Karen Essex
I'm the author of RUN, DARLING, KLEOPATRA, PHARAOH, LEONARDO'S SWANS, STEALING ATHENA, DRACULA IN LOVE, AND BETTIE PAGE: LIFE OF A PINUP LEGEND--All featuring iconic women—powerful women that seduced the world. I am an active screenwriter and an award-winning journalist, dividing my time between Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Europe, where I soak in the atmosphere while writing historical fiction.
Follow me on Substack; History. Sex. Power. https://karenessex.substack.com/subsc...
Or join our chat group on Goodreads, Ask Karen Essex. http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/5...
I love hearing from you, Gentle Readers.
If you like author Karen Essex here is the list of authors you may also like
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Syrie James
Syrie James writes about bold, smart women who defy the odds and overcome daunting obstacles to achieve a cherished creative dream, find truth and justice, or help people in need, often finding love along the way. She is the international, USA TODAY, and Amazon bestselling author of many novels of historical fiction, mystery, romance, and YA which have been published in 21 languages.
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Syrie's Historical Murder Mystery series, The Audacious Sisterhood of Smoke & Fire, is set in Victorian England and features sister sleuths who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth. The series includes the Amazon bestseller "The Mysteries of Pendowar Hall," "The Secrets of Thorndale Manor" and the upcoming "Danger at Darkmoor Park."
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Leslie Hachtel
Leslie Hachtel was born in Ohio, raised in New York and has lived all over the country. Her various jobs, including licensed veterinary technician, caterer, horseback riding instructor for the disabled and advertising media buyer have given her a wealth of experiences.
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However, it has been writing that has consistently been her passion.
Leslie lives in Florida with a fabulously supportive engineer husband and her writing buddy, Josie, a doodle. -
Heather Frimmer
Heather Frimmer is a radiologist specializing in breast and emergency room imaging. Her first novel, Bedside Manners, was published in 2018 and has received several awards including National Indie Excellence, Readers' Favorite and Independent Press awards. She completed her medical training at Weill-Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian-Cornell and Yale New Haven Hospital. She lives with her husband and two children in suburban Connecticut.
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Kirsten Mickelwait
Kirsten Mickelwait has been passionate about reading and writing for as long as she can remember, but her love of literature was really ignited as an English major at UC Berkeley, where she discovered James Joyce and the expatriate writers of 1920s Paris. Her historical novel, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty, features many of these characters, including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Gertrude Stein, and Dorothy Parker. Her memoir, The Ghost Marriage, was published in 2021. Kirsten is an alumna of the Community of Writers, the Napa Valley Writers Conference, the Kauai Writers' Conference, and several other writers' workshops. She has another book in the pipeline—a speculative novel—and is currently at
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Dacre Stoker
Dacre Stoker, a Canadian citizen and resident of the U.S., is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker. He is also the godson of H.G. Dacre Stoker, the commander of the AE2 submarine, whose tactics were instrumental in Gallipoli in World War I.
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Dacre, who now calls Aiken, South Carolina home, was a member of the Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon Team, Senior World Championships in 1979 and coach of the Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon Olympic Team, Seoul, South Korea in 1988. Dacre is married to Jenne Stoker and is the father of two children. He is the Executive Director of the Aiken Land Conservancy.
Dracula: The Un-Dead is Dacre's first novel. -
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Best known for an economical, understated style that significantly influenced later 20th-century writers, he is often romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle, and outspoken and blunt public image. Most of Hemingway's works were published between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s, including seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works. His writings have become classics of American literature; he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature, while three of his novels, four short-story collections and three nonfiction works were published posthumously.
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Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a -
Tracy Chevalier
Born:
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19 October 1962 in Washington, DC. Youngest of 3 children. Father was a photographer for The Washington Post.
Childhood:
Nerdy. Spent a lot of time lying on my bed reading. Favorite authors back then: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madeleine L’Engle, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Joan Aiken, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander. Book I would have taken to a desert island: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.
Education:
BA in English, Oberlin College, Ohio, 1984. No one was surprised that I went there; I was made for such a progressive, liberal place.
