Staff
MANAGING EDITOR, THE BIG THRILL
Dawn Ius is a professional writer and editor with more than 20 years experience as a journalist, communications expert, and published author. She has edited numerous international publications and published upwards of 500 articles in a diverse spectrum of magazines and newspapers across North America. In her first professional assignment, she interviewed former Soviet politician Mikhail Gorbachev through a translator. In various communications and media relations roles, Dawn has spearheaded award-winning awareness campaigns for corporate and non-profit organizations. Dawn has published three young adult novels with Simon Pulse (an imprint of Simon & Schuster), the latest, Lizzie, being a modern re-imagining of the infamous Lizzie Borden hatchet murders. She lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband, two giant breed dogs, and three bearded dragons. Yes, sometimes she will respond to “Khaleesi.”
ASSOCIATE EDITOR, THE BIG THRILL
April Snellings is a writer and editor whose work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the American Advertising Federation. April has published more than 400 pieces in magazines and newspapers across North America. She has worked on ADDY Award-winning print and web campaigns, and her long-form journalism and film reviews have earned Golden Press Card awards from the SPJ. In 2016, she was named Writer of the Year in the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Her first nonfiction book, Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin, is out now from 1984 Publishing. April lives in Tennessee with her wife, several recalcitrant dogs and cats, and a seven-foot animatronic werewolf named C. Thomas Howl.
ASSISTANT EDITOR, ROUNDTABLE COORDINATOR, THE BIG THRILL
José H. Bográn is an international author of novels, short stories, and scripts for television and film. His genre of choice is thrillers, but he likes to throw in a twist of romance into the mix. He is a freelance writer, a translator, and a university professor of academic writing, public speaking, and English as a second language (ESL). He currently lives with his family in Honduras. Find him on Twitter, Facebook , and Instagram.
ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE BIG THRILL
K.L. Romo writes about life on the fringe: teetering dangerously on the edge is more interesting than standing safely in the middle. She is passionate about women’s issues, loves noisy clocks and fuzzy blankets, but HATES the word normal. She is also a book reviewer, her bylines included in The Big Thrill, Washington Independent Review of Books, BookTrib, and Shondaland. Her reviews and articles appear at www.RomosReadingRoom.com, and you can find her on Twitter and Instagram.
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS, THE BIG THRILL
Esme Addison is the Amazon & BN.com bestselling author and Agatha nominee for Best First Book. She is a member of Sisters In Crime National, International Thriller Writers and Crime Writers of Color, and resides in coastal North Carolina with her family.
A former military spouse with a graduate’s degree in International Relations, Esme lives in Raleigh, NC with her family. She writes about mystery, intrigue and conspiracies in small towns. Learn more about her at EsmeAddison.com. Find her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @EsmeAddison.
R.G. Belsky is an author of crime fiction and a journalist in New York City. His newest mystery, Beyond The Headlines, was published in May 2021 by Oceanview. It is the fourth in a series featuring Clare Carlson, the news director for a New York City TV station. The first book Yesterday’s News won the David Award at Deadly Ink for Best Mystery of 2018. The second Below The Fold won the Foreword INDIES Award for Best Mystery of 2019. A third Clare Carlson book, The Last Scoop, was published in 2020. He has also recently published thrillers under the pen name of Dana Perry (Her Ocean Grave – 2021, The Golden Girl– 2020 and The Silent Victim – 2019.) Before that, Belsky wrote the Gil Malloy series —The Kennedy Connection, Shooting for the Stars and Blonde Ice—about a newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News. Belsky himself is a former managing editor at the Daily News and writes about the media from an extensive background in newspapers, magazines and TV/digital news. He has also been a top editor at the New York Post, Star magazine and NBC News. He lives in New York City.
Guy Bergstrom is a political speechwriter who’s also won awards for journalism and fiction. You can reach him on Twitter @speechwriterguy
Eric P. Bishop grew up in Connecticut, and relocated to the South after college. Moves to the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest occurred before finally heading back East to raise a family. After many years in corporate America, he followed his passion for the written word and chased his dreams of crafting a novel readers have trouble putting down. He lives with his children and their Lab/Terrier dog named Shadow. Both Eric and the kids explore the great outdoors most weekends, and go on many adventures while he dreams up his next story to share with the world. Eric’s debut novel The Body Man released on November 11, 2021 to rave reviews and enthusiastic responses from fans and critics alike. Besides writing a monthly column for The Big Thrill, Eric co-hosts a podcast called The Protectors Book Club and he is a contributor to both media and print outlets.
