Adapted from: http://www.sheldonsiegel.com/bio.htm

Sheldon Siegel A native of Chicago, Sheldon Siegel earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois in 1976 and graduated from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He has been in private practice in San Francisco for over twenty years and specializes in corporate and securities law with the firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. Perfect Alibi is the seventh novel in his series of critically acclaimed, best-selling courtroom dramas featuring San Francisco criminal defense attorneys Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into eight languages.

Adapted from: http://www.joshilynjackson.com

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson lives in Georgia with her husband, their two children, and way too many feckless animals. Her debut, gods in Alabama, won SIBA's 2005 Novel of the year Award and was a #1 BookSense pick. Jackson won Georgia Author of the Year for her second novel, Between, Georgia, which also a #1 BookSense pick, making Jackson the first author in BookSense history to receive #1 status in back to back years. Her third novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, was a Break Out book at Target and has been shortlisted for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. All three books were chosen for the Books-A-Million Book Club.

Adapted from: http://www.deannaraybourn.com/

A sixth-generation native Texan, New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn grew up in San Antonio, where she met her college sweetheart. She married him on her graduation day and went on to teach high school English and history. During summer vacation at the age of twenty-three, she wrote her first novel. After three years as a teacher, Deanna left education to have a baby and pursue writing full-time.

Fourteen years and many, many rejections after her first novel, she signed two three-book deals with MIRA Books.

You can find her blogging five days a week at www.deannaraybourn.com/blog, and be sure to sign up for her newsletter, check out her contests and book trailer videos, and catch her latest appearances at www.deannaraybourn.com.

Sunday only!

Jeffrey Stepakoff was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he received a BA in Journalism. In 1988, the day after getting his MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon, he drove to Hollywood where he began writing for film and television.

Jeffrey has “written by” or “story by” credits on thirty-six television episodes, has written for fourteen different series and has worked on seven primetime staffs, producing hundreds of hours of internationally-recognized television, including the Emmy-winning THE WONDER YEARS, SISTERS, WILD CARD, HYPERION BAY, THE MAGIC SCHOOL, C16: FBI, ROBIN’S HOODS, LAND’S END, FLIPPER, SONS & DAUGHTERS, MAJOR DAD, THE YAKOV SMIRNOFF SHOW, BEAUTY & THE BEAST, HAVE FAITH, SIMON& SIMON, and DAWSON’S CREEK where he was Co-Executive Producer.

Stepakoff has also created and developed pilots for many of the major studios and networks, including 20th Century, Paramount, MTM, Fox and ABC. And he has developed and written major motion pictures, including Disney’s TARZAN and BROTHER BEAR, and EM Entertainment’s LAPITCH, THE LITTLE SHOEMAKER, Croatia’s selection for the 1998 Academy Awards.

A few years ago, Stepakoff returned to Atlanta, where he lives with his wife and three young children, and began writing fiction. FIREWORKS OVER TOCCOA is his first novel. Presently, he speaks around the country, teaches dramatic writing at Kennesaw State University, and is hard at work on his second novel for St. Martin’s Press. In his spare time, he builds forts in living room with sofa cushions.

Adapted from: http://www.lifeafterlife.com/

"Best-Selling Author of twelve books including Life After Life—which has sold over 13 million copies world wide—and Reunions, as well as numerous articles in academic and professional literature. Dr. Moody continues to capture enormous public interest and generate controversy with his ground-breaking work on the near-death experience and what happens when we die.

"Dr. Moody is the leading authority on the 'near-death experience'—a phrase he coined in the late seventies. Dr. Moody's research into the phenomenon of near-death experience had its start in the 1960's. The New York Times calls him "the father of the near-death experience."

Adapted from: http://www.authoratlarge.com

J.F. Lewis lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his patient wife, two growing sons, and a very hyper Labrador-mix mutt. He decided that he wanted to be a writer when a supposed creative writing teacher questioned his sanity and suggested therapy. Staked was his first novel. J spent eight wonderful years working in comic and game stores and is currently employed by AT&T.

