Michael Max Darrow

I was born and raised in sunny Southern California before joining the military right out of high school. After serving my country for four years I came home and was hired by the Santa Ana Police Department. I continued to serve my country in the California National Guard and Army Reserve and earned a commission as an Infantry Officer.
I married my wife Michelle in 1992 and moved to a more rural community in Riverside County. We have 3 grown children now.
Nagging injuries forced me to retire early. I tried working a few other jobs, even managing a cigar lounge in Idyllwild California for a while but the pain became too great. Since I always wanted to write books, being a Sci Fi and Fantasy geek from a young age, I finally started writing.

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Lutricia Clifton

Lutricia "Lu" Clifton writes novels for both children and adults. Most of her adult novels are set in southeastern Oklahoma and include a mingling of Native American cultural beliefs and traditions. She became interested in those cultural traditions while tracing her mother’s Choctaw roots.

She was born in and spent her early childhood in southeastern Oklahoma, then moved to the Texas Panhandle with her family. She completed an associate degree at Amarillo Junior College in Texas and a B.A. and M.A. in English at Colorado State University. She now resides in Illinois with a gray tabby named Mary Jane that she rescued from a shelter. Her oldest son and wife life in Oregon and her youngest son and wife live in Illinois.

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Jena Burges

Coyote Alibi was a 2019 Public Library Association regional winner for fiction. In the 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, it was named Best Arizona Book and Best Mystery.

J. & D. Burges are a husband-and-wife writing team. Having lived for many years on the edge of the Navajo Nation, they write with cheerful authority about open spaces, big lakes, and the unique mix of cultures captured in their Sage Landing stories.

Their mysteries are now hatched in a cottage in the woods near a lake. It’s a great place to plot light-hearted homicides, capers, scams, and other fictional mischief. .

They can’t resist tinkering with each other’s work. It’s often hard for them to remember which story idea originated where and whose words made it into the fin
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Alisa Lynn Valdes

Also published as Alisa Valdes and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez

Alisa Lynn Valdés is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist and a former staff writer for both the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.

With more than one million books in print in eleven languages, she was included on Time’s list of the twenty-five most influential Hispanics and was a Latina woman of the year as well as an Entertainment Weekly breakout literary star. She is the author of many novels, including Playing with Boys and The Husband Habit.

Alisa divides her time between New Mexico and Los Angeles.

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Aimée Thurlo

Aimee and David Thurlo are the authors of the Ella Clah mysteries, the Sister Agatha mysteries, the Lee Nez vampire novels all set in New Mexico. David grew up on the Navajo Indian Nation, and Aimee, a native of Cuba, lived in the southwest for forty years.

Aimée passed away peacefully at her home on the morning of February 28, 2014, after a brief struggle with cancer and related complications. She was attended by her husband of 43 years, David. Aimée was 62 years old.
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R. Lawson Gamble

R Lawson Gamble lives and writes on California's Central Coast, tasting wines and ales, running trails and telling tales.
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Gary J. George

Gary George spent his teenage years in Needles, California, and his Smoke Tree novels are set in the Mojave Desert of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Gary was blessed with a long and happy marriage to his beloved, Ginny Boyd, author of the book "Birdy Bird." When Ginny died in January 2018, Gary could not write for a while. However, during a seventy-mile backpacking trip across the desert from the Colorado River to the middle of the Mojave National Preserve in May of that year, he began to come to terms with her death. When he returned home, he discovered that immersing himself in his writing allowed him a few hours of relief from sadness, and he began work on "The Carnival, The Cross, and the Burning Desert."
In 2024, Gary was diagnosed with
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Dwight Holing

Dwight Holing is the award-winning author of over twenty books, including two popular mystery series: the acclaimed Nick Drake Novels and the witty Jack McCoul Capers. The 8th book in his Nick Drake series, The Broken Blood, won a Silver Falchion. His short story Gallopers was awarded the Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction.

His genre-spanning work includes standalone novels, short story collections, and books on natural history, conservation, wildlife, and outdoor travel. He lives beside a coastal river in California with his wife and two dogs who’d rather swim than walk.
Learn: Dwight Holing
Follow: Dwight Holing
Instagram: @dwight_holing
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Paty Jager

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 55+ novels, novellas, and short stories of murder mystery, western romance, and action adventure.
All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
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Gary J. George

Gary George spent his teenage years in Needles, California, and his Smoke Tree novels are set in the Mojave Desert of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Gary was blessed with a long and happy marriage to his beloved, Ginny Boyd, author of the book "Birdy Bird." When Ginny died in January 2018, Gary could not write for a while. However, during a seventy-mile backpacking trip across the desert from the Colorado River to the middle of the Mojave National Preserve in May of that year, he began to come to terms with her death. When he returned home, he discovered that immersing himself in his writing allowed him a few hours of relief from sadness, and he began work on "The Carnival, The Cross, and the Burning Desert."
In 2024, Gary was diagnosed with
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R. Allen Chappell

R. Allen Chappell, the author of eight novels and a collection of short stories, grew up with the Navajo, went to school with them and later worked alongside them, forging enduring friendships along the way. "Those friendships," the author says, "became the inspiration for this series."
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L.J. Vitanza

L.J. Vitanza spent her childhood immersed in horror movies like Jaws, Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Alien (yes, she was an odd kid). When L.J. was old enough to read (compelling stories, anyway), authors like Stephen King and Clive Barker filled her head with haunting images, sparking her need to write and create books.