P. J. Bodnar is a retired police officer and professional photographer. When not writing for The Big Thrill, P. J. is hard at work on his debut thriller, HALF MOON. He lives in Pleasant Valley, NY with his wife and children. Connect with him online @PJ_Bodnar.
Dani Brown is a retired registered nurse who grew up skiing Mt. Hood in Oregon before attending nursing school for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at UTMB in Galveston, Texas. While in school, she worked as a tech in the emergency room of a level one trauma center. After she completed her degree, she became a nurse on staff at the same center.
ThrillerFest, the San Francisco Writers Conference, and RWA are just a few of the conferences from which Dani has benefitted. She has also studied with such notables as David Morrell, Susan Wiggs, and Tess Gerritsen. Prior to writing THE AGREEMENT, she completed and published two novels. Over the last few years, she has written numerous articles for The Big Thrill and worked with editor/book coach Dawn Ius to polish THE AGREEMENT.
Josie Brown is the author of the best-selling HOUSEWIFE ASSASSIN’S HANDBOOK series novels (14 novels); the TOTLANDIA series (6 novels) and the TRUE HOLLYWOOD LIES (2 novels). Her other novels include: THE CANDIDATE (political thriller), THE BABY PLANNER (contemporary women’s fiction), and SECRET LIVES OF HUSBANDS AND WIVES (contemporary women’s fiction) which was optioned by producer Jerry Bruckheimer for television. Josie lives in San Francisco with her husband and two children.
Austin S. Camacho is the author of seven novels in the Hannibal Jones Mystery Series (most recent being 2019’s The Wrong Kind ) and five in the Stark and O’Brien adventure series (the latest being The Lost Art Assignment ) and the detective thriller Beyond Blue. He is also editorial director for Intrigue Publishing. To learn more about Austin, please visit his website or find him on Facebook.
Charlie Cochrane couldn’t be trusted to do any of her jobs of choice—like managing a rugby team—so she writes. Her mystery novels include the Edwardian era Cambridge Fellows series, and the contemporary Lindenshaw Mysteries. Multi-published, she has titles with Carina, Samhain, Riptide, Lethe and Bold Strokes, among others. A member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and Mystery People, Charlie regularly appears at literary festivals and at reader and author conferences with The Deadly Dames.
Kia Dennis was born and raised in the Maryland suburbs just outside of Washington, D.C. A writer since a young age, after college Kia earned a law degree and worked as an attorney and legal instructor for fifteen years but never stopped writing fiction. She writes under the pen names K.D Richards and Kia D. Richards. She currently splits her time between Toronto and Maryland.
Terry DiDomenico retired from academic writing and editing and is now exploring various types of freelance editing including book doctoring and first reader. She enjoys researching ideas for her fiction and is working on her first novel – a thriller, of course. Terry lives with her husband of 42+ years in rural south-central Pennsylvania.
George Ebey is the author of the Helen of Mars Saga, a series of futuristic adventure tales for young readers. Prior to turning to the world of Middle Grade and Young Adult adventure, he got his start by writing works of mystery and suspense. Ebey’s previous titles include: Broken Clock; The Red Bag; Dimensions: Tales of Suspense; and Widowfield.
Joanna Elm is the author of three crime fiction novels. Her latest, Fool Her Once, a psychological thriller, was released in March 2022 by CamCat Books She has written for newspapers and magazines in the UK as well as celebrity magazines in the US. She was an investigative reporter on the Evening News on London’s Fleet Street, a writer for The Ten O’Clock News in New York, and an associate producer on TV newsmagazine, A Current Affair. You can find her articles and reviews at https://www.joannaelm.com. She is also on Twitter and Instagram as @authorjoannaelm.
Rebecca Fields currently resides in North Carolina with her family that consists of people, cats, and a bearded dragon. She writes novels in her spare time, and late at night you can usually find her lurking around r/truecrime.
Azam Gill is a novelist, analyst and retired Lecturer from Toulouse University, France. He has authored eight books, including three thrillers — Blood Money, Flight to Pakistan and Blasphemy. He also writes for The Express Tribune, a New York Times affiliate and blogs on his website. He served in the French Foreign Legion, French Navy and the Punjab Regiment.
Derek Gunn is a native of Ireland who writes horror and thriller fiction and is the author of the bestselling Vampire Apocalypse series and four other novels. He has featured on BBC radio, various podcasts and has appeared at many conventions in the UK and Ireland. He is a member of and a Contributing Editor to The International Thriller Writers Association and an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association.
