ITW Debut Authors ... The Thrill Begins!
The International Thriller Writers membership includes some of the world's best-selling authors: David Morrell, Gayle Lynds, Lee Child, Sandra Brown, Clive Cussler, Jeffery Deaver, John Lescroart, Steve Berry, Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Heather Graham, Karin Slaughter, James Rollins, Tess Gerritsen, James Patterson and many, many more.
All of these authors' careers began with their first book. Check out the International Thriller Writers Debut Authors and discover the bestsellers of tomorrow!
Drue Allen, THE COST OF LOVE, March 2010
Drue Allen enjoys remote camping in the rugged mountains along the southwestern Texas border, coastal kayaking, and backpacking through the Canadian Rockies. Her romantic thriller, THE COST OF LOVE, is set in the dusty town of Roswell, New Mexico. Awarded over two dozen RWA chapter awards, Allen holds a MA in English and teaches at the collegiate level. Drue plots feverishly from the safety of her home in the Texas hill country.
Lisa Brackmann - ROCK PAPER TIGER, June 2010
Lisa Brackmann has worked as a motion picture executive and an issues researcher in a presidential campaign. A southern California native, she's lived and traveled extensively in China. She lives in Venice, California.
Graham Brown - BLACK RAIN, January 2010
Graham Brown was born in Chicago, and grew up in Illinois, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. A former pilot and attorney, Graham is a huge fan of thrillers, especially anything with history or science at its core. After writing for several years, he met a fantastic agent at Thrillerfest 2007 and signed a multi-book deal with Random House in 2008. The sequel, BLACK SUN, hits the racks on August 31st.
Ryan Brown, PLAY DEAD, May 2010
As an actor Ryan Brown has held contract roles on the CBS daytime dramas, The Young and the Restless and Guiding Light. He has also appeared on Law and Order: SVU, and starred in two feature films for Lifetime Television. His first novel, Play Dead, a comic supernatural thriller, will be published in May of 2010, and his short story, Jeepers Peepers, will soon appear in ITW's Young Adult Anthology.
Carla Buckley, THE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE, February 2010
Carla Buckley was born in Washington, D.C., attended Oberlin College and The Wharton School for Business, and has worked in a variety of jobs, including a stint as an assistant press secretary for a U.S. senator, an analyst with the Smithsonian Institution, and a technical writer for a defense contractor. She currently lives in Ohio with her husband and children.
Teresa Burrell, THE ADVOCATE, August 2009
As an attorney in San Diego, Burrell's law private focused on representing abused minors and juvenile delinquents. Burrell has received several awards for her countless hours of pro bono work with children and their families. Prior to practicing law she taught school, working with children with diverse backgrounds and special needs. Now in semi-retirement, Burrell continues to educate groups about social issues impacting children and write novels, many inspired by actual legal cases.
Laura Bynum, VERACITY, January 2010
In 2006, Laura Bynum decided to act on her little girl dreams and went to the Maui Writers Conference where she won the Rupert Hughes Award for an early draft of VERACITY - a near-future thriller about the importance of words and critical thinking as they relate to freedom. She's a fresh author, a seasoned mother, and a breast cancer survivor. Laura is working on book two and screenplay one at her home in Virginia.
Pamela Callow, DAMAGED, June 2010
Pamela Callow is the author of a new legal biomedical thriller series for MIRA Books. Prior to making writing a career, Pamela worked as a strategy consultant for an international consulting firm. She is a member of the Nova Scotia Bar, and has a Master's degree in Public Administration.
Gayle Carline - FREEZER BURN, August 2009
Gayle Carline was a software engineer for over 20 years, until she finally chewed her way out the cubicle and became a freelance writer. She's been writing a weekly humor column, What a Day, for her local newspaper, the Placentia News-Times since 2005. Freezer Burn is her debut novel. In addition to her husband, Dale, Gayle lives with their teenage son, Marcus, and a small menagerie of pets.
Kate Carlisle, HOMICIDE IN HARDCOVER, October 2009
Joelle Charbonneau, SKATING AROUND THE LAW, September 2010
Joelle Charbonneau is an entertainer at heart. She has performed in a variety of operas, musicals and children's theatre productions across the Chicagoland area. While Joelle is happy to perform for an audience, she is equally delighted to teach private voice lessons and spin tales on her computer.
Charlie Charters, BOLT ACTION, September 2010
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.
Rick Chesler, WIRED KINGDOM, May 2010
Rick holds a Bachelor of Science in marine biology and has had a life-long interest in the ocean and its creatures. When not at work as an environmental project manager, he can be found scuba diving or traveling to research his next thriller idea. He currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii with his wife, a cat, and some fish.
