Lis Wiehl joined FOX News Channel as a legal analyst in 2001 and she is Bill O’Reilly’s sparring partner in the weekly “Is It Legal?” segment of The O’Reilly Factor. She is a Professor of Law at New York Law School, writer of the weekly “Lis on Law” column on FoxNews.com, host of “Wiehl of Justice” seen on Fox stations, and she appears weekly on Imus in the Morning.

Her bestselling Triple Threat novels published by Thomas Nelson won praise from many colleagues in the professions of media and law, including Pam Veasey, writer and executive producer of CSI NY; Nancy Grace, Headline News host and former prosecutor; Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Michael Bolton; as well as FOX News colleagues Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, John Gibson and Alan Colmes

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Read our review of The Queen here.

More about Steven James:

Critically acclaimed author Steven James has written four other award-winning Patrick Bowers novels as well as many works of nonfiction. He has a master’s degree in storytelling and has taught writing and creative storytelling on three continents. He lives near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee with his wife and three daughters.

To learn more about Steve visit him at: stevenjames.net 

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed in the audio player below.

Check out our podcast review of Forbidden here and our print review here.

More about Ted Dekker:

Ted Dekker is a New York Times bestselling author with more than five million books in print. He is known for stories that combine adrenaline-laced plots with incredible confrontations between unforgettable characters. You can find him online at Teddekker.com and Facebook.com/teddekker.

More about Tosca Lee:

Tosca Lee is the author of the critically acclaimed DEMON: A MEMOIR, HAVAH: THE STORY OF EVE, and the Books of Mortals series with NY Times bestselling author Ted Dekker (FORBIDDEN, September 2011; MORTAL, June 2012; and SOVEREIGN, October 2012).

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below.

Read our review of One Step Away here.

About Eric:

In college, Eric took journalism courses and served as contributing editor for the newspaper. He also published travel and educational nonfiction pieces in periodicals during the early ’90s, but his first novel wasn’t published till 2004. Since that time, he has published nine additional titles.

Eric accepted Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior in 1971. In the following years, he traveled with his parents in Eastern Europe, smuggling Bibles during the time of the Iron Curtain. Back in the States, Eric attended a Christian high school and did youth group missions trips. After graduation, Eric worked with Operation Mobilisation and YWAM in Europe and China, where he again served the Suffering Church. When his parents divorced after twenty years of marriage, however, it challenged Eric to know what he truly believed and to cling to God more than ever. Back in the US, he completed four years at a Bible college and worked as a youth pastor for five years.

Both Eric and Carolyn have a heart for the destitute, abused, and depressed. They hope to serve again on the mission field in the years to come, while still writing and using the talents God has given.

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below.

We’re also giving away 2 copies of Warm Bodies and we give all the details on how to enter the giveaway in the podcast. Enjoy!

Read our print reviews of Warm Bodies here.

More about Isaac Marion:

Isaac Marion was born in north-western Washington in 1981 and has lived in and around Seattle his whole life, working a variety of strange jobs like delivering deathbeds to hospice patients and supervising parental visits for foster-kids. He is not married, has no children, and did not go to college or win any prizes. Warm Bodies is his first novel.

This podcast can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

More about Andrew Gross:

In 2009 New York Times bestselling author Andrew Gross received the most horrifying phone call of his life — his deeply troubled nephew’s body had been found at the base of a cliff on the Californiacoast. Haunted by this tragedy, Gross turned to his own form of therapy – writing novels. The result is EYES WIDE OPEN (Harper Collins; July 12, 2011) his break-out novel that tells the story of a family haunted by a secret past.

Andrew Gross is the author of The New York Times and international bestsellers The Blue Zone and The Dark Tide, and coauthor of five No. 1 bestselling novels with James Patterson, including Judge & Jury, Lifeguard, and The Jester. Gross lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, Lynn. They have three children.

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Read our review of False Witness here.

More about Randy Singer:

Randy believes it’s important to simultaneously hold a number of different jobs so that if he gets fired by two employers the same day, he can still avoid the unemployment line. He splits his time and divides his personality between Randy Singer, critically acclaimed author, Randy Singer, veteran trial lawyer, and Randy Singer, ministry leader and preacher. When he grows up, he will decide what he really wants to do.

This interview can be downloaded from iTunes or streamed below:

More about Steve Berry:

Steve Berry is the New York Times bestselling author of the Cotton Malone series featuring The Jefferson Key, The Emperor’s Tomb, The Paris Vendetta, The Charlemagne Pursuit, The Venetian Betrayal, The Alexandria Link, and The Templar Legacy. He also has three stand-alone thrillers: The Third Secret, The Romanov Prophecy, and The Amber Room —- and two e-book original short stories, The Balkan Escape and The Devil’s Gold. He has 12 million books in print, which have been translated into 40 languages and sold in 51 countries. Steve’s road to publishing was long and arduous, spanning 12 years and 85 rejections over 5 separate manuscripts. He’s also an accomplished instructor, having taught writing to audiences across the globe. When Steve’s not writing, you can find him either on a beach, a golf course, or traveling — discovering more things lost — thinking of the next novel. He lives in the historic city of St. Augustine, Florida. Steve and his wife Elizabeth have also started a foundation, History Matters, dedicated to aiding the preservation of our heritage.

This interview can be downloaded from iTunes or streamed below:

This podcast can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Don’t miss our review of the book.

Jason Lethcoe has worked as an animator, director, and storyboard artist at several studios including Walt Disney Studios, Sony Feature Animation Warner Bros., and Dreamworks SKG. Amazing Adventures from Zoom’s Academy was his first foray into juvenile fiction, and was produced as the movie Zoom starring Tim Allen in 2006. (Zoom trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flrwVS3T-xg). His second series, the bestselling Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff, is currently in development as a feature film – and No Place Like Holmes, published by Tommy Nelson, is garnering Hollywood interest prior to the book’s release. See more about this author, award-winning animator, and family man at jasonlethcoe.com and join his Facebook page.

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Read our review of 40 here.

Travis Thrasher is the author of over a dozen critically acclaimed novels diverse in tone and style. He and his wife, Sharon, live with their daughters in Chicago.

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Jimmy Wayne is an American country music singer and songwriter. He released his self-titled debut album in 2003 on the DreamWorks Records label. Four singles were released from it, including “Stay Gone” and “I Love You This Much”, which both reached Top Ten on the Billboard country charts. A second album, Do You Believe Me Now, was released in August 2008 via Big Machine Records subsidiary Valory Music Group, and its title track became his first Number One hit in late 2008.

Travis Thrasher is the author of over a dozen critically acclaimed novels diverse in tone and style. He and his wife, Sharon, live with their daughters in Chicago.

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Mike Dellosso authors fast-paced, gripping thrillers that keep readers turning pages. He is also a columnist, feature writer, and instructor at writing conferences. He lives in southcentral PA with his wife and four daughters. When he’s not writing he’s usually home with his family, his favorite place to be.

This interview can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Travis Thrasher is the author of over a dozen critically acclaimed novels diverse in tone and style. He and his wife, Sharon, live with their daughters in Chicago.

Read our review of 40 here.

This podcast can be downloaded via iTunes or streamed below:

Read our review of 40 here.

More about Travis:

Travis Thrasher is the author of over a dozen critically acclaimed novels diverse in tone and style. He and his wife, Sharon, live with their daughters in Chicago.

