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Steve Berry's first two books, The Amber Room and The Romanov Prophecy were both national bestsellers. His next novel, The Third Secret, became an instant bestseller debuting at #13 on the New York Times hardcover list and climbing to #5 on the Times paperback list. His next three books, The Templar Legacy, The Alexandria Link, and The Venetian Betrayal were all blockbuster New York Times bestsellers. |
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William Bernhardt is the author of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestseller, Capitol Conspiracy, Primary Justice, Perfect Justice, Double Jeopardy, Naked Justice (which led the Library Journal to dub the author "master of the courtroom drama") Silent Justice and Murder One. He has twice won the Oklahoma Book Award for best Fiction and in 2000 he was presented the H. Louise Cobb Distinguished Author Award. |
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Gary Braver is the bestselling and award-winning author of six critically acclaimed thrillers including Elixir, Gray Matter, and Flashback, which is the only thriller to have won a prestigious Massachusetts Book Award and which in a starred review Publishers Weekly called “an exceptional medical thriller.” His novels have been translated into five languages, and three have been optioned for movies. He is the only writer to have three books listed on the top-10 highest customer-rated thrillers on Amazon.com. His seventh novel, Skin Deep, a medical thriller centered on cosmetic surgery, will be published on July 22, 2008. It has already sold to foreign publishers.
Under his own name, Gary Goshgarian, he is an award-winning professor of English at Northeastern University where he teaches courses in Modern Bestsellers, Science Fiction, Horror Fiction, and Fiction Writing. He has taught fiction-writing workshops through out the United States and Europe for over twenty years. This is his fourth return to the Maui Retreat. He is the author of five popular college writing textbooks and has written book reviews and articles on travel and scuba-diving in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor and elsewhere.
His website is www.garybraver.com |
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Thomas H. Cook is the international bestselling author of twenty-one novels and two works of nonfiction. He has been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award seven times in four different categories, and his novel The Chatham School Affair won the Edgar for Best Novel. Mr. Cook’s works have also been nominated for the Hammett Prize, the Macavity Award, and the Anthony Award. Red Leaves won the Barry Award in 2005, and was nominated for the Lawlie Dagger Award for Best Novel by the British Association of Crime Writers. His works have been the subject of motion picture and television productions including Evidence of Blood starring Academy Award nominees David Strathairn and Mary McDonnell, and have been translated into sixteen languages. See Thomas Cook's books » |
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Bryce Courtenay is best know as Australia’s top selling novelist with titles such as The Power of One which is translated into eleven languages and the subject of a major movie of the same name, Tandia, April Fool’s Day, The Potato Factory, Tommo & Hawk, The Family Frying Pan, A Recipe for Dreaming, The Night Country, Jessica, Solomon’s Song, Smoky Joe’s Café, Four Fires, Matthew Flinders’ Cat, Brother Fish, Whitethorn, Sylvia and the latest The Persimmon Tree. See Bryce Courtenay's books. |
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Ann Hood is the author of seven novels, including Somewhere off the Coast of Maine and, most recently, The Knitting Circle; a short story collection, An Ornithologist’s Guide to life; and a memoir, Do Not Go Gentle: My Search for Miracles in a Cynical Time. Her stories and essays have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, Tin House, Bon Appetit, The Paris Review, More, O, Good Housekeeping, and Traveler. She has won two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Providence, RI. See Ann Hood's books » |
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John Lescroart is the New York Times bestselling author of eighteen novels including The Suspect, The Hunt Club, and The Second Chair. He has also written thirteen books in the San Francisco based Dismas Hardy/Abe Glitsky series, and a couple of Sherlock Holmes pastiche: Son of Holmes and Rasputin’s Revenge. His books have been translated into fifteen languages in more than seventy-five countries. Dead Irish and The 13th Juror were, respectively, nominated for the Shamas and Anthony Best Mystery Novel. Many of his books have been Main Selections of the Literary Guild, Mystery Guild, and Book of the Month Club. See John Lescroart's books » |
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William Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of eight novels, an award-winning PBS documentary, and a horror movie that’s considered a cult classic. His latest novel, The Lost Constitution, continues the chronicle of American history – and the story of modern day treasure hunter Peter Fallon – that he began with Back Bay. His subsequent novels, Harvard Yard, Cape Cod, and Citizen Washington have established him as a "story-teller whose smoothness matches his ambition." There are now close to three million copies of his books in print. And he was the recipient of the 2005 New England Book Award, given by the New England Booksellers Association to an author whose “body of work stands as a significant contribution to the culture of the region.” See William Martin's books »