Millie Naylor Hast writes award-winning action thrillers based on important themes of today. She is a former journalist, city council member, and graduate of the FBI, DEA, and Houston Police Citizens Academies. In her spare time she hikes, cycles, and plans new adventures. She currently seeks representation for her manuscripts.
David Healey is the author of several thrillers and mysteries, including GHOST SNIPER and THE HOUSE THAT WENT DOWN WITH THE SHIP. He has written regional histories such as 1812: REDISCOVERING CHESAPEAKE BAY’S FORGOTTEN WAR and GREAT STORMS OF THE CHESAPEAKE. He worked for 21 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, and is now teaches full time at Kaplan University.
Don Helin published his first thriller, THY KINGDOM COME, in 2009, his second, DEVIL’S DEN, was published in 2012. His third, SECRET ASSAULT, was selected as the best Suspense/Thriller at the 2015 Indie Book Awards. Don’s most recent thriller, ANGEL’S REVENGE, was recently published and received an Honorable Mention at the New York Book Festival.
Joanne Hichens, author and editor, lives in Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA. She has edited a number of short story anthologies including the crime-thriller collection Bad Company, with a foreword by Lee Child, AND Bloody Satisfied, another crime-thriller collection with a foreword by Deon Meyer. Her crime novels are Out to Score (co-written), Divine Justice soon to be published in the United States by Catalyst Press, and Sweet Paradise. She features, in her crime novels, Rae Valentine, an ex-junkie amputee turned PI and motivational speaker. Her young adult novels, Stained and Riding the Wave, were both shortlisted for the Sanlam Literature Award, and she has recently published a memoir, Death and the After Parties, with Karavan Press.
Karen Hugg writes fiction and nonfiction books inspired by plants. Born and raised in Chicago, she moved to Seattle and worked as a content editor in tech before becoming a certified ornamental horticulturalist and master pruner. She earned her MFA from Goddard College and is the author of Song of the Tree Hollow, The Forgetting Flower, Harvesting the Sky, and The Dark Petals of Provence (Woodhall Press). Her first nonfiction book, Leaf Your Troubles Behind: How to Destress and Grow Happiness through Plants (Prometheus Books) arrives in summer, 2022. Her short work has appeared in Crime Reads, Thrive Global, the Rooted anthology, and other publications.
Lisa Malice is an organizational psychologist-turned-thriller writer. Her first book, Lest She Forget, will be published by CamCat Books in Fall 2023. The unpublished manuscript earned finalist honors in five writing contests. Her WIP, Rock-A-Bye Baby, was a Killer Nashville Claymore Award finalist. In addition to ITW, Lisa is active is Sisters in Crime, having served as a chapter president and vice president, and at the national level, as a webinar producer and moderator. An associate member of MWA and its Florida chapter, Lisa lives in the Tampa area with her husband.
George Mehok is a technologist, author, and angel investor. He’s been featured in the Wall Street Journal and InformationWeek on technology-related topics such as analytics and cybersecurity. George recently completed his debut thriller, GOING DARK: A Liberty Unit novel and Revolutionary Press published his short story “GOING DARK: Caretaker of Station #64” in its semi-annual anthology. He’s a board member of Literary Cleveland, a non-profit organization and creative writing center, and an active member of James River Writers, a central Virginia non-profit organization.
Terri Nolan began her writing career as a newspaper and radio journalist. She has a degree in Radio/Television from the University of Texas at Arlington. Nolan is the author of three thrillers featuring investigative journalist Birdie Keane. The critically acclaimed and award nominated trilogy includes the novels BURDEN OF TRUTH, GLASS HOUSES, BLUE BIRD, and the short story HOBO JOE. She lives in the Los Angeles area.
Tim O’Mara is best known for his Raymond Donne mysteries about an ex-cop who now teaches in the same Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood he once policed: Sacrifice Fly (2012), Crooked Numbers (2013), Dead Red (2015), published by Minotaur Books, and Nasty Cutter (2019) and The Hook (2020) both published by Severn House. His novellas Smoked, Jammed, and Beaned appear in the crime trilogies Triple Shot (2016) Three Strikes (2018), and Third Degree (2020), all from Down & Out Books. He also edited the short story anthology, Down to the River, to benefit the non-profit American Rivers. O’Mara taught special education for 30 years in the public middle schools of New York City, where he now teaches adult writers, including incarcerated men for the organization Prison Writes (prisonwrites.org).