You can download this interview via iTunes or stream the audio below:

Read our reviews of The Priest’s Graveyard here.

More about Ted Dekker:

Ted Dekker is a New York Times bestselling author with more than five million books in print. He is known for stories that combine adrenaline-laced plots with incredible confrontations between unforgettable characters. You can find him online at Teddekker.com and Facebook.com/teddekker.

This interview can be downloaded from iTunes or streamed below:

Read our review of Threshold here.

More about Jeremy Robinson:

JEREMY ROBINSON is the author of seven previous thrillers including Pulse and Instinct, the first two installments of the Chess Team series. His novels have been translated into eight languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.

This interview can be downloaded from iTunes or streamed below:

More about C.J.:

C. J. Darlington won the 2008 Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel contest with her first novel, Thicker Than Blood. She has been in the antiquarian bookselling business for over twelve years, scouting for stores similar to the ones described in her novels before cofounding her own online bookstore. In 2006 C. J. started the Christian entertainment Web sitewww.TitleTrakk.com with her sister, Tracy, and has been actively promoting Christian fiction through book reviews and author interviews. A homeschool graduate, she makes her home in Pennsylvania with her family and their menagerie of dogs and cats. Visit her Web site at www.cjdarlington.com.

This interview can be downloaded from iTunes or streamed below:

More about Jon:

As a writer, Jon has published over a dozen novels including four Lawson Vampire adventures (2002-2003) with Kensington’s Pinnacle Books, the Jake Thunder mystery/thriller DANGER-CLOSE (2004) with Five Star Mystery/Thorndike Press, and eight installments in the internationally bestselling adventure series Rogue Angel (2006-present) with Harlequin’s Gold Eagle line. His latest thriller PARALLAX debuted in March 2009 as an exclusive ebook. Praised by bestselling authors like Robert B. Parker, Douglas Clegg, and Thomas Monteleone, Jon’s novels will continue to thrill readers for many years to come. His short fiction story “Prisoner 392″ (appeared alongside Stephen King in FROM THE BORDERLANDS, 2004, Warner Books) earned him an Honorable Mention in 2004′s Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror edited by Ellen Datlow. Jon has also co-authored two non-fiction books: LEARNING LATER, LIVING GREATER with Nancy Merz Nordstrom (2006, Sentient Publications) and THE COMPLETE IDIOT’S GUIDE TO ULTIMATE FIGHTING with Rich “Ace” Franklin (2007, Alpha Books/Penguin/Putnam). Jon’s next Lawson vampire novel, THE KENSEI, debuted in January 2011 from St. Martin’s Press.

You can subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or stream the audio below:

Recently, Jake Chism caught up with D. Barkley Briggs to talk about the resurrection of the series.

More about D. Barkley Briggs:

Dean Barkley Briggs has worked in radio, marketing, and new product development. He also pastored for eleven years. Briggs is about to begin the fourth in his epic five book fantasy adventure series, The Legends of Karac Tor. Books 1, 2 and 3 will release  Spring and Fall of 2011. After the unexpected death of his first wife, Briggs has since remarried a beautiful widow named Jeanie, and now has eight amazing kids. Enter Karac Tor at www.hiddenlands.net.

Read our reviews of The Book of Names and Corus the Champion.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or stream the audio below.

Jeffrey Overstreet’s The Auralia’s Thread

More about Jeffrey:

Jeffrey Overstreet is the author of three previous books in The Auralia Thread. Publisher’s Weekly called Auralia’s Colors a story “precise and beautiful… masterfully told,” and it was a dual finalist for a Christy Award. An award-winning film reviewer, he has written a moviegoer’s memoir, Through a Screen Darkly, and contributes regularly to Image and other journals. He lives in Shoreline, Washington and works at Seattle Pacific University. Find him online at lookingcloser.org.

Click here for your chance to win the entire series in our Auralia Thread giveaway.

You can subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or stream this interview below.

Read our review of Konig’s Fire here.

More about Marc Schooley:

Marc Schooley is a Texan, which may be empirically verified if you ever hear him speak. He is a Christian philosopher, theologian, Bible teacher, speaker, musician, and Christian fiction writer who welcomes you to communicate with him at marcschooley.com. MS Quixote—which may or may not be Marc’s alter ego (a special commission has been established to investigate this matter)—wouldn’t mind a note every now and then as well. With regard to alter egos, MS Quixote wears glasses and Marc does not, so the mystery is a bit difficult to unravel.

You can subscribe to our podcast via iTunes or stream this interview below.

Jake Chism

More about Douglas Preston:

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child are coauthors of the bestselling novels Relic,Mount Dragon, Reliquary, Riptide, Thunderhead, The Ice Limit, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Still Life with Crows, Brimstone, Dance of Death, The Book of the Dead,The Wheel of Darkness, Cemetery Dance, and Fever Dream. Preston’s bestselling nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence, is being made into a major motion picture. His interests include horses, scuba diving, skiing, and exploring the Maine coast in an old lobster boat. Lincoln Child is a former book editor who has published four bestselling novels of his own. He is passionate about motorcycles, exotic parrots, and nineteenth-century English literature. The authors welcome email from their readers; visit their website at www.prestonchild.com

You can subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Read our review of Gideon’s Sword here.

More about Vicki Hinze:

Vicki Hinze is an award-winning author of more than twenty novels (including Forget Me Not), three nonfiction books, and hundreds of articles. Hinze is active in Romance Writers of America and serves as a vice president on the International Thriller Writers board of directors. Vicki lives in Florida with her artist husband, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel. Visit www.vickihinze.com for more about Vicki’s books, blogs, and writing programs.

Don’t miss our review of Deadly Ties and enter here for your chance to win a copy.

You can subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

SPOILER WARNING! Major plot details from By Darkness Hid and To Darkness Fled are discussed in this interview.

More about Jill:

Jill Williamson is a novelist, dreamer, and believer. She grew up in Alaska with no electricity, an outhouse, and a lot of mosquitoes. Thankfully it was the land of the midnight sun, and she could stay up and read by the summer daylight that wouldn’t go away. But in the winter, there was nothing better to do than daydream. Both hobbies set her up to be a writer. Her debut novel, By Darkness Hid, won an EPIC Award, a Christy Award, A Carol Award nomination, and was named a Best Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror novels of 2009 byVOYA magazine. Jill has served alongside her youth pastor husband for the past twelve years and loves working with teenagers, especially to encourage young writers. She gives writing workshops at libraries, schools, and churches. Learn more on Jill’s website :www.jillwilliamson.com.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

More about Joe:

Joe Schreiber is the author of Star Wars: Death Troopers, Star Wars: Red Harvest, Chasing the Dead and several other non-Star Wars titles.   He works as an MRI technologist in Hershey, Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife and two young children.  His favorite Star Wars character is and remains Salacious Crumb.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

More about Homer:

Homer Hickam is known worldwide for his New York Times #1 bestseller ROCKET BOYS, made into the feature film OCTOBER SKY starring JAKE GYLLENHAAL as Homer.  Hickam is a former NASA engineer and astronaut trainer, nationally known speaker and DINOSAUR HUNTER.  Hickam has authored and co-authored a dozen non-fiction AND fiction best sellers. For more information, visit his official website: http://www.homerhickam.com/.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

Andrew Klavan has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award five times and won twice. He is the author of a dozen previous novels, including such internationally best-selling crime novels as True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Don’t Say A Word, starring Michael Douglas. His latest novel for adults is the thriller The Identity Man (2010).  The Last Thing I Remember (May 2009) was the best-selling debut to Klavan’s new Homelanders series for young adults and garnered much media attention. It’s follow-up The Long Way Home was equally well received and has become a featured read in many high schools across the USA.

