Julie Kramer's debut novel, STALKING SUSAN, has enjoyed a flurry of excitement.  
STALKING SUSAN will appear in Mystery Guild Book Club's fall catalogue as a featured alternate selection. Mystery Guild offers a vast range of the latest in bestselling mysteries, thrillers and suspense novels.
The Midwest Booksellers Association has also named STALKING SUSAN an August pick. MBA represents more than 250 independent bookstores in the midwest.
 And Mysterious Galaxy Books in San Diego  has chosen STALKING SUSAN for their "Signed First Mystery Program" this summer. Books are sent to an author to sign, then shipped back to the store to sell. And Poison Pen in Phoenix is also giving raves to STALKING SUSAN, their July First Mystery Club Pick.
To catch the wave, visit Julie's website at http://www.juliekramerbooks.com/ and find out more about this thrilling new debut!

Jordan Dane's last book in her ground-breaking romantic suspense debut trilogy -- NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM, NO ONE LEFT TO TELL, and NO ONE LIVES FOREVER, published March, April and May by Avon -- has just received another Top Pick from Romantic Times!

NO LIVES FOREVER rated an RT Top Pick 4.5 stars:

"The final book in Dane's outstanding launch trilogy picks up shortly after
No One Left to Tell. Heavy with atmosphere and creeping danger, this
page-turning thrill ride is unforgettable! Rarely does an author make such
an impact in such a short span of time."

Jill M. Smith - Romantic Times Book Review

For more information on Jordan and her smash hit trilogy, visit her website and The Thrill Begins!

Deep in the heart of a Brazilian rain forest, ITW Debut Author Leighton Gage (BLOOD OF THE WICKED) reveals the
only necessary survival tools: books by fellow ITW Debut Authors CJ Lyons (LIFELINES) and Jordan Dane (NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM).

Just more evidence that ITW Debut Authors are everywhere ...

Read all about them on the ITW website or The Thrill Begins!

In addition to the accolades CJ Lyon's debut novel LIFELINES has received from Publisher's Weekly, The Baltimore Sun (a review to be picked up by the New York daily Newsday), and a Top Pick from Romantic Times, LIFELINES has scored a Perfect 10 from Romance Reviews Today!

"You have to read LIFELINES to believe it. The writing, storyline, descriptions, and characterizations are simply superb ... a gritty, breathtaking, nail-chewing wild ride in and about Pittsburgh. I found it difficult to put this book down. It is better than any medical story I have ever read and rivals the best in the movies and television. At the climax, readers will be hanging on by their fingertips. Emotions run high, and debut author C. J. Lyons blends everything and everyone seamlessly in this riveting drama. I award this must-read novel a Perfect 10."

~Vi Janaway, Romance Reviews Today

For the entire review, click here. For more information on the world of LIFELINES, visit CJ's website. LIFELINES is available in stores everywhere.

During the month of March, The Writers Chatroom (TWC) is proud to host its first virtual book tour. The cyber-tour will feature debut author Jordan Dane and her back-to-back releases with Avon HarperCollins: NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM (April 08), NO ONE LEFT TO TELL (May 08), and NO ONE LIVES FOREVER (June 08).

TWC's Linda Hutchison had arranged the event after 'virtually meeting' Dane in MySpace. "I knew Jordan was doing everything we had ever thought of telling writers to do to market their wares. She had sold three novels to a major publishing house and three more in 2007. She also had a professional website and several very visible marketing strategies in place. She was definitely on my 'to be watched' list."

Publishers Weekly calls Dane's NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM a "dynamite debut" and compares Dane's intense pacing to Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag-romantic suspense that "crosses over into plain thriller country". Avon/HarperCollins bought Jordan Dane's debut suspense series in auction and is launching this eagerly awaited trilogy in a back to back publishing event April through June 2008. "We are pursuing an aggressive release schedule," says Avon publisher Liate Stehlik, "because we believe strongly in this author. Jordan Dane is poised to be the 'next big thing' in the romantic suspense genre."

Many of TWC's authors have reviewed advance copies of NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM and will post their reviews and their own Q&A interviews with Jordan during March. And the event will culminate in a live moderated chat on March 30th. See dates and hosting authors links below. For more information on The Writers Chatroom, please visit their website at www.writerschatroom.com, voted as Writer's Digest "101 Best Websites for Writers".

Virtual Tour Dates and Links
March 5 - Billie Williams http://printedwords.blogspot.com

March 8 - Linda J. Hutchinson http://reviewhutch.blogspot.com

March 12 - Kim Richards http://kim-richards.livejournal.com/

March 15 - Lisa Haselton TBA

March 19 - Cricket Sawyer http://www.Cricketshearth.blogspot.com

March 22 - Diana Castilleja http://dianacastilleja.blogspot.com

March 26 - Renee' Barnes http://msqtpi.livejournal.com/

March 29 - Glenn Walker http://www.monsura.blogspot.com

March 30 - TWC Launch PARTY - Moderated Chat (7pm EST) March Chat Guests: C. Hope Clark, Kathryn Lilley, James McMullen, Darlene Hartman/ Simon Lang, and Jordan Dane.

