Crime in the Countryside

Juliet Nordeen is a recovering mechanical engineer who lives and writes in the idyllic forests of the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington State where her Deputy Quinn mystery series is set. Her work -- some mystery, some  speculative fiction, some thrillers -- includes smart characters, living in vivid settings, puzzling their way through twisty-tales.

Juliet's short stories have sold to several anthologies, including Fiction River: Fantastic Detectives, Fiction River: Holiday Spectacular, Stark Publishing's Obsessions, and an upcoming collection of stories about secrets edited by Dayle A. Dermatis which is so top secret that the title is still being held under wraps. You can find out more at www.julietnordeen.com.

Leah Cutter writes page-turning, wildly imaginative fiction set in exotic locations, such as a magical New Orleans, the ancient Orient, rural Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, and many others.

She writes fantasy, science fiction, mystery, literary, and horror fiction. Her short fiction has been published in magazines like "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine" and "Talebones", anthologies like Fiction River, and on the web. Her long fiction has been published both by New York publishers as well as small presses.

Read more books by Leah Cutter at www.KnottedRoadPress.com.

Follow her blog at www.LeahCutter.com.

Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where a rather famous creepy tale about a hotel sparked into life. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction.

Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. Kari’s short myth The Spider Who Ate the Elephant placed 2nd in fiction in the 2019 Virginia Writers Club Golden Nib contest.

Her professional short story sales include several to Fiction River anthology magazine, and several holiday-themed anthology projects with WMG Publishing that range from mystery to contemporary to romance.

Kari writes first and figures out the story’s genre later. That results in mystery, fantasy, science fiction, romance, contemporary fiction, and everything in between. She’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason A. Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about.

Kari’s novels, novellas, collections, and short stories are available at www.karikilgore.com and www.spiralpublishing.net.

Michele's Lady Lazarus WWII dark fantasy series was published by Tor Books, and her short fiction has been published by DAW, PM Press, Running Press, and WMG Press, among others. "Sucker's Game" was her contribution to Jewish Noir, which was nominated for an Anthony for best anthology. Her Victorian romantic suspense, An Honest Woman, released last year.

Michele is a recovering lawyer who has practiced the unholy craft of litigation in both New York and Connecticut. She returned to her native New York shortly before 9/11, and now lives in a small town on the North Shore of Long Island with her husband, her sons, and a rotating menagerie of cats, fighting fish, and butterflies. 

Cate Martin is mainly known for cozy witch mysteries set in her home state of Minnesota, including her recently completed series The Witches Three Cozy Mysteries and her new series The Viking Witch Cozy Mysteries.

She also writes science fiction and fantasy under the name Kate MacLeod and has had short fiction published in Analog, Strange Horizons, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies among other places. Under Kate MacLeod she is midway through the YA sci-fi series The Ritchie and Fitz Sci-Fi Murder Mysteries. You can learn more about Cate Martin at her website www.CateMartin.com.

Jason A. Adams writes across the spectrum. His stories include science fiction, fantasy, horror, Appalachian folk tales, and even a little romance here and there.

You can find more of his work and sign up for updates from his Brain Squirrels at www.jasonadams.info, and in the pages of Pulphouse Magazine, most recently in issue #9. His stories have also appeared in the 2019 Winter Holiday Spectacular from WMG Publishing. Several more stories will appear in upcoming issues of Pulphouse Magazine and Holiday Spectaculars, so stay tuned!

Jason, a recovering Air Force brat who grew up all over the US and Japan, now perches in the mountains of Southwest Virginia with his beautiful wife Kari Kilgore, four spoiled cats, and assorted wild visitors from the nearby forest.

A Derringer and Macavity Award finalist acclaimed for “sharp storytelling” (Publishers Weekly), Diana Deverell’s short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Fiction River, Switchblade, Mystery Weekly Magazine, and other publications.

Before moving to rural Denmark to write fulltime, Diana earned her living as a long-haul trucker, beef farmer, youth worker, and hot/cold war diplomat. Those adventures took place in 48 states, two Canadian provinces, El Salvador, and Poland.

In addition to short stories, she writes legal, political, and international thrillers drawing on  her colorful background and featuring women with humor and heart.

Sign up for her newsletter at www.dianadeverell.com

Lynn Maples dreamed of being a cartoonist like his hero Walt Disney. He was fascinated with how simple lines on a page could tell a story. Little did he know that his love of animation and storytelling would take a career change with one simple 200-word short story writing assignment in 8th grade as part of a weekend homework assignment. The following Monday, he turned in a 20-page story (which raised the eyebrows of his teacher and classmates) about a small town country boy stationed on the USS Arizona on the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and his sweetheart receiving a letter from him while listening about the attack on the radio. 

He was hooked. He wrote his first novel the next year­­—a children's adventure story—and put aside his second novel "Deceiving Darkness" until life could allow him to spend time writing for pleasure instead of for work. He has spent the past three decades working as an award-winning journalist and marketing professional.

Writing is his escape from the daily grind of web copy, marketing campaigns and the 9-to-5 hustle. Thanks to his local mystery writing group, Malice in Memphis, he has once again picked up writing his paranormal romance novel conceived 25 years ago in college and has outlined several other novels and short stories thanks to the characters demanding that their stories be told.

He lives in Memphis, Tenn., with his partner of 20 years, their hormonal teenager, two cats and an old blind dog.

Steve Liskow (www.steveliskow.com) is a former teacher, actor, director and musician. He retired from teaching and turned to writing full-time when the theater where he served on the Board of Directors lost its performance space. Since then, he has published 15 novels, and Blood on the Tracks, the first “Woody” Guthrie novel, placed in the top ten of 1500 entries for the Writer’s Digest self-published novel awards. The Kids Are All Right, a Zach Barnes novel, was a finalist for the Shamus Award.

He has published short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly,and several anthologies. Those stories have earned an Edgar Award nomination, two Black Orchid Novella Awards (Plus two Honorable Mentions), and four Honorable Mentions for the Al Blanchard Award. He conducts writing workshops in Connecticut, where he lives with his wife Barbara and Ernie, a rescued Maine Coon.

Joslyn Chase is a prize-winning author of mysteries and thrillers. Any day where she can send readers to the edge of their seats, chewing their fingernails to the nub and prickling with suspense, is a good day in her book.

Joslyn's love for travel has led her to ride camels through the Nubian desert, fend off monkeys on the Rock of Gibraltar, and hike the Bavarian Alps. But she still believes that sometimes the best adventures come in getting the words on the page and in the thrill of reading a great story.

Joslyn believes in the power of story, and writes a blog on the subject which you can find at joslynchase.com. Join the growing group of readers who’ve discovered the thrill of Chase when you sign up, and get access to updates and bonuses.

Connect with Joslyn at https://www.facebook.com/StoryChase/ and visit the Joslyn Chase YouTube channel to see trailers for many of her books.