As a screenwriter, Klavan adapted Simon Brett’s novel A Shock to the System for the film starring Michael Caine. Klavan also wrote the script for the 2008 horror film “One Missed Call,” starring Ed Burns.

Klavan’s journalism has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere. He is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute think tank’s City Journal, where he published a trilogy of stories on Hollywood’s mistreatment of the war on terror, concluding with a report on Klavan’s own trip into the Afghanistan war zone, “Five Days at the End of the World.”

Klavan makes frequent personal and media appearances and has been a guest on Glenn Beck’s television program, Fox and Friends, The Sean Hannity television program, The Laura Ingraham radio show, Mike Gallagher’s radio show, The Fred Thompson show and dozens of others.

Born in New York City, Klavan grew up in Long Island and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. While at Berkeley, he picked up a hitchhiker named Ellen Flanagan, who became Mrs. Klavan in 1980. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Klavan held a number of jobs. He worked as a radio reporter in Berkeley, where he covered the Patty Hearst kidnapping. He covered small town crime and politics for a newspaper in upstate New York. He later returned to New York City, where he worked as a reader for Columbia Pictures and as a radio newswriter for WOR Radio and the ABC Radio Network. Klavan and his wife later lived in London for several years. They returned to the U.S. in 1999 and now live in Southern California. They have two grown children, Faith and Spencer.

This interview is also available on iTunes.

More about Jeff:

Jeff Gerke has been called the de facto gatekeeper of Christian speculative fiction. After his own six novels were published (under the pen name Jefferson Scott) and his time spearheading the launch of a fiction imprint dedicated to Christian speculative fiction at a major Christian publishing company, Jeff branched out on his own to launch Marcher Lord Press, an Indie publishing house billing itself as the premier publisher of Christian speculative fiction. His popular fiction how-to book The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction is available through Amazon or Marcher Lord Press and his new craft book from Writer’s Digest Books, Plot versus Character, releases in October 2010. Jeff lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, teenage daughter, 10-year-old son, and 2-year-old adoptive daughter from China.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Check out our reviews of The Falling Away.

More about T.L Hines:

Author T.L. (Tony) Hines mixes mysteries with oddities in a genre that has been dubbed “Noir Bizarre”.  In books such as The Unseen, Waking Lazarus, and The Dead Whisper On and his latest THE FALLING AWAY (due in September from Thomas Nelson Books),  Hines leads readers into areas that are often unexplained but always intriguing.  As such, Waking Lazarus received Library Journal’s “25 Best Genre Fiction Books of the Year” award.  Now In THE FALLING AWAY, T. L. Hines delves into issues ranging from teen homelessness to post-traumatic stress disorder in order to peel back greater truths about redemption

Tony L. Hines has been a professional writer for more than 20 years, with articles appearing in publications as varied as Log Homes, Food & Wine, and Travel & Leisure. In 2001, Tony authored his first published book, the nonfiction Billings: A Shining Star in Big Sky Country (CCI Publishing), a historical portrait of Montana’s largest city.

In 1995, Tony founded H2O Advertising with his wife Nancy. In 2003, after eight years of growth, they merged their company with Wendt Advertising (www.iwendt.com) to create the largest advertising agency in the Northern Rockies. From 1995 to 2002, Tony was also the Managing Editor and a contributing writer for Locations magazine, a publication published by the Association of Film Commissioners International (www.afci.org) to promote on-location film production around the world. Locations is distributed to the feature film and commercial production industries.

Tony’s writing has received numerous awards, including state and regional Addys, Silver Microphones (national radio advertising), Tellys (national television), Golden Spikes (PR writing awards) and the Print Magazine Regional Design Annual. He was also selected for the inaugural edition of the “40 Under 40” awards, presented by Western Business News to influential Montana business leaders 40 years of age or less. Today, Hines is recognized as an opinion leader on social networking and new media.

Tony’s long list of past odd jobs includes trimming Christmas trees, sorting seed potatoes, selling strawberries, and cleaning cadaver storage rooms. As a teen, he was undefeated in air guitar competitions (a record of 3-0), in which he performed songs by ZZ Top.

To interview T.L. Hines or request a reviewer copy of THE FALLING AWAY, contact Allen Media Strategies Aaron Leistner at (703) 589-8960 or aaron@allenmediastrategies.com.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Jake Chism

You can listen to our podcast review of IV here and read our print reviews  here.

More about Ted Dekker:

Ted Dekker is the New York Time best selling author of more than 25 novels. He is known for stories that combine adrenaline-laced plots with incredible confrontations between good and evil. You can find him online at TedDekker.com and Facebook.com/teddekker.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

You can read our review of Fatal Convictions here.

More about Randy:

Randy Singer believes it’s important to simultaneously hold a number of different jobs so that if he gets fired by two employers the same day, he can still avoid the unemployment line. He splits his time and divides his personality between Randy Singer, critically- acclaimed author, Randy Singer, attorney, and Randy Singer, ministry leader and preacher. When he grows up, he will decide what he really wants to do.

Singer has authored nine novels, including his newest release, Fatal Convictions, The Justice Game (a CBA Bestseller), the Christy-Award nominee By Reason of Insanity, the 2003 Christy-Award winning Directed Verdict, Irreparable Harm, Dying Declaration, Self Incrimination, The Cross Examination of Oliver Finney, and False Witness as well as the novella, The Judge Who Stole Christmas. He has also authored or co-authored three nonfiction titles, including The Cross Examination of Jesus Christ. His books have won critical acclaim from numerous review outlets, including Publishers Weekly, which said, “ … Singer proves himself to be the Christian John Grisham.”

Randy is an adjunct professor at Regent University Law School and also has his own law practice. For several years, he was a litigation partner and head of the trial section at Willcox & Savage—one of Virginia’s largest and most prestigious law firms. He also has served as president of FamilyNet Television and General Counsel of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Atlanta. He received his law degree from the College of William and Mary School of Law and his bachelor’s degree from Houghton College.

Randy has tried numerous cases in state and federal court, and holds the ignominious distinction of participating in the longest bench trial in Virginia state court history. He also served as lead counsel in the first jury trial in Virginia that ever received gavel-to-gavel television coverage. That case, arising out of a shooting spree by a student at the school attended by Randy’s children, also became the subject matter of the book Fatal Passage by award-winning author Erik Larsen (author of National Book Award finalist Devil in the White City).

In addition to his law practice and writing, Randy serves as a teaching pastor for Trinity Church in Virginia Beach, VA. He calls it his “Jekyll and Hyde thing”—part lawyer, part pastor. He also serves on the Board of Legal Advisors for the American Center for Law and Justice. Randy and his wife, Rhonda, have two adult children and live in Virginia Beach, VA, even though Randy is a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan.

More information on Randy is available at: www.randysinger.net.

You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.

You can read our review of The Bishop here.

More about Steven James:

Steven James is one of the nation’s most innovative storytellers and a bestselling author. He has written more than twenty books and is a full-time speaker, having appeared more than 1,500 times throughout North America, Europe and Asia since 1996.