Denver is hosting Left Coast Crime this year, and ITW Debut Authors and advisors are getting ready for "Murder onthe Rocks!"

CJ Lyons, already a star in the Centennial state from her keynote speaker gig at the Rocky Mountain Fiction

Writers' Conference, will be launching LIFELINES at LCC. CJ's signing schedule includes two events on March 5^th--a 5 PM signing at Denver's Murder by the Book, and a 7 PM launch at High Crimes in Boulder--and a March 6^th signing at the famous Tattered Cover bookstore in the historic LoDo section of Denver.

At the conference itself, CJ will be participating in a "Writers on Writing" segment with a class on how to write thrillers Thursday afternoon (12:30-1:15); moderating a hardboiled panel on Friday morning (8:30-9:15), and talking about the art of the thriller on Friday afternoon (3:45-4:30) with fellow ITW members Jeff Buick, Laura Caldwell, Linda Richards and Theresa Schwegel.

September 18 - 21, 2008
Meijer Book Tour 2008 - Five Cities in Michigan


Jordan Dane will be one of the featured authors for a book tour of Meijer Supercenters in Michigan hosted by Levy Entertainment. The tour will spotlight "lead title" authors for all the major publishing houses. The highly promoted event with its huge book signings will cover 9 stores and 5 cities--including Detroit, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Lansing. The tour begins Thursday, September 18 and will end at the last store in Detroit on Sunday, September 21 at 6:00 pm. Stay tuned for more details, and be sure to check out Jordan's website for an updated schedule!

Karen Dionne was interviewed recently for an article in the February issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine on environmental thrillers.

“With topics like global warming headlining the nightly news,” WD editor Jordan Rosenfeld writes, “the eco-thriller is heating up, scaring readers with a dose of ‘what if’ reality. Thriller writers draw from plausible terrors, even if these are enhanced with fantastic leaps. So it makes sense to those in the publishing industry that, just as novels about Sept. 11 began to surge into the market a few years after, the eco-thriller is on the rise because so much attention is being paid to climatic change.”

Karen’s debut novel, FREEZING POINT, is set in the Antarctic, where extremists plot to stop an energy company from melting icebergs into drinking water, neither realizing that the water is contaminated with an unknown deadly disease.

“One of the things that makes eco-thrillers so compelling,” the article quotes her as saying, “is that the earth is our home. If the environment turns on us, there’s no safe place.”

You can read the entire article online at Writer’s Digest’s website.

A big congratulations is in order for ITW Debut Author liaison, CJ Lyons: she is featured as a New and Notableauthor on Celebwire this month!  She joins fellow ITW members Brett Battles and Heather Graham, who have all contributed short stories available for download.

Lyons' short story, TOXICITY, is a prequel to her debut medical suspense novel, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), which has earned rave reviews (four an a half stars) and has been selected as a TOP PICK by Romantic Times:

"Pittsburgh's Angel of Mercy Hospital comes brilliantly alive in Lyons ' debut novel. This enthralling medical mystery offers an intimate view of the personal and professional lives of its characters. It's a winner."

To read TOXICITY, visit Celebwire. For more information on CJ Lyons, please visit her website. While you're web surfing, be sure to stop by the ITW Debut Program Page: The Thrill Begins, or say hello on Crimespace or MySpace.

GREAT NEWS! Blackstone Audio has secured the unabridged retail and library audio rights (including digital audio) for Jordan Dane’s NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM (Avon release April 2008) and NO ONE LEFT TO TELL (Avon release May 2008) for the U.S. and Canada.

One question remains – If no one can hear her scream and there is no one left to tell, why would anyone need audio rights?

Codeine is an awful drug. I mean it. I'm not the narcotics-type, and the bizarre opium-eater dreams I have when I finally do fall asleep--after imbibing but two teaspoons of codeine cough syrup--are enough to give Salvador Dali and Hieronymous Bosch nightmares.

Why the codeine? Because right before Thanksgiving, I contracted the Big P. Cough Central. The Last Wheeze. Otherwise known as pneumonia.

I've been laid up, unable to work (bad), unable to write (worse), unable to think clearly (worst). I finally emerged from this cherry-flavored haze to go on line this morning, and found an email from a friend and fellow writer (and fellow nominee, Declan Burke) congratulating me on my nomination for a Spinetingler Award.

CJ Lyons, ITW Debut Author of LIFELINES (March 4, Berkley), has just announced that its sequel, CATALYST, has also been purchased by Berkley.

