keep turning the pages, but it takes more than that to make a good suspense novel, according to Dyson.

"The suspense elements are layered through more than just the action," she says.  "It's the interpersonal relationships, the growth, struggles, and failures, and it's the ultimate battle of the everyday man going up against unexpected bad things in his life and finding a way to win even when the odds are stacked against him."

Dyson is also one of the few authors who find success in both fiction and nonfiction work.  Her nonfiction title, Why I Jumped, was picked up for an exclusive release on Oprah.  She says it's not harder to write nonfiction, but it can be very restricting.

"With fiction, I can make things up to go the way I want them to," Dyson says.  "With non-fiction, I have to look at the facts and find a way to present them in a way that is as fascinating and page-turning as fiction. I'd say the biggest difference is that when I create a character like Suzanne, I can force her to play by my rules. When I'm dealing with a real person who lived through something, I can only play the hand I'm given and make it the best hand at the table."

Character interaction is what makes a novel, and in Judgment Day Dyson gets a lot of mileage out of the dynamics between Suzanne and two investigators - Marcus Crisp  who Suzanne was once engaged to and then betrayed, and Alexandria Hawthorne-Fisher, the woman Marcus now loves.

"Marcus is willing to let bygones be bygones," Dyson says, "but Alex struggles with her lack of trust in Suzanne, her resentment of the way Suzanne once hurt Marcus, and her love for Marcus making her fear that Suzanne might try to win Marcus back. It was a lot of fun creating all that angst."

Right now Judgment Day is a stand-alone novel, but if history means anything, we might see Suzanne, Marcus, and Alex again.

"When I wrote Abduction, it was meant to be a stand-alone novel and everyone loved JJ and Zoe so much the publisher came back and had me write two more novels (Obsession and Intimidation), so anything is possible."

By the time you reach the breathless conclusion of Judgment Day you are sure to be hoping history will repeat itself.

Jonathan Maberry

Bestseller Tess Gerritsen writes, "Every so often, you discover an author whose writing is so lyrical that it transcends mere storytelling. Jonathan Maberry is just such an author, and his writing is powerful enough to sing with poetry while simultaneously scaring the hell out of you."

Jonathan's latest thrill ride into our collective fears is a two-book YA series that starts with Rot and Ruin, coming in September from Simon and Schuster. Jonathan made some time for The Big Thrill earlier this week to tell us about his new book:

It's a dystopian coming of age story set fourteen years after an apocalyptic plague that wiped out most of humanity.  Specifically a zombie plague.  I riff off of the basic set-up in Night of the Living Dead but I explore what it's like to grow up in the world after everything's gone to hell.  There are only about thirty thousand people left alive, living in small towns scattered along the Sierra Nevadas in Central California.

In Rot & Ruin we meet fifteen year old Benny Imura.  His parents died during First Night -the initial outbreak--and he lives with his older half-brother, Tom, whom he hates and believes to be a coward who ran away and left their parents to die.

Tom is a zombie killer, a bounty hunter of a kind called a 'closure specialist'.  He's contracted by people to find relatives or friends who have become zombies.  Tom reads the last letter from the family and then puts the zom down.

Is Tom a coward?  Turns out that Benny needs a job and can't find one, so he has to apprentice with Tom or the town will cut his rations.

Lots of zombies?

Lots of zombies.  Three hundred million of them in the US alone, and they are the classic George Romero slow, shuffling variety.

This isn't a body-count book, though.  It's not a video game kind of thing where you rack up unlimited kills.  You approach it from a different perspective.

Part of the novel is an exploration of what it means to be alive.  In order for Benny to understand who and what he is, in a world where death is the most common topic of conversation for everyone, he has to understand what zombies are.  The first time Tom takes Benny past the town's fences and into the great Rot & Ruin (which is what the survivors call the rest of the world), Benny is confronted with situations that force him to re-evaluate what he thinks he knows about the world.

The zombies are a threat throughout the book, but it's not about killing them.  As you say, that's video game stuff, and it's dehumanizing.  It disrespects the person each zombie had once been.