Ben Coes, POWER DOWN, October 2010
Ben Coes was a speechwriter for the White House, a fellow at the JFK School of Government at Harvard, and the campaign manager for Mitt Romney's 2002 Gubernatorial Campaign. Power Down is his first novel. A graduate of Columbia, where he won the prestigious Bennett Cerf Prize for Fiction, Coes lives with his family in Wellesley, MA.
JJ Cooper, INTERROGATED, August 2009
JJ Cooper spent seventeen years in the Australian Army, deploying on two tours of duty in East Timor and one tour to the Middle East in 2003. He specialised in Human Intelligence, including interrogation (as a practitioner and instructor). Since leaving the military, he spends every spare moment on his passion for writing. JJ's debut thriller, Interrogated, will be published by Random House Australia in 2009.
Bob Doerr, DEAD MEN CAN KILL, COLD WINTER'S KILL, January 2010
After graduating from the Air Force Academy, Bob spent nearly thirty years in the Air Force with its Office of Special Investigations. A sister agency to NCIS, he spent his career either investigating crime and conducting counterintelligence operations or supervising those same activities. It was a career field that filled his mind with plots and characters he is now using in his fiction.
Jeremy Duns, FREE AGENT, July 2009
Jeremy Duns was born in 1973 and studied English literature at Oxford University before working for several years as a journalist in Belgium. He now lives in Stockholm, Sweden, and is running out of space for his ridiculously large collection of spy novels.
E.J. Findorff, UNHINGED, May 2011
E.J. Findorff is 42 years old and originally from New Orleans, but now lives in Chicago with his wife and three dogs. He graduated with a B.A. from the University of New Orleans, taking English, psychology and short story while spending six years in the National Guard in Operations and Intelligence.
Gregory Funaro, THE SCULPTOR, January 2010
Originally from Rhode Island, Gregory Funaro is currently an associate professor in the School of Theatre & Dance at East Carolina University. In addition to teaching, acting and directing (and finding time to write in between), Gregory is an amateur artist, bassist and history buff. He also holds a black belt in karate, and lives with his family outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. THE SCULPTOR is Gregory's first novel.
Daryl Wood Gerber, THE CHEESE SHOP MYSTERIES, June 2010
Daryl Wood Gerber writes both suspense thrillers and amateur sleuth novels. For the latter, she uses the pseudonym Avery Aames and writes The Cheese Shop Mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime. Daryl created the format for the popular sit-com, Out of this World and has won awards for her screenplays. She has hitchhiked around Ireland by herself and she has jumped out of a perfectly good airplane.
James R. Hannibal, WRAITH, June 2010
James graduated from the Air Force Academy where he focused on Islamic Terrorism and earned his degree in Middle Eastern Studies. He flew the A-10 Thunderbolt II over Europe, America, and the Middle East and later the B-2 Spirit over America and the Pacific. He flew combat missions in the A-10 in Operation Southern Watch and worked as a key planner in the B-2 Mission Planning Cell during Iraqi Freedom.
Rhodi Hawk, A TWISTED LADDER, August 2009
Leanna Renee Hieber, THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER, September 2009
Award winning author, actress and playwright, a lifelong love of the 19th Century and adapting Victorian literature for the stage set the course for Leanna's Strangely Beautiful series of Gothic Victorian novels. Her fantasy novella Dark Nest won the 2009 Prism Award. She lives in New York City with her real-life hero, a member of numerous writing organizations as well as Actors Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild, Leanna works often in television.
Reece Hirsch, THE INSIDER, May 2010
Reece Hirsch is a partner in the San Francisco office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, specializing in privacy and health care law. Prior to law school, he edited and published an arts and entertainment magazine in Atlanta.
Jeannie Holmes, BLOOD LAW, July 2010
Jeannie Holmes is a native of southwest Mississippi. A total caffeine junkie, she currently lives in Mobile, Alabama with her husband and four neurotic cats, and is hard to find during hurricane season.
Thomas Kaufman, DRINK THE TEA, March 2010
Thomas Kaufman is an Emmy award-winning motion picture director/cameraman. He has worked on documentary, commercial, and fiction films. In addition to shooting programs with police, FBI, and DEA agents for National Geographic and Discovery Channels, Mr Kaufman has also shot documentaries for Academy Award-winners Mark Jonathan Harris, Charles Guggenheim, and Barbara Koppel. Mr Kaufman's current project is an independent documentary, INDIAN HILL SUMMER. Here's the trailer: www.indianhillmovie.org
Nicholas Kaufmann, HUNT AT WORLD'S END, November 2009
Nicholas Kaufmann is the critically acclaimed author of the Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella GENERAL SLOCUM'S GOLD (Burning Effigy Press), HUNT AT WORLD'S END (as Gabriel Hunt, Leisure Books), CHASING THE DRAGON (ChiZine Publications) and the collection WALK IN SHADOWS (Prime Books). His stories and articles have appeared in a variety of venues, including The Best American Erotica 2007, The Internet Review of Science Fiction and On Writing Horror (Writers Digest Books).