E.M. Powell’s historical thriller Fifth Knight novels have been #1 Amazon and Bild bestsellers. Her new Stanton & Barling medieval murder mystery series starts with THE KING’S JUSTICE, which is due for release in 2018. Born and raised in the Republic of Ireland into the family of Michael Collins (the legendary revolutionary and founder of the Irish Free State), she lives in northwest England with her husband, daughter and a Facebook-friendly dog. As well as contributing to The Big Thrill, she blogs for English Historical Fiction Authors and is the social media manager for the Historical Novel Society.
Rick Pullen authored the bestselling thriller, NAKED AMBITION, its sequel, NAKED TRUTH and a standalone, THE APPRENTICE. For more stories about your favorite novelists, sign up for his newsletter, IDOL TALK, at rickpullen.com. Rick splits his time between Florida and Virginia. He likes nothing better than sunshine, a cold beer, sand between his toes and a Padron cigar.
Rick Reed retired as a decorated Detective Sergeant with the Evansville Indiana Police Department. Reed’s acclaimed book, BLOOD TRAIL, is the true account of his capture of serial killer, Joseph Weldon Brown who received two life-without-parole sentences. Reed is the author of the Detective Jack Murphy thriller series. His new book, THE HIGHEST STAKES, will be released October 25, 2016. Reed is currently teaching Criminal Justice and writing.
Charles Salzberg, is author of the Shamus Award nominated Swann’s Last Song, Swann Dives In, Swann’s Lake of Despair, Swann’s Way Out, Devil in the Hole, named one of the best crime novels of 2013 by Suspense Magazine, and Second Story Man, winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award for best crime novel of 2018. He is on the Board of MWA-NY.
Robert Rotstein is the USA Today best-selling author of We, The Jury (Blackstone 2018), a Suspense Magazine 2018 Best Book. With James Patterson, he is the author of The Family Lawyer, the title story of the New York Times best-selling collection. He has written The Bomb Maker’s Son, Reckless Disregard, and Corrupt Practices (Seventh Street Books), about attorney Parker Stern.
Basil Sands is the author of action packed thrillers, novellas, and short stories and a professional audiobook narrator. Born on a homestead outside of Fairbanks Alaska, he served in the Marines, was Chef to the Spies (dining manager at the NSA), owned a computer shop, worked as a lumberjack, ambulance driver, radio host, and government IT guy. He’s married to a Porsche driving Korean woman, and has three grown sons and a Yorkie named Heimdall, The Norse Dog.
Michael Sears writes with Stanley Trollip under the name Michael Stanley. Their award-winning mystery series with Detective Kubu is set in Botswana, a fascinating country with wonderful conservation areas and varied peoples. They also have a stand-alone thriller Shoot the Bastards, which introduces Minnesotan environmental journalist Crystal Nguyen. Set mainly in South Africa, it has as backstory the vicious trade in rhino horn.
Their latest book, A Deadly Covenant, is a prequel featuring Kubu as a young detective, set near the magnificent Okavango Delta. Kubu has to work out why an ancient massacre of a Bushman clan is causing deaths in the present day and who is behind them.
Michael has lived in South Africa, Kenya, Australia and the US. He now lives in Knysna on the Cape south coast of South Africa. Please visit his website and follow him on Facebook.
Alex Segura is a novelist and comic book writer. He is the author of the Miami crime novels featuring Pete Fernandez, SILENT CITY and DOWN THE DARKEST STREET (Polis Books). He has also written a number of comic books, including the best-selling and critically acclaimed ARCHIE MEETS KISS storyline, the “Occupy Riverdale” story, and the upcoming ARCHIE MEETS RAMONES. He lives in New York with his wife and son. He is a Miami native.
Jaden Terrell is the author of the Jared McKean private detective series and a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of exercises for writers of crime fiction. Her short stories have appeared in KILLER NASHVILLE NOIR, and she writes for the Killer Nashville Magazine. The recipient of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, Terrell is also a writing coach, workshop leader, and compassionate editor.
Wendy Tyson is an author, lawyer, and former therapist whose background inspires her thrillers and mysteries. As Liv Andersson, she writes thrillers, including LITTLE RED HOUSE, and as Wendy Tyson, she writes mysteries, including the Amazon-bestselling Greenhouse Series, and short stories, which have appeared in literary journals and crime fiction anthologies. Her next Liv Andersson thriller, LEAVE THE LIGHTS ON, comes out October 17, 2023. Wendy lives in the Green Mountains of Vermont with her husband, sons, and three dogs.
Steve P. Vincent is the author of four political/conspiracy thrillers in the acclaimed Jack Emery series – FIREPLAY, THE FOUNDATION, STATE OF EMERGENCY and NATIONS DIVIDED. He has also spent a decade working as a policy adviser and holds degrees in political science and history. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and a demanding goldfish.