from Waynesboro, Virginia

Deb Booth, photographer and digital artist, wrote her first book when she was 48 years old, proving that it's never too late to make your dreams happen, and that you don't get "hat hair" from wearing many hats. Please feel free to read her book online at http://www.differentlightstudio.com.

                      from Cumming, Georgia

In January 2003, federal agent Jack Branson’s 85-year-old aunt Ann was bludgeoned to death and stabbed 97 times in small-town Kentucky.  The killer left no fingerprints and no DNA. The case may have gone unsolved if Ann herself had not pointed police to her killer. Her story is chronicled in Murder in Mayberry.

Murder in Mayberry: Greed, Death and Mayhem in a Small Town is the true story of a brutal crime, a promising young professional who became a killer, and a wealthy, successful woman who became the perfect victim. It’s about the impact of violent crime on a previously “normal” family and on a quiet, trusting community who refused to forget one of its own.

Murder in Mayberry is endorsed by Family and Friends of Violent Crime Victims. The hardback edition was released in February 2008 by New Horizon Press. The paperback edition will be released by Berkley in March 2009.

Mayberry’s authors, Jack and Mary Branson, are currently writing a historic true crime book on the Atlanta child murders of 1979-81, working with the FBI agent who was in charge of the investigation.  

                     from Richmond, Virginia

Mary Burton recently signed with Kensington Books to write three single tile suspense novels and the first, titled I'm Watching You, was released in December 2007.  She also completed another novel for Silhouette Romantic Suspense, Cold Case Cop released in January 2008.  Burton published her first book, a historical western romance in 1999 and in 2005 was a Romance Writers of America RITA Finalist for The Unexpected Wife, a historical western set in 1880s Montana.  

Burton is a graduate of Hollins University and currently lives in Richmond, Virginia.  Hobbies include yoga, the occasional triathlon, and volunteering as a kitchen assistant in a culinary school.  She is currently working on her 18^th novel.

                     from Fork Union, Virginia

A Journey to Freedom is about a young woman leaving home for college with the idea of redefining her life instead of letting her mother continue to define who she was.

The Journal is about a young woman who finds secrets and deceptions in a journal she found in the home of her recently deceased mother.  Her findings take her on a journey to Scotland.

                        from Spokane, Washington
                    multiple times best selling author

                       Charles Culbertson

             

                          from Staunton, Virginia  

Charles Culbertson is an award-winning journalist and local historian who has written four books on local history. His work appears weekly on the History Page of the Staunton Leader. Staunton, Virginia: Another Treasury of Historic Tales is a followup to his successful 2004 book, and offers a unique look at the forgotten, lesser-known stories from the Queen City’s past.

                         from Charlottesville, VA

Kathy Erskine was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Israel, South Africa, Scotland, Canada, and the United States.  That experience helped her to view life from different perspectives, an element she uses in her writing.   Her first novel, IBHUBESI: THE LION, is set in apartheid South Africa and tells the coming of age story of an American teen dealing with racism and cruelty within a nation and his own family.  Her second novel, QUAKING, addresses the effects of U.S. involvement in a war in the Middle East, and how a teen seeks peace in the midst of fear.  QUAKING was chosen by the American Library Association as one of the top ten books of 2008 on their list of “Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers.”

Erskine attended St. Andrews University in Scotland and graduated from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, earning a law degree from The American University in Washington, D.C.  She is working on several more novels for young people, and enjoys presenting writing seminars to a variety of audiences.