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Jacquelyn Mitchard is the New York Times bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean, The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity, Twelve Times Blessed, the novella Christmas, Present, The Breakdown Lane, Cage of Stars and her newest novel Still Summer (August 2007). She is also the author of The Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship, a collection of her essays which are syndicated nationwide by Tribune Media Services. She has published three children’s books, including award winning Rosalie, My Rosalie: The Tale of A Duckling. Her first Young Adult novel will be published in January 2007. She was a member of the 2002 fiction jury for The National Book Awards and speechwriter for former Department of Health and Human Services secretary Donna Shalala. She lives in Madison, Wisconson, with her husband and seven children. See Jacquelyn Mitchard's books » |
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David Morrell is the author of First Blood, the award-winning novel in which Rambo was created. He holds a Ph. D. in American literature from the Pennsylvania State University and taught in the English department at the University of Iowa until he gave up his tenure to devote himself to a full-time writing career. “The mild-mannered professor with the bloody-minded visions,” as one reviewer described him, Morrell is the co-founder of the International Thriller Writers organization. His numerous best-selling novels include The Brotherhood of the Rose (the basis for a top-rated NBC miniseries broadcast after the Super Bowl), The Fraternity of the Stone, The Fifth Profession, and Extreme Denial (set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives). He is also the author of The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing. Morrell has been called “the father of the modern action novel.” He is a three-time recipient of the distinguished Bram Stoker Award, the latest for his novel Creepers. Comic-con International honored him with its prestigious Inkpot Award for his lifetime
conntributions to popular culture. Visit him at www.davidmorrell.net. |
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James Rollins is the New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers includes Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom, Amazonia. His latest thriller, Map of Bones, was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the most likely to win over Dan Brown's faithful audience, and the New York Times ranked the book as one of last summer's crowd pleasers. His next thriller and his most controversial yet, Black Order, (June 2006). See James Rollins books »
But that is only half the story . . . Under the pseudonym James Clemens, he has also written a five-book fantasy series for Del Rey (Wit'ch Fire, et al). His first book in a new fantasy series, titled Shadow Fall, was released in July 2005, and the next book (Hinterland, November 2006).
See James Clemen's books » |
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H. W. Brands, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his N.Y. Times bestseller Benjamin Franklin, The First American, has written twenty books, coauthored or edited five others, and published dozens of articles and scores of reviews. His other bestselling books include Andrew Jackson, Lone Star Nation, The Age of Gold, The Strange Death of American Liberalism, The First American, TR, What America Owes the World, The Reckless Decade, and The Devil We Knew. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Atlantic Monthly, the Smithsonian, the Journal of American History, the Political Science Quarterly, American History, and many other newspapers, magazines and journals. |
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Sam Horn is the author of POP! Stand Out in Any Crowd, Tongue Fu!, What’s Holding You Back?, Conzentrate!, and Take The Bully By The Horns, which have been favorably reviewed in Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Investors Business Daily. The 2003-04 Outstanding Capital Speaker, she has been featured on Dr. Laura, NPR, and Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, and presented to Hewlett-Packard, the U.S. Navy, Fortune 500 Forum, and NASA. Through her Stop Wishing, Start Writing retreats and consulting, she has helped hundreds of people get their books out of their head and into the world where they’ve made a positive difference for others and a profitable living for the authors. See Sam Horn's books » |
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David A. Fryxell is former Editor-in-Chief of Writer’s Digest Magazine and writes the magazine’s “Nonfiction” column. An award-winning editor and journalist, he’s the author of three books on writing instruction including his latest, Write Faster, Write Better. See David Fryxell's books » |
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Anne LeClaire is the bestselling author of eight novels including the Entering Normal and, most recently, The Lavender Hour, and has been published in twenty-four countries. She has taught creative writing in numerous workshops in the United States as well as in Ireland, France, Jamaica, and to women in prison. Silence, her first work of non-fiction to be published in 2008 by HarperCollins, is a memoir based on fifteen years of practicing silence. She is a distinguished Fellow of The Ragdale Foudation and is a member of the Fellows Council of The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives on Cape Cod with her husband, sixteen chickens and a black cat.
See Anne LeClaire's books » |
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Oscar winning writer-producer Bobby Moresco, whose breakout film Crash, co-written with Academy Award winning writer-director Paul Haggis, earned the duo the 2006 Academy Award® for best original screenplay, as well as Best Picture and Achievement in Editing. Along with Academy Award winning actor-director-producer Clint Eastwood, the team also developed and co-produced Million Dollar Baby, which won the 2005 Academy Award® for Best Picture.