The principle threats in the story are other bounty hunters.  People who may not share Tom Imura's values.

There are a couple of real classic bad guys in the book -Charlie Pink-eye and the Motor City Hammer.

Charlie and the Hammer are tough, charismatic, and dangerous.  They also have an agenda that is ultimately much darker and more terrible than being bitten by a zom.  They were a lot of fun to write.  Larger than life characters who are ultimately grounded in very real motivations.

Is Rot & Ruin an adult novel or a YA? 

Both.  I wrote it as a dystopian thriller with no specific audience in mind.  Like all of my books, I wrote it to entertain and please me.  However, once we started shopping it, ROT & RUIN seemed to resonate with people of all kinds -different age groups, both genders, wildly different demographics.

This started out as a short story, though, didn't it?

A short novella or long story.  Not sure what you call something that's twenty-thousand words in length.  I wrote it first as 'Family Business', for The New Dead anthology edited by Christopher Golden (St. Martins Griffin, 2010).  As soon as I finished it I sent it to my agent, Sara Crowe (of Harvey Klinger, Inc) for her opinion.  She doesn't handle my short stories but she likes to read them because she thinks that some of my shorts read like openings to novels.  This is a great case in point.

She read the short and said, 'Hey, this is the opening to a YA novel.'

 I had never even thought about YA even though the protagonist -Benny Imura--is a fifteen year old kid.  I thought the story was too intense, too edgy, and too violent for teens.  Sooo...she gave me a reading list of the novels teens are reading these days.  I went out...read a slew of them...and I'm not sure I've recovered yet.

And--?

Wow.  Teen novels have FINALLY grown up to the point where they respect the intelligence and life experience of teens.  These novels don't talk down and they don't soften the blow.

What books did you read?

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins.  That's an eye-popping novel.  THE UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld, I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER by Dan Wells, DOING IT by Melvin Burgess, FREEWILL by Chris Lynch, UNDER THE WOLF UNDER THE DOG by Adam Rapp, YOU DON'T KNOW ME by David Klass, STAINED by Joanne Hichens, and VINTAGE: A GHOST STORY by Steve Berman.  Others, too.  Great stuff.

Rot & Ruin is the kick-off for a series?

Simon & Schuster bought two books, and I just completed the sequel, Dust & Decay.  Can't really talk about where that goes without giving away spoilers for the first book.

If sales are good, then maybe Simon & Schuster will want more Benny Imura stories.

Do you have more stories to tell?

I could tell stories in that world forever.  Benny's only fifteen, and the two books cover a seven-month span of his life.  Each one focuses on a different aspect of the 'coming of age' concept...but there is so much more to tell.

Your other novels are high concept but also character driven.  Is that the case with Rot & Ruin?

Absolutely.  Characters come first.  If they aren't real, then their needs, actions, and reactions aren't real.  For me -as both reader and writer--all good stories start and end with characters.

Writing Rot & Ruin allowed me to visit a completely different set of characters than those in my Joe Ledger novels.  These are people who share a massive cultural trauma -the death of most of humanity and the fall of established civilization.  That trauma informs every character and ever relationship in the book.  And it allowed me to explore the nature of heroism, villainy and humanity in ways I couldn't in the science-based action thrillers like Patient Zero and The Dragon Factory.  I love switching back forth between two series.

What's up next?

I'm keeping pretty busy these days.  WANTED UNDEAD OR ALIVE just came out from Citadel Press.  That's a nifty nonfiction book I co-wrote with (ITW contributing editor) Janice Gable Bashman.  It's an exploration of good and evil in history, myth, pop culture and our modern world.

In March of 2011, St. Martins Griffin will release THE KING OF PLAGUES, the third (and wildest) of the Joe Ledger novels.  It deals with a secret society using weaponized versions of the Ten Plagues of Egypt.  And in June of next year, Griffin will release DEAD OF NIGHT, a standalone zombie novel.

And I'm doing a bunch of fun projects for Marvel Comics.  Right now they're running MARVEL UNIVERSE VS THE PUNISHER, a moody and violent existentialist limited series set five years after a plague turns almost everyone on earth into Neanderthal-like cannibal predators. That's selling very, very well.