During high school, and unlike her classmates, L.J. turned in pieces about werewolves, the plague, and other terrifying themes. Much to her delight, the creative writing teacher willingly accepted them with a broad smile (she later admitted to loving them).

Adulthood halted any dreams of writing. Work, marriage, family, and friends became a priority. Now older (and wiser, maybe?) with more free time, L.J. has revisited t
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Luka T. Jacobs

Luka T. Jacobs is an author with a passion for cryptids, particularly Sasquatch and Dogman. Originally hailing from Sydney, Australia, Luka now calls the picturesque Illawarra region of New South Wales home, where she resides with her partner and their cheeky little dog, Finnigan.

With a deep love for animals and a keen sense of adventure, Luka's fascination with the mysteries of the natural world fuels her storytelling. Drawing from her background in Graphic Design and Art, she brings a unique visual flair to her writing.

As an avid traveller and explorer of the unknown, Luka continues to seek inspiration from the wild and untamed corners of the world, eager to share her imaginative worlds with readers everywhere.
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Michael Cardwell

Michael Cardwell retired after thirty-two years in the US Army. He lives with his wife, Roni, in Middle America and spends time writing, brewing coffee, chasing dogs, and playing with eight grandchildren.

He has published The Rough Stuff, a collection of short stories, and the first three novels in "The FRONTIER" series. FRONTIER JUSTICE in 2023, FRONTIER OUTLAWS in 2024, and FRONTIER MARSHAL in 2025.

Additional information can be found on his website, mcardwell505.com
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R. Allen Chappell

R. Allen Chappell, the author of eight novels and a collection of short stories, grew up with the Navajo, went to school with them and later worked alongside them, forging enduring friendships along the way. "Those friendships," the author says, "became the inspiration for this series."
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Steven F. Havill

Steven F. Havill is an American author of mysteries and westerns.

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Virgil Alexander

I was born in my parents home in rural Gila County near Miami, Arizona. Grew up running wild in the hills with my siblings and friends. We hunted, camped, fished, rode our horses, and salvaged soda bottles, copper wire, and old batteries for cash.

Summer afternoons in Arizona, even at our 4,000 feet altitude, are too hot to be out doors so for four to six hours every day I read at home under the evaporative cooler, or at the Miami Library or the Old Dominion Library in Globe. I developed a deep love of books,libraries, and eventually writing,that has provided adventure and joy my entire life.

In college I studied engineering for two years. The economy and marriage moved me to working for a large copper mine. For the next 42 years I continued
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Deborah J. Ledford

DEBORAH J LEDFORD is an Agatha Award winner and two-time nominee for the Anthony Award. REDEMPTION and HAVOC are from the Eva "Lightning Dance" Duran Native American suspense series.

Her first series, the Smoky Mountain Intrigue Native American police procedural series, includes the titles CAUSING CHAOS, CRESCENDO, STACCATO, and the Hillerman Sky Award Finalist and New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Finalist, SNARE.

Three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, her award-winning stories appear in numerous print publications as well as literary and mystery anthologies.

She is also a former Arizona State University adjunct professor for The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. Ledford is President/Producer for the independent media company
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Win Blevins

Winfred Blevins
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W.L. Ripley

Warren L. Ripley is the author of the critically acclaimed Wyatt Storme mystery series. He lives in Missouri.
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Melissa Bowersock

Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy, spiritual, and satire. She has been both traditionally and independently published and is the author of the popular Lacey Fitzpatrick and Sam Firecloud Mystery Series. She has a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist that says IMAGINE. In her next life, she plans to be an astronaut. She also writes under the pen name Amber Flame. You can visit her website, www.newmoonrising.net. Follow her blog at http://mjb-wordlovers.blogspot.com.
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Mark Reps

Mark Reps has been a writer and storyteller his whole life. Born in small town southeastern Minnesota, he trained as a mathematician and chiropractor but never lost his love of telling or writing a good story. As an avid desert wilderness hiker Mark spends a great deal of time roaming the desert and other terrains of southeastern Arizona from December to May. A chance meeting with an old time colorful sheriff led him to develop the Zeb Hanks character and the world that surrounds him. Mark returns often to SE Arizona for inspiration, information and to maintain the general feel of the area, learn its history and understand the local residents.

When Mark started writing he became pen pals with Tony Hillerman who offered up tips, criticism and
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Leo W. Banks

In high school, Leo W. Banks worked loading delivery trucks with the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe. In those days the Sunday paper was really heavy, so he switched from lifting to writing. He graduated from Boston College and earned a masters degree from the University of Arizona, where he later taught writing. His articles have appeared in the USA Today, Newsday, Miami Herald, National Review, National Geographic Traveler, Sports Illustrated, Wall Street Journal and many others. He has been a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and, yes, the Boston Globe.

He has written four books of Old West history for Arizona Highways publishing and co-wrote a book about the Grand Canyon. His book about the saguaro cactus won’t stop selling. He
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