January 17-23: “Do you plot, plan, or outline? Or, do you just go where your characters lead you? Why?

Each author’s method is as individual as their work. Join ITW members Matt Lynn, Weston Ochse, LJ Sellers, Allan Leverone, Pam Callow, Chris Beakey, Michael Haskins, Larry D. Thompson, Blaize Clement, Matt Forbeck, Reece Hirsch and Edgar Franzmann as they discuss these important questions.

Matt Lynn is the author of a best-selling series of military thrillers, featuring a group of special forces soldiers working for a Private Military Corporation. ‘Death Force’ was published in 2009, ‘Fire Force’ in 2010, and ‘Shadow Force’ will be out in 2011. He is currently working on ‘Ice Force’, which will be out in 2012. Interviews and free short story at www.mattlynn.co.uk.

Weston Ochse spent 20 years in military intelligence and special operations and has worked extensively with every U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agency. In addition to his novels, his work has appeared in comic books, magazines and Writer’s Digest How-To books. He is the winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and has won an international screenwriting award. He lives in Southern Arizona.

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and the author of the Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series. The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, and Thrilled to Death have been highly praised by Mystery Scene and Spinetingler magazines. Her fourth Jackson story, Passions of the Dead, will be released soon. L.J. also has two standalone thrillers, The Baby Thief and The Suicide Effect. When not plotting murders, L.J. enjoys standup comedy, cycling, social networking, mystery conferences, and editing fiction.

Allan Leverone attended the University of Notre Dame with the intention of majoring in newspaper journalism before changing direction after his freshman year and majoring in Business Administration, a degree he received in 1981 and to this day hs never put to use. After graduation, Allan was hired by the Federal Aviation Administration and began training as an air traffic controller, a job he has held ever since, working in Providence, Rhode Island, Bangor, Maine, and, for the last twenty years controlling traffic at Boston’s Logan International Airport. Final Vector is Allan’s first novel, and will be published by Medallion Press in February, 2011. In the meantime, he continues working on follow-up projects, including a horror novel based on a fictional three-hundred-year-old Native American curse and a conventional thriller featuring an ordinary man who breaks up a kidnapping and in doing so thrusts his own family directly into the maniac’s sights.

Pam Callow is the author of a new legal thriller series featuring thirty-something lawyer Kate Lange. DAMAGED, the first novel of the series, was a Levy Home Entertainment “Need to Read” Pick for June, with Top Ten Bestseller placement in Target and Wal-Mart. Two more Kate Lange thrillers will be released in 2011: INDEFENSIBLE (January, 2011) and TATTOOED (Summer, 2011). A fourth will be published in June 2012. Prior to making writing a career, Pamela studied English Literature, became a member of the Nova Scotia Bar, completed a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, and worked as a strategy consultant at an international consulting firm. She lives in Halifax with her husband, two children and a pug.

Chris Beakey’s first book, Double Abduction, about a preschool teacher who becomes the lead suspect in the kidnapping of his nephew, was published by J. Boylston & Co./ibooks, Inc. in November of 2007. Chris lives in Lewes, Delaware and works during the week in Washington, D.C.

Michael Haskins lives and writes in Key West, Fla., where he has been the business editor/writer for the daily paper and the public information officer for the city. He loves sailing and Key West is the perfect place to live and write for a sailor.

Larry D. Thompson has drawn on decades of experience in the courtroom to craft page-turning legal thrillers.  A Texas native, he tried more than 300 lawsuits before scratching the itch to be a novelist.  He continues to be a trial lawyer but has just completed his third novel, THE TRIAL, to be published by Thomas Dunne Books and St. Martin’s Press on March 29, 2011.

Blaize Clement writes a series of hybrid cozy-thriller mysteries called the Dixie Hemingway Mystery Series. The last one was a finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark award, the sixth will be published in January 2011. She’s a former psychotherapist, which probably explains why readers find her characters compelling and believable. She lives in Sarasota, Florida, where the series is set, and the fact that she still finds it remarkable that great blue herons walk around in her yard is probably why reviewers always comment on her “strong sense of place.”

Matt Forbeck has been a full-time creator of award-winning games and fiction since 1989. His latest novel—AMORTALS—is on sale now. He has designed collectible card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games, board games, and toys, and has written novels, short fiction, comic books, motion comics, nonfiction, magazine articles, and computer game scripts and stories for dozens of publishers. For more about him and his work, visit Forbeck.com.

Reece Hirsch’s debut legal thriller THE INSIDER was published by Berkley Books in May 2010.  Reece is a partner in the San Francisco office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius specializing in privacy, security and healthcare law.  He is also a member of the board of directors of 826 National, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that conducts writing programs for young people in underserved communities.

Edgar Franzmann, born in 1948, lives in Cologne/Germany. After thirty years as a newspaper editor he is now editor-in-chief of the official Cologne website. His first novel „Millionenallee“ („Millionaires’ Avenue“) was published in 2009, his second novel „Der Richter-Code“ („The Richter Code“) will follow in April 2011. He writes thrillers set in Cologne, a city of one million inhabitants and a history of 2,000 years. Franzmann is a member of „Syndikat“, the German mystery writers’ organisation.