His first two thrillers, The Pawn and The Rook were both top ten CBA fiction bestsellers and were finalists for the 2008 and 2009 Christy Awards as best suspense. The Knight was selected by Suspense Magazine as one of the top 10 thrillers of 2009.

James has had many outlets for his creativity. He holds a Master of Arts in Storytelling. In 1997, when he completed this degree, he was one of only a hundred people in the world with such a degree.

For years, James has focused on crafting nonfiction books that explore and broaden the connections of story, imagination, and Christian spirituality. He has recently contracted several more titles with Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. His recent nonfiction books include A Heart Exposed and the critically-acclaimed Story: Recapture the Mystery, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. He has been honored with six national awards for his writing and storytelling, including a nomination for an ECPA Gold Medallion Book Award.

In addition to his books, James has written hundreds of articles and stories that have appeared in over eighty different magazines and publications, including Writer’s Digest and Guideposts for Teens.

James lives and writes in eastern Tennessee near the town of Jonesborough, the heart of the modern storytelling revival. He likes rock climbing and science fiction movies. When he’s not writing or speaking, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Travis Thrasher

More about Travis Thrasher:

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

This quote from Stephen King’s novella, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, sums up the goal of every single one of Travis Thrasher’s novels: providing hope. As the novelist of twelve works of fiction, Travis has spent a decade fighting against being typecast and labeled.

“It’s a natural thing for novelists to be put into a box,” Travis says. “My goal has always been to tell stories about flawed characters who find redemption, whether it’s in a love story or a supernatural thriller.”

Having lived in places as diverse as Munich, Germany, and Sydney, Australia, during his youth, Travis moved to the Chicago area during his junior year of high school. That’s where he has remained.

After graduating from Trinity Christian College, Travis landed a job at Tyndale House Publishers as Author Relations Manager. He worked for over a decade in that position, acting as liaison between the publisher and the authors. But writing always came first, and Travis was fortunate to have his first novel published in 2000. It was THE PROMISE REMAINS, a sweet love story in the vein of Nicholas Sparks.

“I wrote six or seven dark, ambitious novels that went nowhere,” Travis says. “It was only after writing a simple love story about unrequited love that I got my first break.”

Getting that first book published was a dream come true, but Travis always saw himself having multiple books in print. Travis’s drive and imagination have allowed him to see a variety of books published: from love stories (THE WATERMARK; THREE ROADS HOME) to suspense (GUN LAKE; ADMISSION; BLINDED) to drama (THE SECOND THIEF; SKY BLUE) to supernatural thrillers (ISOLATION; GHOSTWRITER).

“I tell people this is not the way to build a writing career, but I’m thankful I’ve been able to build mine the way I wanted to. I want to entertain and surprise readers, and to continue to build a readership that will take journeys with me, whether they’re going to 1929 Brazil or current day Geneva, Illinois.”

2010 will mark a decade of publishing for Travis. It will also be a significant year with the release of BROKEN by Faithwords in May and SOLITARY by Cook in August.

“I’m excited about these two upcoming stories that will surely surprise and move readers,” Travis says. “BROKEN is about a young woman who is just that—broken and bruised by this world. SOLITARY is the first in a teen series that combines a love story with the supernatural. Both are powerful stories.”

His goal continues to be to tell powerful and moving stories that will reach fiction readers of all types. As a fulltime novelist for over two years, Travis feels he’s still just warming up.

“There are things I learn about the writing process and about myself with every novel. I believe my best stories are still in front of me, waiting to be discovered like a buried treasure. I’m thankful that I’m able to dig a little more every day.”

Travis lives with his wife and three-year-old daughter in a suburb of Chicago.

Don’t miss our podcast review of Solitary and our print reviews.

Beginning August 9th, we’ll be giving away 10 autographed copies of Solitary. Please check back for more info.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

More about Robin:

Robin is currently a full time writer. He and his wife Karen and son Evan live in High Point, NC. He has an unhealthy obsession with Facebook, he is unable to resist a Krispy Kreme original glazed donut regardless of the time of day, and he does not own nearly as many LEGO Star Wars kits as he feels he should.

If you missed our podcast review of Nightmare, you can find it here. (SPOILER WARNING!!).

You can also download this interview and all of our podcast episodes from iTunes.

More about Eric:

Aside from being CEO and Co-Founder of HOSFU LC, Eric Highland has been a federal law enforcement officer for the United States Coast Guard for two decades, recently concluded a seven year period of church ministry and has also worked as a professional boxing promoter.

Highland is extremely passionate about his work at HOSFU, an Albuquerque-based company dedicated to promoting Christ through the film industry. He regularly teaches and speaks at Christian media conferences and film festivals about the state and future of the faith-based film industry, with a focus on social media publicity, Search Engine Optimization and other marketing methods available to media-makers today.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

We want to thank Robert Liparulo for spending time with us to talk about the Dreamhouse Kings series and his future plans.

SPOILER WARNING!! If you have not read ALL 6 Dreamhouse Kings books, please do so before listening to this podcast. We don’t want the story to be spoiled for you.

Click here to read our review of Frenzy.

More about Robert:

Best-selling novelist Robert Liparulo is a former journalist, with over a thousand articles and multiple writing awards to his name.

His first two critically acclaimed thrillers—Comes a Horseman and Germ—were optioned by Hollywood producers. Bestselling author Michael Palmer calls Deadfall, released in November, 2007, “a brilliantly crafted thriller.” Liparulo’s young adult series, Dreamhouse Kings, debuted in May 2008, with House of Dark Shadows and Watcher in the Woods.

He is currently working with director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, The Guardian) on the novel and screenplay of a political thriller.

New York Times best-selling author Steve Berry calls Liparulo’s writing “Inventive, suspenseful, and highly entertaining . . . Robert Liparulo is a storyteller, pure and simple.”

Liparulo lives in Colorado with his family.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

More about Erin:

Erin Healy is an award-winning editor and co-author of the supernatural thrillers Kiss (Thomas Nelson, 2009) and Burn (Thomas Nelson | January 2010) with Ted Dekker. Now, Healy presents her solo debut novel, Never Let You Go (Thomas Nelson | May 2010 | 9781595547507 | Trade Paper | $14.99), a new brand of fiction building on her work with Dekker that melds supernatural suspense with relational drama.

Healy is the owner of WordWright Editorial Services, where she has specialized in fiction book development for the past eight years. She has worked with popular authors such as Frank Peretti, James Scott Bell, Melody Carlson, Colleen Coble, L. B. Graham, Brandilyn Collins, Rene Gutteridge, Michelle McKinney Hammond, Robin Lee Hatcher, Denise Hildreth, Denise Hunter, Jane Kirkpatrick, Gilbert Morris, Lisa Samson, Randy Singer and Robert Whitlow.

Healy earned her bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in communication studies from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., and began her career as an editor for Christian Parenting Today during the mid-1990s. After advancing from assistant editor, to associate editor, to editor while working for the magazine, she moved on to serve as a book editor for WaterBrook Press. She founded WordWright Editorial Services in 2002.

Healy began working for Dekker the same year, editing 12 of his well-known, heart-pounding stories, before collaborating with him as a co-author on Kiss. Her first novel, Kiss is the story of Shauna, who wakes from a coma to find she is responsible for a terrible accident that left her brother permanently disabled and her recent memories erased. She discovers she has a paranormal ability to steal memories from others, a capability that she uses to clear her name and find out what really caused the car accident.