An avid reader, J also enjoys sushi, popcorn, lukewarm sodas, and old black and white movies. His two favorite activities are singing lullabies to his kids at bedtime and typing into the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately, like the protagonist of his Void City novels, the author takes very little sleep.

Adapted from: http://jackson-pearce.com/

Jackson Pearce is twenty-six years old and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with a slightly cross-eyed cat and a lot of secondhand furniture. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and a minor in Philosophy. She auditioned for the circus once, but didn’t make it; other jobs she’s had include obituaries writer, biker bar waitress, and receptionist. In addition, Jackson coaches both colorguard and winterguard at a local high school.

Jackson began writing when she got angry that the school librarian couldn’t tell her of a book that contained a smart girl, horses, baby animals, and magic. Her solution was to write the book herself when she was twelve. Her parents thought it was cute at first, but have grown steadily more concerned for her ever since.

Laura Knorr is a graduate of the Ringling School of Art & Design in Sarasota, Florida .
Her delightful art has brought to life the pages of numero ZonderKidz and Sleeping Bear Press. Most recently, her book, "A " Isn't for Fox, An Isn't Alphabet, won Learning Magazine's 2009 Teacher's Choice Awards for Children's Books and was a nominee for the 2007 SIBA Children's Book Award for her work on The Legend of Papa Noël,
a Cajun Christmas Story.
In addition to illustrating, she lectures and does school presentations throughout the country. She is a native of Pennsylvania now residing in Commerce, Georgia with a
menagerie of pets, including Charlie T. Dog and her husband Mark.

Born in Iowa, Mark Braught began his art career as an art director, but followed
a future in illustration. In addition to the number of children's books he has illustrated, titles include, "P is for Peach, A Georgia Alphabet" and , "Cosmo's Moon" (that was nominated
for a Caldecott Award in 2004) His resume includes paintings for various events, and corporations including
The Kentucky Derby, IBM, Newsweek, Citibank and AT&T. Notably, Mark created the full-color paintings for the merchandising of Warner Brother's movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone". His work has received recognition and awards from the Society of Illustrators, Graphis, Communication Arts, the New York Art Director's Club, SILA and others.
Mark and his wife Laura are happy residents of Commerce, Georgia.

Jackie K Cooper is a film critic whose movie reviews appear on his personal website www.jackiekcooper.com, as well as several others such as rottentomatoes.com and huffingtonpost.com. His reviews also run in an assortment of newspapers in Georgia. In addition he is a featured guest on radio and TV shows across the South. He also has his own weekly television show “The Jackie K Cooper Show” which runs on several cable channels in middle Georgia.

Cooper is the author of six books, the latest being BACK TO THE GARDEN which was published in the spring of 2011.

He was one of the founders of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and is also a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. Cooper can be reached at jkershawcooper@aol.com.

From the 1970s through 2003, author David Rothel interviewed dozens of show business personalities for his radio program and for “Guest Star” panels at film festivals where he was the host. Now Rothel has drawn from those fascinating conversations for his book Opened Time Capsules: My Vintage Conversations with Show Business Personalities. Here’s your chance to eavesdrop on such personalities as Myrna Loy discussing The Thin Man film series; Vincent Price recalling those horror films he made for American-International; Lloyd Bridges talking about his classic TV series Sea Hunt; Milton Berle reminiscing about the Texaco Star Theatre; and two Tarzans, Gordon Scott and Jock Mahoney, discussing their adventures on the swinging vines. Other celebrities include Hans Conried, Dennis Day, writer Henry Denker, Phyllis Diller, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers of Leave It To Beaver, Tom Ewell, The Shadow creator Walter Gibson, Virginia Mayo, Roddy McDowall, Our Gang’s Spanky McFarland, Molly Picon, Star Trek’s George Takei, and Victor Sen Yung of the Charlie Chan films and Bonanza. Twenty celebrities in all recollect their career highs and lows in this fascinating oral history of American popular culture covering much of the Twentieth Century. For anyone with an avid interest in the history of that bygone, golden era, David Rothel’s fascinating conversations with these show business personalities will be must reading and will most certainly bring back many fond memories.