Brett King, THE RADIX, May 2010
Brett King is a psychologist and award-wining professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition to a background in forensic psychology, he has published two nonfiction books on the history of science. His sequel to THE RADIX will be released in early 2011. When not writing his third novel, teaching, or touring his imagination, he enjoys time with his wife and three children, and exploring the scenic riches of his native Colorado.
Allan Leverone, FINAL VECTOR, February 2011
Allan Leverone is a two-time SMFS Derringer Award Finalist for Best Short Story whose fiction has been featured in numerous online and print venues. His debut thriller, FINAL VECTOR, represents perhaps the inevitable intersection of a lifetime spent in the aviation career field with a passion for storytelling. Allan lives in Londonderry, NH with his wife of twenty-six years, three wonderful children, one adorable grandchild, and a cat who has used up eight lives.
Sophie Littlefield, A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, August 2009
Richard L. Mabry, M.D., CODE BLUE, April 2010
After his retirement from a distinguished career as a physician and medical educator, Richard turned his talents to non-medical writing with the publication of THE TENDER SCAR: LIFE AFTER THE DEATH OF A SPOUSE. CODE BLUE is his debut novel, the first of the Prescription For Trouble series. Richard makes his home in North Texas, where he continues his struggle to master golf.
Michael McMenamin & Patrick McMenamin, THE DE VALERA DECEPTION, September, 2010
Michael McMenamin is the author of the critically acclaimed Becoming Winston Churchill: The Untold Story of Young Winston and His American Mentor (Greenwood Publishing, hardcover 2007; Enigma Books 2009). A media defense lawyer and former Army counter-intelligence agent, Michael is an editorial board member of Finest Hour, the quarterly journal of The Churchill Center and Museum in London and a contributing editor of Reason.Patrick McMenamin, Michael's son, is an award-winning producer for John Stossel, formerly with ABC News' 20/20 and now with Fox Business Network.
Boyd Morrison, THE ARK, May 2010
Boyd Morrison is a Seattle-based author, actor, engineer, and Jeopardy! champion. He started his career at Johnson Space Center, where he got the opportunity to fly on NASA's Vomit Comet, the same plane used to train astronauts for zero gravity. He went on to earn a PhD from Virginia Tech, then used his training to develop eleven US patents at Thomson/RCA and manage a video game testing group at Microsoft before becoming a full-time writer. For non-fiction thrills, he enjoys white water rafting, skiing, scuba diving, and bungee jumping.
Alan L. Moss, ISLAND OF BETRAYAL, April 2010
In 2002, Alan Moss put his federal career aside and moved to the Jersey shore to pursue the life of an accomplished author. In his third published work and debut novel, ISLAND OF BETRAYAL, Moss shows how an intimate knowledge of government, Ph.D. research skills, and an over-active imagination can spin a sophisticated tale of conspiracy, love, and deception. After years of bureaucracy and politics, Moss has found the freedom of writing fiction an intoxicating and satisfying calling.
Stuart Neville, THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST, July 2009
Stuart Neville has been a musician, a composer, a teacher, a salesman, a film extra, a baker and a hand double for a well known Irish comedian, but is currently a partner in a successful multimedia design business in the wilds of Northern Ireland. He has published short stories in Thuglit, Electric Spec and Every Day Fiction. His debut novel, THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST, will be published in the UK by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Random House, July 2009, and by Random House Kodansha in Japan.
Diana Orgain, BUNDLE OF TROUBLE: A MATERNAL INSTINCTS MYSTERY, August 2009
Diana Orgain holds an M.F.A. and B.A in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University with a minor in acting. Diana's plays have been produced at San Francisco State University, GreenHouses Productions, and PlayGround in San Francisco. Diana's debut novel Postpartum Detective will be released August 2009 from Berkley Prime Crime. Diana lives in San Francisco with her husband and their children.
Alan Orloff, DIAMONDS FOR THE DEAD, April 2010
Before Alan stepped off the corporate merry-go-round to concentrate on writing, he had an eclectic (some might say disjointed) career. As an engineer, he worked on nuclear submarines, supervised assembly workers in factories, facilitated technology transfer from the Star Wars program, and learned to stack washing machines three high with a forklift. He even started his own newsletter business, educating the public about the benefits of recycling and waste reduction.