MA in creative writing, University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, 1994. There’s a lot of debate about whether or not you can be taught to write. Why doesn’t anyone ask that of professional singers, painters, d -
Mary Alice Monroe
Mary Alice Monroe is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 30 books, including her new novel, Where the Rivers Merge, the first book in a duology and her historical debut. The second book is titled The Rivers End. Release date has not been set yet.
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Monroe has also published children’s books, which complement the environmental themes she is known for in her adult novels. Monroe’s middle grade series, written with Angela May, The Islanders, debuted #2 on the New York Times Best Sellers List in 2021. The second book in the series, Search for Treasure, debuted #3 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. And the third book in the series, Shipwrecked, is available everywhere books are sold.
Nearly eight million copies of her books -
Susan Vreeland
Susan Vreeland was an internationally renowned best-selling author and four-time winner of the Theodor Geisel Award for Fiction, the San Diego Book Award’s highest honor. She wrote historical fiction on art-related themes, and her books have been translated into 26 languages.
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Irving Stone
In 1923, Stone received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. In the 1960s, Stone received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Southern California, where he had previously earned a Masters Degree from the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences.
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When at home, Stone relied upon the research facilities and expertise made available to him by Esther Euler, head research librarian of the University of California at Los Angeles, to whom he dedicated and thanked, in addition to many others, in several of his works.
Stone enjoyed a long marriage to his wife and editor on many of his works, Jean Stone. The Stones lived primarily in Los Angeles, California. During their lifetime, Stone and his wife funded -
Sarah Dunant
Sarah Dunant is a cultural commentator, award-winning thriller writer and author of five novels set in Renaissance Italy exploring women’s lives through art, sex and religion. She has two daughters, and lives in London and Florence.
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Sarah’s monthly history program and podcast on history can be found via the BBC website. -
Julianne MacLean
Julianne MacLean is a USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the contemporary women’s fiction Color of Heaven Series. Readers have described her books as “breathtaking,” “soulful” and “uplifting.” MacLean is a four-time RITA finalist and has won numerous awards, including the Booksellers’ Best Award and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from Romantic Times. Her novels have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been published in over a dozen languages.
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MacLean has a degree in English literature from the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a degree in business administration from Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She loves to travel and has lived in New Zealand, Canada, and England. Mac -
Ellen Baker
Ellen Baker is the author of the novels THE HIDDEN LIFE OF CECILY LARSON, KEEPING THE HOUSE, and I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS. She has worked as a museum curator and as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Originally from the Upper Midwest, Ellen currently lives on the coast of Maine.
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Victoria Zackheim
Victoria Zackheim is the author of the novel, The Bone Weaver, and editor of six anthologies, the most recent being FAITH: Essays From Believers, Agnostics, and Atheists. Her screenplay, Maidstone, a feature film, is in development, as are her theater plays The Other Woman and Entangled. Victoria also writes documentary films and teaches creative nonfiction (Personal Essay) in the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. She is a 2010 San Francisco Library Laureate.
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Syrie James
Syrie James writes about bold, smart women who defy the odds and overcome daunting obstacles to achieve a cherished creative dream, find truth and justice, or help people in need, often finding love along the way. She is the international, USA TODAY, and Amazon bestselling author of many novels of historical fiction, mystery, romance, and YA which have been published in 21 languages.
Buy books on Amazon
Syrie's Historical Murder Mystery series, The Audacious Sisterhood of Smoke & Fire, is set in Victorian England and features sister sleuths who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth. The series includes the Amazon bestseller "The Mysteries of Pendowar Hall," "The Secrets of Thorndale Manor" and the upcoming "Danger at Darkmoor Park."
Los Angeles Magazine du -
Wulf Dorn
Wulf Dorn has created characters such as Jan Forstner, Mark Behrendt, Doro Beck, Simon Strode, Robert Winter and many others. His psychological suspense novels have become international bestsellers and won him numerous awards, including the French Prix Polar for Best International Novel.
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Wulf began writing short stories at the age of twelve and had his first publication in a local paper at sixteen. In the following years his stories were published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies.
