The Stiletto Gang
Mary Lee Ashford
Mary Lee Ashford
Mary Lee Ashford is the author of the Sugar & Spice mystery series from Kensington Books and also half of the Sparkle Abbey writing team who pen the national best-selling Pampered Pets series. She is a lifelong bibliophile, an avid reader, and public library champion. Prior to publishing Mary Lee won the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. She is the founding president of Sisters in Crime – Iowa as well as a member of Mystery Writers of America and Novelists, Inc. She lives in the Midwest with her family and her feline coworker.
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Awards:
Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence
Sparkle Abbey
Sparkle Abbey
Sparkle Abbey is actually two people (Mary Lee Ashford and Anita Carter) who co-author the national best-selling Pampered Pets Mystery Series. Friends as well as neighbors, they often get together and plot ways to commit murder. Fictionally, of course. Though they live in the Midwest, if they could write anywhere, you’d find them on the beach with their laptops and, depending on the time of day, with either an iced tea or a margarita
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Susan P. Baker
Susan P. Baker
Susan P. Baker is a retired judge who writes what she knows. She's published ten novels, two nonfiction books, and a collection of short pieces. Every novel is based on some part of the justice system she experienced in her years as a judge, lawyer, and prior to that, a probation officer. Whether readers like mysteries, suspense, or courtroom dramas, they'll find something to entertain them in Susan's books.
For true crime buffs, try her book Murdered Judges of the 20th Century. And if you want a divorce and don't want to fight it out to the death, her advice book, Heart of Divorce, is for you.
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Donnell Ann Bell
Donnell Ann Bell
Donnell Ann Bell tried to write a conventional romance. When the body showed up in Chapter Four, she gave up the ruse. She preferred mystery and police procedure and was determined to learn all about it. As the co-owner of Crimescenewriter, a forum started by a veteran police officer, Donnell has learned from some of the finest LEO professionals in existence. Her first suspense, Black Pearl, A Cold Case Suspense (2019) was a 2020 Colorado Book Award finalist. The second book in the series Until Dead, is due out May 2022. The author of four award-winning romantic suspense novels, she’s infinitely glad that body showed up. www.donnellannbell.com
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Facebook · Twitter · BookBub · Goodreads · www.donnellannbell.com
Awards:
- 2021 New Mexico/Arizona Book Award Finalist
- 2020 Colorado Book Award Finalist
- 2014 Epic Nominee Best Thriller Suspense
- 2014 First Place Mystery/Crime Chanticleer Clue Awards
- 2010 Golden Heart Finalist
- 2007 Golden Heart Finalist
Paula Gail Benson
Paula Gail Benson
Bio here
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Awards:
List Awards
Dru’s Book Musings
Dru’s Book Musings
Dru Ann Love reportedly spends her working hours at the mysterious daytime situation. Her non-working hours are spent less reclusively on dru’s book musings, her award-winning blog where the “day in the life,” “get to know you,” and “word with the author” segments are prominently featured. She is an avid reader who loves traveling, sci-fi movies, and is happy to be in “her element” within the mystery community.
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · drusbookmusing.com
Awards:
- 2018 Anthony Award-nominated blog for Best Online Content
- 2017 MWA Raven Award recipient
- 2015 Anthony Award-nominated blog for Best Critical or Non-Fiction Work
Barbara J. Eikmeier
Barbara J. Eikmeier
Bio here
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Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · website
Awards:
List Awards
Juliana Aragón Fatula
Juliana Aragón Fatula
Bio here
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Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · website
Awards:
List Awards
Debra H. Goldstein
Debra H. Goldstein
Judge, author, litigator, wife, stepmom, mother of twins, and civic volunteer, are all words used to describe Debra. Her life and writings are equally diverse. She writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (Five Belles Too Many, Four Cuts Too Many, Three Treats Too Many, Two Bites Too Many, and One Taste Too Many), which features a woman who finds being in the kitchen more frightening than murder. Debra also authored 2012 IPPY winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set on the University of Michigan’s campus in the 1970’s, and Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery. Her novels and short stories have been finalists for the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Silver Falchion awards.
