As a little girl, Amanda Brice dreamed of being either a ballerina or the author of a mystery series featuring a cool crime-solving chick named Nancy Flew, but her father urged her to “do something practical,” so she went to law school and spent her days writing briefs and pleadings instead of fiction.
But dance and writing have remained a part of her life. Amanda was a member of the ballroom dance team at Duke University, and continues this interest by her obsession with Dancing with the Stars, so it was only natural for her to set a teen mystery series at a dance school.
Amanda is the Vice President of Washington Romance Writers, and is a two-time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart® Award. She blogs every other Wednesday with the Fictionistas and every other Friday with Killer Fiction. She is also a popular conference presenter, speaking on basic copyright and trademark law for writers.
In her spare time, Amanda enjoys dancing, reading, cooking, traveling, and obsessing over whether Duke will beat Carolina in basketball. Go Devils!
www.amandabrice.net
www.amandabrice.net
Melissa Francis
Born and bred in Arkansas, Melissa Francis is a small town southern girl with big city dreams. (Okay, she dreams of big city shoes, but there’s nowhere to wear them ’round these parts. Plus she really is a barefoot girl at heart.)
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock allowed her to graduate with an English degree, but many of her friends wonder how when she uses words like y’all, dunno, gonna, and fixin’ to. Her favorite phrase is “Woo Pig Sooie!” and she’ll be glad to explain what that means over a (preferably dark) beer. Unless you’re underage, then she’ll explain over a nice cup of peppermint tea. Mel blogs every other Monday on the Fictionistas.
Gwen Hayes
Gwen Hayes lives in the Pacific Northwest with her real life hero, their children, and the pets that own them.
She writes books for teen readers about love, angst, and saving the world. Her debut novel, FALLING UNDER, was released in March of 2011 by NAL. The sequel, DREAMING AWAKE, will be released in 2012. She also writes short stories and novellas available in electronic format.
Gwen blogs every other Friday on the Fictionistas.
Kristen Painter
Kristen is a former college English teacher, but has held a crazy mix of other jobs including maitre’d for Wolfgang Puck, personal trainer, and sales for Christian Dior Bijoux. On the writing side of things, she's a two-time Golden Heart finalist and has been on the board of three different RWA chapters.
Her forays into writing have been as varied as the jobs she's held. She's written poetry, articles for magazines, short stories, paranormal romances (that include fantasy, contemporary and steampunk genres) and now she's found a home with urban fantasy. She loves worldbuilding and few genres give you the kind of license urban fantasy does.
She's also the co-founder of the award-winning writer’s site Romancedivas.com. She blogs every other Friday at www.fictionistas.blogspot.com and tweets at twitter.com/Kristen_Painter. You can also find her on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/KristenPainterAuthor
Rhonda Stapleton
Rhonda Stapleton started writing a few years ago to appease the voices in her head. She has a Master's degree in English and a Bachelor's degree in Creative Writing. In the twelve minutes of free time she has each day, Rhonda enjoys reading, photography, writing poetry, singing in the shower (and in the car, at work, or basically anywhere that provides oxygen), drinking chai tea, and playing on the Internet (AKA, connecting to the "mother ship"). Her teen romantic comedy trilogy, Stupid Cupid, is published with Simon Pulse.
Rhonda lives in northeast Ohio with her two kids. She blogs every other Wednesday on the Fictionistas.
www.rhondastapleton.com
Rhonda lives in northeast Ohio with her two kids. She blogs every other Wednesday on the Fictionistas.
www.rhondastapleton.com