Brad Parks, FACES OF THE GONE, December 2009
Brad Parks is an escaped journalist, having done time at The Washington Post and The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger as a sportswriter and news feature writer. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, he is a washed-up jock, a veteran of community theater and an experienced (and enthusiastic) public speaker. He lives in Virginia with an understanding wife and two adorable young children.
Barry Pollack, FORTY-EIGHT X, December 2009
After a film degree from Stanford and a fellowship at the American Film Institute, Pollack made several prize-winning shorts before going on to write and direct the MGM feature COOL BREEZE. His next feature did not fare as well and Pollack left Hollywood for medical school. While working as a physician, he began writing again - television dramas, newspaper columns, and now novels.
Sharon Potts, IN THEIR BLOOD, September 2009
Sharon Potts is a former business executive, entrepreneur, CPA, and soccer mom. An active member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sharon served as the treasurer of the Florida chapter and as co-chair of SleuthFest, its annual writers' conference. Her debut psychological thriller In Their Blood is set in her steamy, seductive, and sometimes shady hometown of Miami Beach.
John Rector - THE COLD KISS, June 2010
John Rector is a Colorado native and the author of THE GROVE and THE COLD KISS, which will be published in the summer of 2010 by Tor Books. His short fiction has appeared in The Seattle Review, Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine, Black October Magazine, The Edge: Tales of Suspense, FlashQuake (1st place for fiction), and 42nd Parallel, where he won the Porterhouse Prize for best fiction. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
Todd Ritter, DEATH NOTICE, October 2010
Todd grew up in rural Pennsylvania, nose mostly buried in a book. By fifth grade, he already knew he wanted to be a writer. He's been a journalist for more than 15 years, getting his start as a film critic while attending Penn State. He now works as a copy editor for The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper. In the interim, he's interviewed celebrities, covered police standoffs and, yes, even written obituaries.
Amy Dawson Robertson - MILES TO GO, February 2010
Cynthia Robinson, THE DOG PARK CLUB, December 2009
James Rubart, ROOMS, April 2010
James L. Rubart is a husband, dad, and author, in that order. He's been married for twenty-four years, and has two teenage sons. When not writing you'll find him jumping off cliffs or dirt biking with his boys, and talking long walks with his amazing bride. Jim is the owner of Barefoot Marketing which helps businesses and authors promote themselves more effectively.
Neil Russell, CITY OF WAR, March 2010
Neil Russell is a motion picture and television writer and producer and a former senior executive at Paramount, Columbia, MGM/UA and Carolco Pictures. His company, Site 85 Productions, has entered into licensing arrangements with Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Activision, MGM, ABC, Scott Free, Heyday Films, FP Productions, Hyde Park Entertainment and others. He is a member of the Naval War College Foundation and a former board member of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis.
Hank Schwaeble, DAMNABLE, September 2009
Stephen Jay Schwartz, BOULEVARD, September 2009
Stephen Jay Schwartz grew up in New Mexico and traveled the United States extensively before settling down in Los Angeles. There he wrote for the Discovery Channel and became the Director of Development for Wolfgang Petersen, helping develop "Outbreak" and "Air Force One," among others.
Chevy Stevens, STILL MISSING, May 2010
Chevy Stevens grew up on a ranch on Vancouver Island and still calls the island home. When she's not writing, or forcing her very patient husband to act out scenes, she's hiking with her dog and exploring the local mountains.
Norb Vonnegut, TOP PRODUCER, September 2009
Norb Vonnegut built an extensive career in private wealth management, most recently as a Managing Director with a finance boutique in New York City, and previously with Morgan Stanley, Paine Webber, and Kidder, Peabody. Now he brings us into the world of Top Producer, a sharp and twisted thriller that moves at breakneck pace. Norb graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1980 and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1986.
Wendy Lyn Watson, I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM: A MYSTERY A LA MODE, October 2009
Wendy Lyn Watson teaches constitutional law to college students by day and writes deliciously funny cozy mysteries, with a dollop of romance, by night. While she does not commit--or solve--murders in real life, her love of ice cream is 100% true. She's also passionately devoted to 80s music, Asian horror films, and reality TV.
Maureen Wood and Ron Kolek, GHOST CHRONICLES, September 2009
Maureen has communicated with the deceased for as far back as she can remember. At the age of fifteen, she was a medium for adult séances. She has practiced, studied and instructed metaphysical studies for more than twenty-five years and is currently the lead psychic/Trance-medium for the New England Ghost Project. She co-hosts a weekly broadcast of the popular Ghost Chronicles radio show on TOGInet radio, as well as the Ghost Chronicles podcast on iTunes.
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