In October 2009, his debut thriller, TRIGGER, became an instant success; the enthralling story of psychiatrist Ellen Roth was translated into numerous languages and sold over a million copies around the globe. To date, Wulf's books have made it to the bestse -
Dacre Stoker
Dacre Stoker, a Canadian citizen and resident of the U.S., is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker. He is also the godson of H.G. Dacre Stoker, the commander of the AE2 submarine, whose tactics were instrumental in Gallipoli in World War I.
Buy books on Amazon
Dacre, who now calls Aiken, South Carolina home, was a member of the Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon Team, Senior World Championships in 1979 and coach of the Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon Olympic Team, Seoul, South Korea in 1988. Dacre is married to Jenne Stoker and is the father of two children. He is the Executive Director of the Aiken Land Conservancy.
Dracula: The Un-Dead is Dacre's first novel. -
Kiersten White
Kiersten White is the #1 New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning, and critically acclaimed author of many books for readers of all ages, including the And I Darken trilogy, the Sinister Summer series, the Camelot Rising trilogy, Star Wars: Padawan, Hide, Mister Magic, and Lucy Undying. She also has a very large tortoise named Kimberly, which isn't relevant, but she wanted you to know.
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Visit her online at kierstenwhite.com. -
Christine Nolfi
Christine Nolfi is the award-winning and bestselling author of seventeen novels. Look for her 2025 release, The Secret Library of Hanna Reeves.
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Other works include her 2024 release A Heart Like Home; A Brighter Flame, selected by She Reads as a best book club pick and The Passing Storm, cited by Publishers Weekly as “Tautly plotted, expertly characterized, and genuinely riveting” and gold medal winner in general fiction, International Book Awards.
Earlier works include The Road She Left Behind, a top book club pick by Working Mother and Parade magazines; the award-winning Sweet Lake Series: Sweet Lake, The Comfort of Secrets, and The Season of Silver Linings; Second Chance Grill, highly recommended by The Midwest Book Review and Treasure Me, -
Barbara Davis
Author of The Secrets She Carried, The Wishing Tide, Summer at Hideaway Key, Love, Alice. (Penguin/Berkley) When Never Comes (Lake Union) The Last of the Moon Girls (Lake Union) The Keeper of Happy Endings (Lake Union) The Echo of Old Books (Lake Union) Every Precious and Fragile Thing (Lake Union)
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Rebecca Rosenberg
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Rebecca Rosenberg is a triple-gold award-winning author of MADAME POMMERY and CHAMPAGNE WIDOWS. Rebecca is a lavender farmer, champagne geek, champagne tour guide, and cocktail creator for Breathless Wines. She is the moderator of Breathless Bubbles & Books and American Historical Novels.
Rebecca writes novels about history’s real-life women of substance who made an indelible mark on the world. Her latest novel begins a series about the true champagne widows, the first of whom was Veuve Clicquot. (Veuve is French for widow.)
Rebecca is a University of Colorado alumni and holds a Stanford University novel-writing certificate. Her novels have garnered many awards including IBPA, IPPY, and starred Publisher Weekly reviews for her novels, THE SEC -
Dete Meserve
Dete Meserve is a best-selling novelist and an award-winning creator and producer of films and television series.
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She wrote the screenplay adaptation of her debut novel, Good Sam, and produced it as a feature film for Netflix. (Watch today!)
Inspired by a question posed to readers—"What would you do if you could spend an hour in your past?—" her fifth novel, The Memory Collectors, explores the universal desire to revisit pivotal moments in our lives, whether to reconnect with a loved one, undo a painful mistake, or relive a joyous memory. In this suspenseful and emotional journey, four strangers step back into their pasts only to find themselves trapped in time. A shocking twist forces them to unravel hidden connections between them—uncoveri -
Marie Vareille
Marie Vareille est romancière et blogueuse à Paris. Diplômée de l’ESCP-Europe et de l'Université de Cornell aux États-Unis, elle travaille actuellement en tant que Community Manager pour une start-up française.
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Depuis toujours, ses deux grandes passions sont les livres et les voyages. Elle a notamment parcouru l’Asie, l’Amérique Centrale et l’Amérique du Sud en sac à dos. Fan de chick-lit et de comédies romantiques, elle partage ses coups de coeurs littéraires sur son blog http://sissidebeauregard.com.