Burn is the story of one woman’s ultimate betrayal of friends and family and the far-reaching consequences of her actions, featuring overarching themes of good vs. evil, guilt and regret, and the grace of second chances.

Her solo debut Never Let You Go follows a devoted, hard-working single mother who lives in the shadow her estranged husband’s choices and a family tragedy. When troubling elements from her past suddenly return, her tenuous grip on life and her loved ones is threatened. Staggering supernatural events begin spilling into her world, proving that Hell’s fury is great, but Heaven’s power is greater still.

Healy currently resides in Colorado Springs, Colo., with her husband, Tim, and two children. She is the director of the Academy of Christian Editors, as well as a member of International Thriller Writers and the American Christian Fiction Writers. Visit www.erinhealy.com for more information.

Check out our review of Never Let You Go here.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Tim Downs is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Indiana University. After graduation in 1976 he created a comic strip, Downstown, which was syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate until 1986. His cartooning has appeared in more than a hundred major newspapers worldwide. Tim’s first book was awarded the Gold Medallion Award in 2000, and his third novel, PlagueMaker, was awarded the Christy Award for best CBA suspense novel of 2007. Tim lives in Cary, North Carolina, with his wife Joy. He has been featured on many high-profile talk radio programs based on his expert knowledge, stemming from research for his novels.

Visit Tim online at www.authortimdowns.com.

Check out our reviews of Wonders Never Cease.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

JEREMY ROBINSON is the author of seven novels including PULSE and INSTINCT, the first two installments of his Chess Team series published by Thomas Dunne, and imprint of St. Martin’s Press. His novels have been translated into eight languages. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.

For more information, free podcast novels, video content, news and contests, visit his Web site at www.jeremyrobinsononline.com, where you can connect with Robinson via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or e-mail.

Check out our reviews of Pulse and Instinct.

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Read our review of Unwilling Warrior here.

More about Andrea:

Andrea Boeshaar has been married for over 30 years. She and her husband Daniel have 3 grown sons and 4 grandchildren.

Andrea has been writing stories and poems since she was a little girl; however, it wasn’t until 1991, after she became a Christian, that she answered God’s call to write exclusively for the Christian market. Since then Andrea has had more than 25 novels published as well as numerous novellas and nonfiction pieces.

Andrea served on the Advisory Board of ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and is one of the organization’s cofounders. Andrea is represented by literary agent, Steve Laube.

In addition to her own writing, Andrea is a certified life coach and helps writers organize, prioritize, set goals, and work toward publication. For more on Andrea, visit her web site at: www.andreaboeshaar.com

You can also subscribe to our podcast via iTunes.

Check out our review of Cool Beans here.

More about Erynn:

Erynn Mangum is twenty-five and the author of the Lauren Holbrook series (Miss Match, ReMatch, and Match Point (NavPress 2007-2008), the Maya Davis series (Cool Beans, Latte Daze, and Double Shot (Navpress 2010)) and Sketchy Behavior (Zondervan 2011). She is a graduate of the Christian Writer’s Guild Apprentice and Journeyman programs. She’s a major chocoholic, loves chick-flicks, coffee, cold winter days and hanging out with friends and family. Erynn is married to her best friend, Jon O’Brien.

You can also hear this interview by subscribing to our podcast on iTunes.

More about Jodi Thomas:

A fifth-generation Texan who once taught family living, Jodi Thomas chooses to set the majority of her novels in her home state, where her grandmother was born in the back of a covered wagon.  With each new addition to her ever growing booklist, Jodi takes you to the heart of Texas.

With a degree in Family Studies, Thomas is a marriage and family counselor by education, a background that enables her to write knowledgeably about relationship dynamics. She is known for her expertise in historical research and genealogy, as well.

Honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumnus by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Thomas enjoys interacting with students on the West Texas A&M University campus, where she currently serves as its Writer In Residence.

When not working on a novel or inspiring students to pursue a writing career, Thomas enjoys traveling with her husband, Tom, renovating a historic home they bought in Amarillo, and “checking up” on their two grown sons.

Yo can also subscribe to our podcast through iTunes.

More about Mike Dellosso:

Mike Dellosso is the author of three novels of suspense, The Hunted, Scream, and newly-released Darlington Woods. Publishers Weekly described his writing as psycho-spiritual suspense. In addition to writing, Mike’s “real job” is in physical therapy, and he is also an adjunct professor of writing at Lancaster Bible College. He lives in Hanover, PA with his wife, three daughters, and black Lab, Josie.

You can also subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.

More about David Baldacci:

David Baldacci was born in Virginia, in 1960, where he currently resides. He received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Mr. Baldacci practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., as both a trial and corporate attorney.

David Baldacci has published seventeen novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, Saving Faith, Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, The Christmas Train, Split Second, Hour Game, The Camel Club, The Collectors, Simple Genius, Stone Cold, The Whole Truth, Divine Justice, and First Family; and in his young adult series, Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! and Freddy and the French Fries: The Adventures of Silas Finklebean. He has also published a novella for the Dutch entitled Office Hours, written for Holland’s Year 2000 “Month of the Thriller.” Baldacci authored a short story, “The Mighty Johns,” as part of a mystery anthology published in 2002.

His works have been in numerous worldwide magazines, newspapers, journals, and publications. Baldacci has authored seven original screenplays. His books have been translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. All of his books have been national and international bestsellers. Over 90 million copies of Mr. Baldacci’s books are in print worldwide.

Check out our reviews of Deliver Us from Evil here.

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More about Eric Wilson:

Eric Wilson credits his childhood as a missionary kid in Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia, for his becoming a novelist. He grew to love language and the arts. In high school, he added basketball and track and field to his interests.

After graduating from college, Eric was encouraged by his wife to “write what was in his heart.” He penned a pair of supernatural thrillers, Dark to Mortal Eyes (2004) and Expiration Date (2005). He followed these with two Aramis Black mysteries, The Best of Evil (2006) and A Shred of Truth (2007). He’s recently done novelizations for the surprise theatrical hits, Facing the Giants, Flywheel, and Fireproof, which was on the NY Times best-seller list for seventeen weeks and sold 250,000 copies.

His most recent project is the Jerusalem’s Undead Trilogy. The first book, Field of Blood (’08) was followed by Haunt of Jackals (’09), with the finale Valley of Bones coming in April 2010.

Eric has worked as a youth pastor, warehouse manager, cabinet maker, espresso shop owner–and now, at last, a novelist. He and his wife, Carolyn Rose, have been married nearly twenty years and live with their two teenaged daughters in Nashville, TN.

Websites: WilsonWriter.com and JerusalemsUndead.com

Don’t miss our review of Valley of Bones and our autographed giveaway.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

More about Andrew Klavan:

Andrew Klavan is the author of such internationally bestselling novels as True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Don’t Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas.  He has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award five times and has won twice.  His books have been translated around the world.  His latest novel for adults, Empire of Lies, was about media bias in the age of terror, and topped Amazon.com’s thriller list.  He has also begun publishing a series of thrillers for young adults, The Homelanders, which follows a patriotic teenager’s battle against jihadists.  The latest book in the series is The Long Way Home.

