from Boyds, Maryland

                        from Scottsville, Virginia

Catherine Gillispie, a first-time author, was born in Erwin Tennessee to the late Lula Foster Higgins and James Higgins. She now lives in Virginia with her husband Paul. They have two sons, Paul and Mark.

Catherine has been a receptionist for a law firm for the past 22 years. She is very active in building her church. Sharing time with her family, friends and writing are the things she most enjoys in life. Her love of books and vivid imagination makes writing not only relaxing but also fun.

Bringing Katie Home starts with Ellie Gill moving with her husband, George, to a small town just south of Huntsville, Alabama. It was picture-perfect: quaint tidy houses, peaceful streets, and friendly neighbors. Sadly, soon after, George unexpectedly dies. Her neighbor, Barry Wilson, encourages her to get a job, which she does. Ellie enjoys her new job – until one evening during a horrible thunderstorm, she hears a ghostly cry for help.

Soon, Ellie finds herself entangled in a twenty-year-old unsolved murder case, and the problems mount. It doesn’t take her long to find out the quaint little southern town has a dark secret. A secret of murder, lies and deceit.

Be ready for a suspenseful and thrilling read with Bringing Katie Home.

                      from Lynchburg, Virginia

Martha Hamlett lives in Lynchburg, Virginia with her husband, Phillip, and two sons, Noah and Christian.  She grew up in a small farming community called Red House.  She uses her childhood experiences as the basis for many of her stories.

She has been writing since her early teenage years.  Her greatest joy is writing poems and stories for children.  Over the years, she has used her stories in activities with classes to spark the imagination of the students.  She encourages them to take an “imagination journey” as she reads and describe what they see in their mind as they listen to the story. 

In November 2008, her first published book, “Bats in the Air, Bats in My Hair,” was released.  The story is based on an event from her own childhood when she and her cousins stayed overnight with their Grandmother.  The girls were awakened in the night only to see a bat tangled in their sleeping Cousin Deb’s hair.  They screamed and ran to the boys’ room and jumped on their bed.  The slats fell out from under the bed and everyone tumbled to the floor.  Their Grandmother was not very amused.

She and Davey Morgan are collaborating on a second book called X’s and O’s.  In the meantime, Martha continues to read in schools throughout Virginia and speak at teacher conferences such as VEMA and the Longwood Summer Conference.

                from Hedgesville, West Virginia

In addition to her quilting, Carol has been exploring the world of wearable art. She will be bringing her most recent line of handcrafted hand bags to Book 'Em.  Because each one is unique, you can be assured you will never find someone else carrying the same bag! 

Not only does Carol work with fabric, she has begun another project - a mystery novel - drawing on her pre-retirement career as a geriatric social worker.  While struggling with the issues of aging, her main character, Sarah, believes her husband's death many years prior may not have been an accident at all, but something far more sinister. 

                         from Ellsworth, Maine                     
                  NY Times Best-Selling Author!

                from Raleigh, North Carolina