Son premier roman, Ma vie, mon ex et autres calamités, sortira en juin 2014 chez City Éditions. -
Aimie K. Runyan
Aimie K. Runyan writes to celebrate history’s unsung heroines. She has been honored as a Historical Novel Society Editors’ Choice selection, as a three-time finalist for the Colorado Book Awards, and as a nominee for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer of the Year. Aimie is active as an educator and speaker in the writing community and beyond. Her next books, The Castle Keepers (in collaboration with J'nell Ciesielski and Rachel McMillan) and A Bakery in Paris will release in 2023 from Harper Collins. Also from Harper Collins, Aimie's contemporary Women's Fiction debut, The Memory of Lavender and Sage, will release in early 2024. She lives in Colorado with her amazing husband, two (usually) adorable children, two (always) adorable kitties, an
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Camille Di Maio
Camille recently left an award-winning real estate career in San Antonio to become a full-time writer. Along with her husband of 27 years, she home schooled their four children - most of whom are now grown. She has a bucket list that is never-ending, and uses her adventures to inspire her writing. She's lived in Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California, and spends enough time in Hawai'i to feel like a local. She's traveled to four continents (so far), and met Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. She just about fainted when she had a chance to meet her musical idol, Paul McCartney, too. Camille studied political science in college, but found working on actual campaigns much more fun. She overdoses on goodies at farmers markets
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Elodie Harper
Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize winning short story writer.
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Her story 'Wild Swimming' won the 2016 Bazaar of Bad Dreams short story competition, run by The Guardian and Hodder & Stoughton and judged by Stephen King.
She is currently a reporter and presenter at ITV News Anglia, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. -
Lorna Hollifield
Lorna Hollifield was born in Asheville, North Carolina, but now enjoys the Lowcountry life outside of Charleston, South Carolina with her family.
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She’s been an author from the time she could speak, always spinning yarns for anyone who would listen. She began her professional writing journey as a tourism and travel blogger, and has since been published in literary anthologies and magazines, even boasting her own book column. She finally realized her dream of publishing fiction in 2017 when Tobacco Sun was released. In October of 2020, her second novel, The Ocean At Night hit the shelves. Bright Little Girls was released in 2025.
Lorna also enjoys loves speaking about her craft at literary conferences and community events any chance she gets. -
Karen E. Osborne
I can't remember a time when I didn't want to write or wasn't writing.
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As a little girl growing up in the Bronx, I told my friends stories I made up, but pretended were true (imagined reality was better received by the audience). I wrote my first short story when I was twelve. In middle school, I'd submit book reports about my own stories with fake author names. Never caught and always received an A. Under my graduation picture in the Evander Childs High School yearbook next to "ambition," it said writer. Marriage, children, and career sidelined my true passion, but didn't squelch it.
Getting It Right came to me in scenes. I finished the first draft in a year. It took a very long time to re-write it. Since finishing it, I've written two mor -
Kathleen Sheppard
Kathleen Sheppard was born and raised in the Midwestern United States, where she has now settled after years away. She earned an MA in Egyptian Archaeology from University College, London, where she met the memory of Margaret Murray for the first time. She earned an MA and PhD in History of Science from the University of Oklahoma, where she realized she wanted to find more women like Murray and has continued doing so ever since. She sits on the board of the Missouri Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt and is the Chapters’ Council VP. She is a Professor in the History and Political Science department at Missouri S&T and lives in central Missouri with her husband, son, dog and cat.
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Leslie A. Rasmussen
Leslie A. Rasmussen was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UCLA. She went on to write television comedies for Gerald McRaney, Burt Reynolds, Roseanne Barr, Norm McDonald, Drew Carey, The Wild Thornberrys, and Sweet Valley High. After leaving the business to raise her boys, Leslie obtained a master's degree in nutrition and ran her own business for ten years. Leslie has been published in the Huffington Post over twenty times and speaks on panels discussing female empowerment. She’s a member of The Writers Guild of America, Women in Film, and The UCLA Alumni Association. After Happily Ever After is Leslie’s debut novel and has won over fifteen awards, and her second novel, The Stories We Cannot Tell, has won eleven awards, and
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John Winn Miller
John Winn Miller is an award-winning investigative reporter, foreign correspondent, editor, newspaper publisher, screenwriter, movie producer, and novelist.