Andrew is a contributing editor to City Journal, the magazine of the Manhattan Institute.  His essays and op-eds on politics, religion, movies and literature have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, and elsewhere.  His video feature, “Klavan on the Culture,” can be found at PJTV.com.

As a screenwriter, Andrew wrote the screenplay to A Shock to the System, which starred Michael Caine, and to 2008’s One Missed Call, which stars Ed Burns and Shannyn Sossamon.  You can visit him online at www.andrewklavan.com.

Check out our review of The Long Way Home.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

More about Ted Dekker:

Ted Dekker was born to missionaries who lived among the headhunter tribes of Indonesia. Because his parents’ work often included extended periods of time away from their children, Dekker describes his early life in a culture to which he was a stranger as both fascinating and lonely. It is this unique upbringing that forced him to rely on his own imagination to create a world in which he belonged.

After leaving Indonesia, Dekker graduated from a multi-cultural high school and took up permanent residence in the United States to study Philosophy and Religion. Upon earning his Bachelor’s Degree, he entered the corporate world and proceeded to climb the proverbial ladder. But his personal drive left him restless and, after many successful years, he traded corporate life for wide range of entrepreneurial pursuits that included buying and selling businesses, healthcare services, and marketing.

In the early nineties while visiting a friend who had just written a book, Dekker decided to pursue a long held desire to be a novelist. Over the course of two years he wrote two full length novels before starting from scratch and rewriting both. Now fully enamored by the the process and the stories, he realized that storytelling was in his blood and a new obsession to explore truth through story gripped him anew.

He sold his business, moved his family to the mountains of Western Colorado and began writing full-time on his third novel. Two years and three novels later his first novel, Heaven’s Wager, was published.

Now, eight years from the publication of his first novel, Dekker’s novels had sold over 3.4 million copies worldwide. Two of his novels, Thr3e and House, have been made into movies with more in production.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

See our reviews of The Bride Collector here.

More about Sibella:

Sibella Giorello grew up in Alaska and majored in geology at Mt. Holyoke College. After riding a motorcycle across the country, she worked as a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. She now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

More about Sigmund Brouwer:

SIGMUND BROUWER is the best-selling author of Flight of Shadows and eighteen other novels, with over three million books in print. Over the last two decades, his literacy presentations have taken him from the Arctic Circle to inner city Los Angeles. Sigmund is married to recording artist Cindy Morgan, has two young daughters. They split their time between his home town of Red Deer, Alberta, and Nashville, Tennessee.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

More about Patricia Falvey:

I was born and raised by my grandmother in Newry, Northern Ireland. At the age of eight I was brought to England to live with my parents. Never feeling a sense of belonging I set off, as we Irish are wont to do through dint of our DNA, to find my fortune in the New World. I was twenty years old and had $200 in my pocket. I landed in New York and made my way via Greyhound bus to Omaha, Nebraska.

After two years working for the Job Corps, I arrived in Boston hoping to complete my University education, I received a foreign student scholarship from Suffolk University where I enrolled as an English major. However, my limited financial resources being what they were, I succumbed to the pressure to switch my major to Business and thus occurred an abandonment of my dream of becoming a writer – an abandonment that was to last over 30 years.

When I first arrived in the U.S. I had hopes of a career as a writer. However, limited economic means steered me towards a more financially reliable profession. Even though my professional career was in the financial environment, I never lost my love for writing. Over the years I participated in numerous writing seminars, including attendance at Wesleyan University Writers’ Conferences in Connecticut, The Fine Arts Workshops in writing at Provincetown, Mass., and the International Women’s Writers Guild conferences at Skidmore College in New York. I belonged to writers’ groups both in Connecticut and Dallas, where I currently reside. In June of 2007, I finally made the decision to leave my position with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP, and devote myself full time to my first love – writing.

“The Yellow House” is essentially the story of a young woman’s search for home. No matter how long we spend “away” I believe we Irish immigrants always think of Ireland as home. I know I certainly do. And this book is my way of paying tribute to my birthplace. (www.patriciafalvey.com)

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

More about J.S. Earls:

J.S. Earls was born in 1969 in Dunedin, Florida. He then lived in Georgia, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Wisconsin before eventually returning home to the Sunshine State.

Throughout his childhood, J.S. frequently divided his time between writing, illustration and music. In high school, he co-created a comic with then best friend and now fellow author Dwight L. MacPherson which outsold Superman and Spider-Man in local stores. A few years later, his music group won the Tampa Bay area award for Best Alternative Christian Band.

He then began writing — primarily for local entertainment magazines — and then as a ghost writer on the legendary Steve Roper & Mike Nomad syndicated strip. The next year, he created The Sorrow anti-child-abuse anthologies and his historic, critically-acclaimed Pistolfist comic. After this J.S. was hired to script six volumes of Zondervan’s Manga Bible and five Thomas Nelson graphic novels based on the works of bestselling author Ted Dekker.

Last year, J.S. began writing and producing an interactive audiogame called The Realm Unseen. National Geographic was so impressed with this project that they enlisted him to write three interactive story games for their online audience. Now, while awaiting the release of The Realm Unseen and the upcoming trade paperback edition of Pistolfist, J.S. is feverishly working on his first novel — an action/comedy/thriller currently titled I Kill Me.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

You can read Lori’s review of The Pastor’s Wife here.

More about Jennifer:

As a child, Jennifer AlLee lived above a mortuary in the heart of Hollywood, California, which may explain her unique outlook on life. Her publishing credits include The Love of His Brother, a contemporary romance from Five Star Publishing (November 2007) as well as skits, activity pages, and over one hundred contributions to Concordia Publishing House’s popular My Devotions series. Her latest novel, The Pastor’s Wife, releases February 1, 2010 from Abingdon Press. She’s an active member of American Christian Fiction Writers and serves as the Nevada Area Coordinator. Jennifer resides in the grace-filled city of Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and teenage son. Visit her website at http://www.jenniferallee.com/

This interview can also be downloaded from iTunes (recommended for best quality).

You can read Jake’s review of Every Breath You Take here.

More about Travis Thrasher:

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

This quote from Stephen King’s novella, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, sums up the goal of every single one of Travis Thrasher’s novels: providing hope. As the novelist of twelve works of fiction, Travis has spent a decade fighting against being typecast and labeled.

“It’s a natural thing for novelists to be put into a box,” Travis says. “My goal has always been to tell stories about flawed characters who find redemption, whether it’s in a love story or a supernatural thriller.”

Having lived in places as diverse as Munich, Germany, and Sydney, Australia, during his youth, Travis moved to the Chicago area during his junior year of high school. That’s where he has remained.

After graduating from Trinity Christian College, Travis landed a job at Tyndale House Publishers as Author Relations Manager. He worked for over a decade in that position, acting as liaison between the publisher and the authors. But writing always came first, and Travis was fortunate to have his first novel published in 2000. It was THE PROMISE REMAINS, a sweet love story in the vein of Nicholas Sparks.

“I wrote six or seven dark, ambitious novels that went nowhere,” Travis says. “It was only after writing a simple love story about unrequited love that I got my first break.”

Getting that first book published was a dream come true, but Travis always saw himself having multiple books in print. Travis’s drive and imagination have allowed him to see a variety of books published: from love stories (THE WATERMARK; THREE ROADS HOME) to suspense (GUN LAKE; ADMISSION; BLINDED) to drama (THE SECOND THIEF; SKY BLUE) to supernatural thrillers (ISOLATION; GHOSTWRITER).