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Stephen Bulka recently joined Lifetime Television as the Vice President of Original Movies after six years at NBC Entertainment where he served in a similar capacity as Vice President of Movies and Miniseries. At NBC, Stephen supervised the development and production of such television movies as “Martha Inc: The Story of Martha Stewart and the Emmy Award-winning musical production of “A Christmas Carol”. He also launched the highly successful franchise of “Behind the Camera” movies, including the critically acclaimed “Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of ‘Three’s Company’”. Prior to his tenure at NBC, Stephen worked as a literary agent at The William Morris Agency, where he represented literary properties in both film and television and was involved with such high-profile authors as Dean Koontz, Erich Segal, and Mary Higgins Clark. Earlier in his career, Stephen helped launch Nickelodeon Movies, the feature arm of the Nickelodeon Channel, where, as Vice President of Development, he oversaw the company’s first slate of movie projects, including “The Rugrats Movie”, “Harriet the Spy” and “Snow Day”. Stephen previously served as Director of Development at Paramount Pictures, where he helped develop such films as “The Firm” and “Addams Family Values”. |
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Christopher Keane has written two dozen novels, non-fiction books, and movies, including The Hunter (a Paramount feature), The Huntress (a USA TV series) and Dangerous Company (CBS).
His most recent book, Romancing the A-List: How to Write the Script the Big Stars Want to Make was published in April, 2008. He also wrote the bestseller, How to Write a Selling Screenplay.
He has taught and lectured in screen and novel at Emerson College, Harvard, NYU, The Smithsonian Institution, The National Press Club.
He is a member of PEN, the Writers Guild of America, West and The Authors Guild.
He recently completed a feature, Lost Light, for producer Peter Janney. See Chris Keane's books » |
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Diane Lake, is a Professor at Emerson College, and has previously taught screenwriting for UCLA's acclaimed Writer's Program. She has been a working screenwriter since 1993 when she sold her first story idea. Since then, she has been commissioned to write screenplays for Columbia, Disney, Miramax and Paramount, as well as numerous independent producers. Projects currently in active development include Distance, the story of the French Impressionist painter Berthe Morisot, under option by Blue Collar Films; Chandler, a film noir set in 1930s Los Angeles, being packaged by Roth/Arnold Productions; and A Thousand Cranes, an epic love story set against the backdrop of the bombing of Hiroshima in WWII, being packaged by Digital Domain Studios. Diane's film, Frida, opened the Venice Film Festival in 2002, and was named one of the 10 best films of the year by numerous top 10 lists, including The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. Frida was also nominated for 6 Academy Awards in 2003. |
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Michael Andres Palmieri, a graduate of USC’s Annenberg School of Communications and School of Cinematic Arts, Micheal splits his time between writing, producing, and consulting. He has been part of the entertainment industry for 20 years. Most recently he penned the international six-hour mini-series, now in pre-production, whose working title is The Treasure of Ugarit. As an independent producer, he is mounting a broadband series entitled Chico’s Angels, and a horror film entitled Off-Season. As an entertainment industry consultant, he specializes in working with writers one-on-one, commanding a mid-five figure fee for his services. His clients include screenwriters, television writers, playwrights, and novelists. Over seventy percent of his clients go on to sell their material for mid-six figures. As an executive, he has worked in the publishing, television, feature film, and new media arena. He has held executive positions with production companies based at TriStar Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, and Twentieth Century Fox. Most recently he was Executive Vice President of Gutsoon Entertainment, a Japanese media company, where he launched a publishing, feature film, television and new media divisions. He is a Founding Board member of Producers Guild of America, New Media Council, and has been its Chairman for the past two years. He has taught at USC, UCLA and AFI. |
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John Soriano is currently at Paramount, working on film projects, including: Transformers, Love Guru, Stop Loss, Hot Rod, Drillbit Taylor, Spiderwick Chronicles, and the latest Wayans Brothers comedy spoof. John is currently writing two film projects: a civil war action-adventure, CHASING THUNDER, and a supernatural horror piece entitled THE SACRED. A graduate of USC's film school, John Soriano has worked in Hollywood for over 17 years writing, developing and producing motion picture and television projects. After learning the business side of writing at a big literary agency (Triad), he moved to the creative side of the industry with stints at Columbia, Universal and Disney as a story analyst. At Paramount as a studio executive, he worked on a variety of films from pitch through production -- from smaller films like Searching for Bobby Fisher to tentpoles like Patriot Games and The Firm. At Universal heading up director Rob Cohen's company, John helped develop movies like Dragonheart, Daylight and Face/Off before setting up projects as a writer himself, at Warner Bros, Fox, and in TV at Universal.
As the vice-chair of the Writers Guild's media relations committee, he helped spearhead some of the WGA’s awards programs and content, working with Oscar-winning writers like David Franzoni, Ron Bass and Curtis Hanson. From consulting on screenplay software Final Draft to guest lecturing writing classes at UCLA and USC, John has proven to be diversified in the business of storytelling. |
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Steven Taylor Goldsberry, a professor of English at the University of Hawai‘i, is the author of The Writer’s Book of Wisdom and the novels Luzon and Maui the Demigod. He has been teaching creative writing for thirty years |
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