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VISIT MY AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE
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FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK
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FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
https://www.instagram.com/johnwinnmil... -
Kitty Johnson
Kitty Johnson is an awarding-winning writer of emotional stories about empowerment and living your best life. She lives in Norwich, Norfolk in the UK, with her partner and teenage son. Her novel Five Winters was awarded the Star Award 2024 by the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
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A nature lover, Kitty enjoys walking in the local woods and by the sea in Norfolk with her dog. Also an artist, she paints and makes collages in her studio when she has time. Kitty enjoys a challenge and once performed stand-up comedy as research for a book - an experience she found very scary but hugely empowering. Kitty has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and has also published as Margaret K Johnson. -
Johanna van Veen
Johanna van Veen grew up in the Netherlands with her two sisters. She received an MA in English Literature with a specialization in early modern literature, as well as an MA Book and Digital Media with a specialization in early modern book history.
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C. I. Jerez
Dr. Cherisa “C. I.” Jerez is an award-winning author whose debut novel, At The Island’s Edge, released in 2025. She is represented by Katie Reed at Andrea Hurst & Associates.
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With both a Cuban and Puerto Rican background, Cherisa is actively focused on writing stories with bold, Latina protagonists in contemporary fiction and thriller genres. Her experiences growing up near El Paso’s Mexican border have only enhanced her love of Latin America and its cultures.
She holds a BBA, an MBA, and a DBA in International Business. She commissioned as an Army Officer in 2005 and earned the rank of Major.
Mostly, she loves to write.
Cherisa lives in Central Florida and is hard at work on her next novel. -
Kristin Owens
Kristin grew up in Buffalo, New York and moved immediately after the Bill’s fourth Super Bowl loss for better odds. She now resides in sticky southwest Florida and watches her hair expand by the minute.
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She earned a PhD in Higher Education Administration and held academic positions at Penn State, University of Maryland, University of Alaska Anchorage, and Mat-Su College. She also taught a variety of subjects (from ballroom dancing to graduate statistics) and was chosen Teacher of the Year by Aims Community College students.
Holding certifications with the Court of Master Sommeliers and Cicerone, she travels the world writing about wonderful wines, beautiful beers, and surprising spirits. She speaks fluent German and crappy French.
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Suzanne Parry
Suzanne Parry is a former arms control negotiator turned historical novelist. She studied Russian in Moscow and worked for the US Department of Defense. While at the Pentagon, she helped negotiate the first international security agreement of the Gorbachev era. She has taught university, coached high school cross-country, and raised a large family. A dedicated runner, Suzanne lives on both coasts but calls Portland, Oregon, home.
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Deb Miller
Deb Miller is the author of Forget the Fairy Tale & Find Your Happiness, a memoir that explores her personal journey toward self-reliance and strength, using the evolution of Disney princesses as a metaphor for her own transformation.
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A passionate advocate for personal empowerment, Deb’s writing encourages readers to question societal expectations and discover their own path to happiness.
Having visited nearly 50 countries as a corporate executive, she is now on a mission to visit all of our national parks. A part-time marketing professor, Dr. Miller lives in Redmond, Washington, and can be found outside landscaping, walking her energetic Auggie, or hanging out with her grandchildren. -
Valerie Taylor
Valerie Taylor lives in Connecticut and considers herself a typical "average Jane." She might remind you of the reclusive neighbor who fancies herself a novelist. Unlike many of her peers whom she admires, she does NOT have a degree in literature. But she is the award-winning author of the romantic comedy trilogy: What's Not SAID, What's Not TRUE, What's Not LOST. The roots of those three novels, as well as the first two books in the Venus Bixby Mystery series—A WHALE OF A MURDER and SWITCHED AT DEATH—most likely took hold during her early years watching Carol Burnett, Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and The Twilight Zone. Her love of oldies music stems from hours listening and dancing to Elvis Presley and The Beatles, and being in the Bobby Dari
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