Rawlings was educated at Emory University in Oxford and Atlanta, and at Tulane University in New Orleans where he earned a Master’s Degree and his Doctorate in Medicine. He did his postgraduate medical training in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, after which he returned to Sandersville to practice medicine. Although he has numerous academic publications to his credit, fiction writing is a relatively recent interest.  “I think one the most fascinating jobs in all the world is to practice medicine in a small, relatively rural Southern town. Perhaps I have an undue advantage; I grew up here so I know—or know of—most people, many of whom I claim as relatives.  It doesn’t take long to realize that a place rich in history and populated by memorable characters is an inspiration and a rich resource for anyone who aspires to be a writer.”

When asked why he writes and how he chooses his plots, Rawlings replies, “I think the most successful writers are those who really understand what they are writing about. It was not a conscious effort in the beginning, but I have discovered that I love writing about the real South that still exists outside of urban areas, about interesting characters based on people that I have known, and about situations that—if they didn’t really happen just as I said they did—could have.”

 The latest book is The Mile High Club, released in December 2009. It’s the third Matt Rutherford novel, and begins in late spring following the conclusion of Crossword. Laura McIntosh, a graduate student that Matt had dated briefly a year earlier, is found naked and dead in the middle of an isolated pine plantation.  No one can understand how she got there until the wreckage of a small plane is discovered some thirty miles to the north.  In the wreckage are her clothes and identification, as well as the body of co-worker from the research lab where she was employed. Matt reluctantly agrees to look into the bizarre circumstances of her apparently accidental death and soon uncovers a complex conspiracy that nearly costs him his own life. With plot elements that include the timber industry, biofuels, lust, greed and deception, this story may be the best one yet.

© Celestial Studios 2011

Jana Oliver

Jana Oliver loves to tell stories for both adults and teens. Her young adult Demon Trappers Series (St. Martin’s Griffin) is set in a dystopian 2018 Atlanta populated by Hellspawn, Deaders and scheming necromancers. The series has gone international with editions in the five countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.

Jana’s foray into time travel and alternate history resulted in the multi-award winning Time Rovers Series (Dragon Moon Press). The series won twelve awards, including the Daphne du Maurier for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense, the Prism Award for Time Travel and ForeWord Magazine’s Editor’s Choice for Fiction.

Her next Demon Trappers’ novel, FORGIVEN, will be published in March 2011. Visitors are always welcome at her website: www.JanaOliver.com

Robyn Hood Black

Robyn Hood Black is a children's author living in Northeast Georgia. Her books include Sir Mike (Scholastic Library, 2005) and Wolves (Intervisual Books, 2008). She also writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for children's magazines and other publications. She enjoys encouraging young readers, writers, and artists through school visits and speaks to audiences of all ages.

Charles Seabrook

Saturday Only!

Charles Seabrook has been a long-time environmental writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His popular weekly column called "Wild Georgia" was the victim of cutbacks. However, in 2008, the paper reinstituted the column due to reader demand. In 1981, Seabrook was one of the first reporters in the world to write about a mysterious and burgeoning disease that would soon be known as AIDS. In addition, he has written extensively on global warming, air and water pollution, and songbird decline.

He has won awards from the National Wildlife Federation, the Southern Environmental Law Center, and various press organizations. His newspaper series about Georgia’s mining industry won the Investigative Reporters and Editors “Best Story of the Year” award in 1994. In 2001, the state of Georgia gave him the R. L. "Rock" Howard Award, its highest conservation award. He lives in Decatur, Georgia.