The medical thriller is tentatively scheduled for January, 2009.

The plot of CATALYST features a medical student who starts to investigate unexplained patient deaths when she begins to experience the same mysterious symptoms that killed them.

Look for CJ's debut novel LIFELINES in March, and read more about it at her website.

by Laura Benedict

I swore to myself that I wouldn’t read a single review of my debut novel ISABELLA MOON when they came out. I’ve reviewed books myself on a freelance basis for a Michigan newspaper for over ten years, I’m married to a writer, and I have many writer friends, so I’m deeply aware of how affecting reviews—both positive and negative—can be. But any writer who says he or she doesn’t read reviews of their books is probably fibbing. It’s a sore, sore temptation to listen in on what folks are saying about your baby, even when you suspect that someone out there is going to claim it’s ugly as sin.

ITW Debut Authors members Leighton Gage (BLOOD OF THE WICKED) and Laura Benedict (ISABELLA MOON), as well as four other ITW members whose first novels debuted this year were featured recently in an article by Barbara Hoffert in Library Journal.

"Everybody has a story to tell," Hoffert writes, "but not everybody can tell it well, which it why some first novels jump to the best sellers lists and others fade away. This year's crop of successful first novelists come from all walks of life . . . But they share a way with words that allows them to deliver incandescent stories that could change your life."

ITW members whose debuts were featured alongside John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize nominees Junot Diaz, Austin Grossman, Mischa Berlinski, Daniel Alarcón and Jon Clinch as well as Quill nominee Pam Jenoff include Marcus Sakey (THE BLADE ITSELF), Brent Gelfi (VOLK’S GAME), Elizabeth Benedek (RED SEA), and Derek Nikitas (PYRES).

You can see the full list at: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6483884.html

by Theo Gangi

Reviews make me jumpy. You pour your heart and soul into a book. You grapple with demons, you soar with angels, you challenge, you push, you pull. Sometimes you enjoy it, sometimes you don't. 

The gratification of seeing that finished product all wrapped up between covers with a price label is, for me, unequalled. Reviewers underscore the reality that people may just not like it. Might not even have anything to do with the book. You always hear stories of great writers getting trashed by reviewers--Updike and William Faulkner among them. Authors taught in schools have been called irrelevant in their lifetimes.

So far, I've been lucky enough to get some favorable nods from the grim judgment of reviewers. Knock wood. 

 Harriet Klausner, the # 1 reviewer on Amazon Books, called Bang Bang "fascinating...High Noon comes to New York City."  Publisher's Weekly said "Gangi serves up a judicious portion of gangsta street talk, rough romance and raw violence in this exciting and gritty debut thriller.

So far I am please that people other than my mother have understood my work.

By CJ Lyons

I just returned from a trip filled with firsts.  My first trip to Denver; my first time doing the “face” thing with booksellers, asking them to remember my book and perhaps schedule me for an event next March when LIFELINES debuts; my first Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Colorado Gold conference; and my first ever keynote speech.
Can I just say, Wow!!!

I was nervous about all of the above except visiting Denver.  Turns out that was the only thing I should have been worried about—the first night. I stayed with a friend at high elevation and got acute mountain sickness.  Otherwise known as barf-o-rama in the guest bathroom.

IITW Debut Authors have teamed with ITW veterans for several Bouchercon panels. On Wednesday, September 26,  debut author Laura Benedict (ISABELLA MOON) talks about how to make writing dreams real for a Young Writers Workshop track. Later that afternoon, debut novelists Jordan Dane (NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM), Rhodi Hawk (TWISTED LADDER) and Kelli Stanley (NOX DORMIENDA) join ITW writer and original Killer Year alum Bill Cameron (LOST DOG) for a discussion on the art and craft of writing in a session geared to Young Writers.

The morning of Saturday, September 27 offers "Bad Boys and Dirty Girls",again with Rhodi Hawk, Kelli Stanley and Jordan Dane. Jordan moderatesthis discussion about the seductive nature of villains and anti-heroes,featuring ITW Vets Simon Wood (ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN) and JasonPinter (THE MARK). In the afternoon, Laura Benedict shares stories about "That First Novel" in a panel moderated by ITW writer Susan Arnout Smith (THE TIMER GAME).

This combination of debut and experienced writers is combustible--and a lot of fun!
Join us in Bouchercon 2007--Bearly Alive!--for a rollicking good time!

CJ Lyons, medical suspense author and Pediatric ER physician, will be a Guest of Honor at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold Conference September 14-16.  CJ will be presenting three of her workshops including Trauma 101; Kills, Chills, and Thrills; and Break Free from the Slushpile.  She will also be giving the Kickoff Keynote Speech on Friday night.All this before CJ's book hits the shelves March 4, 2008--which must set some sort of record. Congratulations, CJ!