“I tell people this is not the way to build a writing career, but I’m thankful I’ve been able to build mine the way I wanted to. I want to entertain and surprise readers, and to continue to build a readership that will take journeys with me, whether they’re going to 1929 Brazil or current day Geneva, Illinois.”

2010 will mark a decade of publishing for Travis. It will also be a significant year with the release of BROKEN by Faithwords in May and SOLITARY by Cook in August.

“I’m excited about these two upcoming stories that will surely surprise and move readers,” Travis says. “BROKEN is about a young woman who is just that—broken and bruised by this world. SOLITARY is the first in a teen series that combines a love story with the supernatural. Both are powerful stories.”

His goal continues to be to tell powerful and moving stories that will reach fiction readers of all types. As a fulltime novelist for over two years, Travis feels he’s still just warming up.

“There are things I learn about the writing process and about myself with every novel. I believe my best stories are still in front of me, waiting to be discovered like a buried treasure. I’m thankful that I’m able to dig a little more every day.”

Travis lives with his wife and three-year-old daughter in a suburb of Chicago.

This interview can also be downloaded via iTunes (recommended for best quality).

More about C.J.:

C. J. began writing the story that would become her first novel Thicker than Blood when she was a fifteen-year-old homeschool student. She has been in the antiquarian book selling business for over a decade, scouting for stores similar to the one described in Thicker than Blood before co-founding her own online bookstore. Thicker than Blood was the winner of the 2008 Christian Writers Guild Operation First Novel.

In 2006 C. J. started the Christian entertainment Web site TitleTrakk.com with her sister, Tracy, and has been actively promoting Christian fiction through book reviews and author interviews. She makes her home in Pennsylvania with her family and their menagerie of dogs and cats.

When she’s not writing, she’s reading. Her hobbies include book and art collecting, fly fishing, painting and drawing.

This interview can also be downloaded via iTunes (recommended for best quality).

More about Joe:

Joe Schreiber was born in Michigan but spent his formative years in Alaska, Wyoming and northern California. Until recently, he has never lived in the same address for longer than a year. Before settling in Hershey he lived in New York, Boston, Martha’s Vineyard, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland (OR), and Philadelphia. Becoming a parent forced him to consider a career with more reliable income, and he got a job as an MRI tech at Hershey Medical Center. Joe is married and has two children. He is the author of Chasing The Dead, Eat The Dark, and his newest tale of terror; No Doors, No Windows, which went on sale the same day as STAR WARS: DEATH TROOPERS. You can find him on the web at his blog ScaryParent.Blogspot.Com and on Suvudu.Com, where he is an occasional horror columnist.

You can read our review of Star Wars: Death Troopers here.

This interview can also be downloaded via our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

You can read Tim’s review of No Less Than Victory here.

More about Jeff:

Jeff Shaara, a descendant of Italian immigrants, was born in 1952 in New Brunswick, New Jersey (“Shaara” was originally spelled “Sciarra”). He grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and graduated from Florida State University in 1974, with a degree in Criminology. From age 16, Jeff operated a rare coin business, first out of his home, then in a retail store. In 1974, he moved to Tampa, Florida, and eventually, Jeff became one of the most widely known coin and precious-metals dealers in Florida. In 1988, Jeff’s father, the writer Michael Shaara, died, and Jeff made the decision to sell his business, and take over the management of his father’s estate.

In 1993, the film Gettysburg was released, which was based on his father’s classic novel, The Killer Angels. After the critical and commercial success of the film, Jeff was approached about the possibility of continuing the story, finding someone to write a prequel and sequel to The Killer Angels. After some considerable soul-searching, Jeff decided to try to tackle the project himself. The decision was difficult in many ways, but most challenging because Jeff had no previous experience as a writer.

In 1996, Ballantine Books published Jeff’s first novel, Gods and Generals, the prequel to his father’s great work. Gods and Generals leapt onto the New York Times Bestseller List and remained there for fifteen weeks. Critics nationwide praised the book and Jeff’s writing ability, and the book was awarded the American Library Association’s William Young Boyd Award. No one was more surprised than Jeff himself. In 1998, the sequel, The Last Full Measure, was published with the same result: thirteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and universal praise from critics and fans nationwide. Two years later, Jeff published his third novel, Gone For Soldiers, which followed many of the familiar Civil War characters back to their experiences in the Mexican-American War of the 1840’s. Received with much critical acclaim, the book became Jeff’s third nationwide bestseller.

Leaving the Civil War era behind, Jeff’s next two novels, Rise To Rebellion and The Glorious Cause, took readers back to the extraordinary characters of the American Revolution. Both were, again, bestsellers. Moving forward, Jeff then tackled the First World War. To The Last Man, released in 2004, was not only Jeff’s sixth bestseller, but also received extraordinary praise from notable figures such as General Tommy Franks, Steve Forbes and General Wesley Clark. In addition, To The Last Man was awarded the American Library Association’s William Young Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, Jeff’s second such award. In February, 2003, the major motion picture Gods and Generals, based on Jeff’s first book, was released by Warner Brothers. Jeff Shaara’s Civil War Battlefields, Jeff’s only non-fiction work, was published in April, 2006, and is a unique and personal tour across ten of this country’s most valuable pieces of hallowed ground. In 2007, Jeff was named to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Civil War Preservation Trust.

Jeff’s eighth book, The Rising Tide, was published in November 2006. The story is the first of what will become a trilogy following an extraordinary cast of characters through the European theater of the Second World War. The Rising Tide was again a New York Times bestseller. The centerpiece of the trilogy, The Steel Wave, which follows key participants through the Normandy invasion was a New York Times bestseller in 2008.

On November 3, 2009, NO LESS THAN VICTORY, the conclusion of Jeff’s World War II trilogy, which portrays the European war’s last act, was published by Ballantine Books.

After many years spent in New York City and the mountains of Montana, Jeff has returned to Florida and lives in Sarasota.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

More about Mike Dellosso:

Mike Dellosso lives in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Jen, and their three daughters. He is the author of Scream, and The Hunted, a newspaper columnist, and has edited and contributed to numerous Christian Web sites. He received his BA from Messiah College and his MBS degree in theology from Master’s Graduate School of Divinity.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality).

You can read Lori Twichell’s review of Her Fearful Symmetry here.

More about Audrey Niffenegger:

Audrey Niffenegger was born in 1963 in the idyllic hamlet of South Haven, Michigan. Her family moved to Evanston, Illinois when she was little; she has lived in or near Chicago for most of her life.

She began making prints in 1978 under the tutelage of William Wimmer. Miss Niffenegger trained as a visual artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received her MFA from Northwestern University’s Department of Art Theory and Practice in 1991. She has exhibited her artist’s books, prints, paintings, drawings and comics at Printworks Gallery in Chicago since 1987.

Her first books were printed and bound by hand in editions of ten. Two of these have since been commercially published by Harry N. Abrams: The Adventuress and The Three Incestuous Sisters.

In 1997 Miss Niffenegger had an idea for a book about a time traveler and his wife. She originally imagined making it as a graphic novel, but eventually realized that it is very difficult to represent sudden time shifts with still images. She began to work on the project as a novel, and published The Time Traveler’s Wife in 2003 with the independent publisher MacAdam/Cage. It was an international best seller, and has been made into a movie.