Connect:
Twitter · Facebook · Instagram · BookBub · www.debrahgoldstein.com
Awards:
- Silver Falchion finalist – Sarah Blair series
- Agatha & Anthony Award finalist – “The Night They Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place”
- IPPY Award Winner – Maze in Blue
Robin Hillyar-Miles
Robin Hillyar-Miles
Bio here
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · website
Awards:
List Awards
Bethany Maines
Bethany Maines
Bethany Maines, a native of Tacoma WA, is the author of action adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. When she’s not traveling to exotic lands, or kicking some serious butt with her black belt in karate, she can be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel.
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · www.bethanymaines.com
Awards:
- 2023 Book Excellence Award Finalist, "Winter Wonderland"
- 2021 Maincrest Media Award Winner, “Blue Christmas”
- 2021 Maincrest Media Award Winner, “The Second Shot” Audio Book
- 2021 PNWA Literary Contest Finalist, “Fortune’s Flight”
- 2019 Book Excellence Award Finalist, “The Seventh Swan”
Donalee Moulton
My mother knew I was going to be a writer in grade two. I was asked to write a sentence using a specific word, like “tree” or “house” and provided one line for each sentence. One line, apparently, would not do. My first sentence ran off the line, down the margin, along the bottom of the page, and over onto the next page. A story, after all, is as long as a story needs to be.
I don't know that there was one definitive moment, event, or experience that led me to conclude my life would be shaped by words. But if you look closely at my genetic code under a microscope I'm sure you would find these letters etched into my DNA: W*R*I*T*E*R. Writing has always been central to what I do and how I see myself.
As a communications professional, I worked with words to shape messages for clients, wonderful people doing important work that matters. But it was their work, and ultimately their words. What you will read here are my words. Words that came from my imagination, my need to speak, perhaps even my DNA.
What I've learned about writing is that while inspiration and ideas may be the spark, it is writing, rewriting, editing, hair pulling, and going back to the first page, again, that transforms ideas and inspiration into something that resonates with readers. And within yourself.
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Saralyn Richard
Saralyn Richard
Saralyn Richard's award-winning humor- and romance-tinged mysteries and children's book pull back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. Saralyn’s most recent release is Bad Blood Sisters. A member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and continues to write mysteries. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you.
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub· saralynrichard.com
Awards:
- 2022 Book Excellence Finalist, A Murder of Principal
- 2021 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Readers' Favorite Award, A Palette for Love and Murder
- 2021 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalist Best Investigator, A Palette for Love and Murder
- 2020 Readers' Favorite Silver Medal, A Palette for Love and Murder
- 2020 Book Excellence Finalist, A Palette for Love and Murder
- 2020 American Bookfest Finalist, Murder in the One Percent
- 2019 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Readers' Favorite Award 2019, Murder in the One Percent
- 2019 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Finalist Police Procedural, Murder in the One Percent
- 2019 Chanticleer CLUE Award Finalist, Murder in the One Percent
Linda Rodriguez
Linda Rodriguez
Linda Rodriguez’s ten books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have received awards, such as St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International Latino Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book, Midwest Voices & Visions Award, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, Ragdale and Macondo fellowships. A short story has been optioned for film.
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com
Awards:
- Winner, St. Martin’s/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition
- Finalist, International Latino Book Award
- Inspiration Award KCArtsFund
- Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence
- Ragdale Fellow
- Finalist, Eric Hoffer National Book Award in Poetry
- Midwest Voices and Visions Award
- Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award for Excellence in Writing
- Macondo Fellow
- Barbara Storck Prize in Creative Writing
- Crystal Field Creative Writing Fellowship
- Gary Barger Memorial Fiction Scholarship
Debra Sennefelder / Lexie Cooper
Debra Sennefelder/Lexie Cooper
Debra Sennefelder is the author of the Food Blogger Mystery series and the Resale Boutique Mystery series and the Cookie Shop Mystery series under the name of Lexie Cooper. She lives and writes in Connecticut. When she’s not writing, she enjoys baking, exercising and taking long walks with her Shih-Tzu, Connie.