Then I have KLAWS OF THE PANTHER, a four issue limited series starting in October, which pits the new female Black Panther against the villain who killed her father.  Guest stars include Wolverine, Spider-Man, Black Widow and Storm.

And in January we'll launch CAPTAIN AMERICA: HAIL HYDRA, a five-issue Marvel event in which Cap goes up against the secret terrorist organization, Hydra -and we learn that Hydra is an ancient order of alchemists searching for the key to immortality.

The star of the novel, Suzanne Kidwell, is also the star of Judgment Day, a popular investigative news TV show.  Her mission is to expose the darkest secrets of the rich and famous.  And that's what gets her in trouble!  While the reader comes to care about Kidwell's fate, Author Dyson shows us the darker side of her character's world.  Dyson says she thinks there's a fine line between reporting that informs us and the sensationalism reporting that is just looking to titillate.  The danger comes when the truth doesn't matter - ratings do.

"I got the idea for this book after watching a cable news reporter decide to take the law into her own hands and "interrogate" someone she felt was guilty--something that was clearly the police's job, not hers," Dyson says.  "The woman she "interrogated" was so distraught, she went home and committed suicide.  In typical writer fashion, I couldn't help asking myself, "what if," and Suzanne Kidwell and her show Judgment Day were born."

"Readers may like her, but I doubt they will love her through the first half of the book," Dyson says.  "But as she begins to see, as well as accept, the truth about herself and tries to make some positive changes in her life, I would hope the reader will begin to care about her the way they would about the misguided people in their own lives."

Dyson also says that Kidwell may not be a hero, but she does heroic things, even if at first it is merely to get a sensational story that would give her ratings.

  Dyson is the author of numerous critically acclaimed suspense novels.  Her fans love the fact that there is so much action in her books that it forces them to keep turning the pages, but it takes more than that to make a good suspense novel, according to Dyson.

"The suspense elements are layered through more than just the action," she says.  "It's the interpersonal relationships, the growth, struggles, and failures, and it's the ultimate battle of the everyday man going up against unexpected bad things in his life and finding a way to win even when the odds are stacked against him."

Dyson is also one of the few authors who find success in both fiction and nonfiction work.  Her nonfiction title, Why I Jumped, was picked up for an exclusive release on Oprah.  She says it's not harder to write nonfiction, but it can be very restricting.

"With fiction, I can make things up to go the way I want them to," Dyson says.  "With non-fiction, I have to look at the facts and find a way to present them in a way that is as fascinating and page-turning as fiction. I'd say the biggest difference is that when I create a character like Suzanne, I can force her to play by my rules. When I'm dealing with a real person who lived through something, I can only play the hand I'm given and make it the best hand at the table."

Character interaction is what makes a novel, and in Judgment Day Dyson gets a lot of mileage out of the dynamics between Suzanne and two investigators - Marcus Crisp  who Suzanne was once engaged to and then betrayed, and Alexandria Hawthorne-Fisher, the woman Marcus now loves.

"Marcus is willing to let bygones be bygones," Dyson says, "but Alex struggles with her lack of trust in Suzanne, her resentment of the way Suzanne once hurt Marcus, and her love for Marcus making her fear that Suzanne might try to win Marcus back. It was a lot of fun creating all that angst."

Right now Judgment Day is a stand-alone novel, but if history means anything, we might see Suzanne, Marcus, and Alex again.

"When I wrote Abduction, it was meant to be a stand-alone novel and everyone loved JJ and Zoe so much the publisher came back and had me write two more novels (Obsession and Intimidation), so anything is possible."

By the time you reach the breathless conclusion of Judgment Day you are sure to be hoping history will repeat itself.

Austin S. Camacho has written a series about private detective Hannibal Jones and a series of adventure novels featuring mercenary Morgan Stark and jewel thief Felicity O'Brien.  To pay the mortgage he answers media queries for the Defense Department.  Camacho lives in Springfield, Virginia with his lovely wife Denise and Princess the Wonder Cat.