Profiles of participating authors in the Festival of Books.
David Thome has written 20 screenplays. Four of them were optioned by companies in Hollywood and elsewhere–one of them twice–without his ever moving from Wisconsin. Past President of the Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum, recognitions include scripts which reached the semifinals of the Slamdance Screenplay Competition and the Maui Screenwriting award. Read more
Fred Schepartz writes science fiction, fantasy and horror. He has one published novel, Vampire Cabbie. He recently completed his next novel, Guitar God and just started yet another, Solidarity Moon. Fred also publishes and edits Mobius: The Journal of Social Change.
Matt M McElroy is the Publishing & marketing Manager forDriveThruFiction.com and other eBook websites. He has several years experience working in publishing of Games, Comics and Fiction and applies that to his work in these “wild west” days of eBook sales and distribution. Matt is also the owner and “Editor-in-Chief” Read more
John Klima previously worked at Asimov’s, Analog, and Tor Books before returning to school to earn his Master’s in Library and Information Science. He now works full time as a librarian. When he is not conquering the world of indexing, John edits and publishes the Hugo Award-winning genre zine Electric Read more
Swati Avasthi has a BA from The University of Chicago and an MFA from The University of Minnesota. Her first novel, SPLIT, received the International Reading Association’s Young Adult Award, a CYBILS Award, and a Silver Parent’s Choice Award. It was included on YALSA’s a Best Fiction for Young Adults Read more
RAYMOND BENSON is the author of 25 published books. He wrote six original James Bond novels, three film novelizations, and three short stories—all published worldwide. Three 007 titles each are collected in the recent anthologies CHOICE OF WEAPONS and THE UNION TRILOGY. His series of “rock ‘n’ roll thrillers” include DARK SIDE OF Read more
James Lowder has worked extensively on both sides of the editorial blotter. His publications include the bestselling, widely translated dark fantasy novels Prince of Lies and Knight of the Black Rose, short fiction for such anthologies as Shadows Over Baker Street and The Repentant, and comic book scripts for DC, Read more
Kevin Guilfoile is the bestselling author of Cast of Shadows, which was named one of the Best Books of 2005 by the Chicago Tribune, and The Thousand, which the New York Times called “original and gripping” and Entertainment Weekly dubbed a “must read.” His novels have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Ken Miyamoto interned with director Randall Kleiser (Grease), worked as a studio liaison at Sony Studios, and then as a studio script reader/story analyst for Sony as well, before leaving to take on his own writing career. He is currently a represented and working screenwriter. He’s had a development deal Read more
Alex Bledsoe grew up in West Tennessee an hour north of Graceland (home of Elvis) and twenty minutes from Nutbush (birthplace of Tina Turner). He now lives in a century-old yellow house in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls. His books include The Hum and the Shiver, Dark Jenny, Burn Me Read more