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T.K. Thorne
T.K. Thorne
T.K. Thorne wanted to make first contact with aliens. When that didn’t work out, she became a police officer. Although most people she met were human, some were quite strange…. Retiring as a precinct captain, she writes full time. Her books include two award-winning historical novels (Noah’s Wife and Angels at the Gate); two nonfiction civil rights era works (Last Chance for Justice and Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days); a dally with murder and magic in the Magic City Stories trilogy (House of Rose, House of Stone, and House of Iron); and a YA science fiction, Snowdancers where she finally got to meet real aliens.
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · www.tkthorne.com
Awards:
- 2020, Chanitcleer International Book Awards, House of Rose
- 2016, IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award, Angels at the Gate
- 2009, ForeWord Reviews “Book of the Year for Historical Fiction, Noah’s Wife
Lois Winston
Lois Winston
USA Today and Amazon bestselling author Lois Winston began her award-winning writing career in 2006 with Talk Gertie to Me, a humorous novel about a small-town girl in Manhattan and the mother bent on bringing her home. That was followed by the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception. Lois wrote her first mystery thanks to a conversation between her agent and an editor looking for a crafting-themed cozy series. Thus, was born the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries, which Kirkus Reviews dubbed, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” The series now includes eleven novels and three novellas. To date Lois has published twenty novels, five novellas, several short stories, one children’s chapter book, and one nonfiction book on writing, inspired by the twelve years she worked as an associate at a literary agency.
Connect:
Twitter · BookBub · www.loiswinston.com
Awards:
- 2004 St. Martin’s Press/Malice Domestic Contest for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Finalist, “Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun”
- 2008 Smoky Mountain Romance Writers Laurie Award Winner, “Love, Lies, and a Double Shot of Deception”
- 2008 Phoenix Desert Rose Golden Quill Award Winner, “Love, Lies, and a Double Shot of Deception”
- 2008 Beacon Award Second Place, “Love, Lies, and a Double Shot of Deception”
- 2008 Romance Writers Ink More Than Magic Award Winner, “Love, Lies, and a Double Shot of Deception”
- 2008 Yellow Rose RWA Winter Rose Award Winner, “Love, Lies, and a Double Shot of Deception”
- 2011 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Finalist, “Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun”
- 2011 Salt Lake City Library System Readers’ Choice Award Finalist, “Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun”
- 2011 Canyonland Press Readers’ Choice Award Finalist, “Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun”
- 2012 Daphne du Maurier Award Finalist “Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun”
- 2020 The Book Decoder Best Books of 2020, “A Sew Deadly Cruise”
- 2021 Killer Nashville Silver Fachion for Best Cozy Mystery Finalist, “A Sew Deadly Cruise”
Gay Yellen
Gay Yellen
After a brief acting career in Hollywood, Gay Yellen happily moved behind the camera at the American Film Institute, until the chance to be a magazine editor jump-started her professional writing career. Helping another author write a New York Times “New & Notable” thriller inspired her to write her own award-winning Samantha Newwman Mystery Series. Since Gay had already survived a crazed gunman, a killer earthquake, and an elephant's sneeze in real life, she had plenty of material to ensure that her books were chock-full of suspense, with a dollop of romance and humor on the side. Gay lives in Texas with a remarkable husband and a lot of books to be written.
Connect:
Facebook · Twitter · Instagram · BookBub · www.GayYellen.com
Awards:
- 2017 Chanticleer Mystery & Mayhem 1st Place, The Body Next Door
- 2017 Silver Falchion Finalist, The Body Next Door
- 2017 Reader’s Favorite Mystery, The Body Next Door
- 2015 Pages from the Heart Finalist, The Body Business
- 2015 Crowned Heart for Excellence, The Body Business
- 2014 RONE Award, The Body Business