In 1994 a group of book artists, papermakers and designers came together to found a new book arts center, the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. Miss Niffenegger was part of this group and taught book arts for many years as a professor in Columbia College’s MFA program in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts. She still teaches at Columbia College; currently she is teaching writing courses that specialize in text-image relationships. Miss Niffenegger has also taught for the Newberry Library, Penland School of Craft and other institutions of higher learning.

Miss Niffenegger is a founding member of the writing collective Text 3 (T3). Recent T3 endeavors include the litmag little Bang and some rather amusing dinner parties.

Miss Niffenegger’s second novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, was published in 2009 by Scribner (USA), Jonathan Cape (UK) and many other fine publishers around the world. She recently made a serialized graphic novel for the London Guardian, The Night Bookmobile, which will be published in book form in 2010. Other current projects include an art exhibit at Printworks Gallery in September, 2010, and a third novel, The Chinchilla Girl in Exile. (From www.AudreyNiffenegger.com)

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page (recommended for best quality)

More about Brandilyn and Amberly:

Brandilyn Collins, known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®, is the bestselling author of Violet Dawn, Coral Moon, Crimson Eve, Eyes of Elisha, and many other novels. She has written twenty-one books.

Amberly Collins is a junior in college in Long Beach, California, majoring in marketing. She’s active in her Alpha Phi sorority and dotes on her Yorkie puppy, Bear.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

Visit Brandilyn’s Web site at www.brandilyncollins.com.

More about Ace Collins:

Ace Collins is a master storyteller and an award-winning author with over sixty books to his credit. Collins released three new books in 2008, has four releasing in 2009 and two slated for 2010. The mystery and action-packed Farraday Road (Zondervan, Oct 2008) is Collins’ first novel, followed by Swope’s Ridge (Zondervan, Oct 2009), part 1 and 2 in the trilogy based on the exploits of Arkansas lawyer Lije Evans. 25 Days 26 Ways comes on the heels of his Stories Behind books, the newest being Stories Behind Men of Faith. Collins’ is also working on developing two additional fiction series for release in upcoming years.

Collins has made scores of television appearances, including Good Morning America, The Today Show, CBS This Morning, CNN, Fox and Friends, The NBC Nightly News, Entertainment Tonight, Court TV, E The Untold Story, At Home Live, The Early Show and Crook and Chase. Two of his books have been made into network TV specials, while he also hosted the ABC holiday offering “Lassie 280 Dog years On TV” on ABC. His book Father Does Know Best was made into a NBC movie of the week, while he averages more than 250 radio interviews.

In addition, Collins has also penned more than 2,000 magazine features for the likes of People, Us, Plus Magazine and Guideposts. For the past twenty years, he’s also been he editor and graphic designer for WME Magazine. He also hosts the nonprofit charity organization’s radio and television broadcasts. Collins has won numerous awards for his writing, including three Golden Quills, an America’s Writing Award and the Angel of Excellence Award. He has spoke to many groups and was a feature lecturer at the National Archives Author Series in Washington DC.

The Texas-based writer has been married for thirty-three years to Kathy Collins, the Associate Director for the Center for Learning and Development in Waco, Texas. The couple has two sons; Clint, a graduate of Baylor University who lives in Austin, and Rance, a student at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas.

Collins’ hobbies include restoring and driving classic cars. He currently owns a 1934 Auburn 652Y Sedan, a 1936 Cord 810 Westchester, a 1937 Lincoln-Zephyr Sedan, and a 1965 Mustang Fastback. He’s also a huge college basketball fan and a collector of movie memorabilia from the Golden Age of Hollywood and enjoying Art-Deco design.

On the non-fiction side, Collins recently released Stories Behind Women of Extraordinary Faith (Zondervan), followed by a companion book Stories Behind Men of Faith (Zondervan, 2009). Collins’ work with “The Stories Behind” series date back to 2001, with the bestseller The Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs of Christmas and The Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas, which topped the charts and has been translated and released in China, among others.

Also in 2009, Collins released Sticks & Stones: Using Your Words as a Power Force!, a book he has wanted to write for over a decade. The book shares stories of the incredible people Collins’ met over his illustrious career. His writing career began twenty-five years ago, and he has since penned more than sixty books, including bios of Evel Knievel and The Dixie Chicks, autobiographies with Lauren Chapin and The Cathedral Quartet, how to books, a book on the star players of the old Negro baseball league and two bestsellers with one of the biggest stars in entertainment history, the legendary Lassie.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

Athol Dickson’s novels have been favorably compared to the work of Octavia Butler (Publisher’s Weekly), Daphne du Maurier (FaithfulReader.com, by Cindy Crosby, Christianity Today fiction critic), and Flannery O’Connor (The New York Times). His They Shall See God was a Christy Award finalist. River Rising was selected as one of the Booklist Top Ten Christian Novels of 2006 and was a Christianity Today’s Best Novel of 2006 finalist. Both River Rising and The Cure won Christy Awards for best suspense novel. Winter Haven was a finalist for the 2009 Christy Award in the suspense category, making four novels in a row to receive that honor. His seventh novel, Lost Mission, was released in September, 2009. Athol lives with his wife in southern California.

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See Lori Twichell’s review of The Last Song here.

About Nicholas Sparks:

Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965. As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame.

After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.

He and his wife Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989. While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year, though again, it wasn’t published. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medalist and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release.

He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October, 1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), and Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), Three Weeks with my Brother (2004), True Believer (2005), At First Sight (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), and The Lucky One (2008). All were domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more than 40 languages. His newest book, THE LAST SONG will be made into a movie starring Miley Cyrus, in theaters in 2010.

The movie version of Message in a Bottle was released in 1999, A Walk to Remember was released in 2002, and The Notebook was released in 2004. The average domestic box office gross per film was $56 million — with another $100 million in DVD sales-making the novels by Nicholas Sparks one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood. The film version of Nights in Rodanthe was released in the fall of 2008 and starred Diane Lane and Richard Gere. Forthcoming movie adaptations of Nicholas Sparks’ books include DEAR JOHN, THE LUCKY ONE and THE LAST SONG.

Nichols Sparks is an avid athlete who runs daily, lifts weights regularly, and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He attends church regularly and reads approximately 125 books a year. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.

He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.

This interview can also be downloaded from our iTunes page.

More about Steven:

Critically acclaimed author Steven James has written more than twenty books, including the bestselling thriller series The Bowers Files. One of the nation’s most innovative storytellers, Steven developed his skill as a performer at East Tennessee State University (MA in storytelling). He lives in Tennessee with his wife and three daughters.

You can also listen to this interview via iTunes.

More about Travis:

Travis Thrasher is the author of eleven critically-acclaimed novels. He has written in several genres, starting in 2000 with the release of the sweet love story The Promise Remains. Since then, he’s tackled suspense, mystery, even adventure. His recent novels, Isolation and Ghostwriter, have delved into the supernatural realm. Travis worked for thirteen years in the publishing industry, leaving to write full-time in 2007. He lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife, Sharon, and their two-year-old daughter, Kylie.

You can also download this interview via iTunes.

Melanie Wells began her writing career by telling lies on the playground. An accomplished fiddle player (she went to SMU on a music scholarship), she is the author of the critically acclaimed Dylan Foster series: When the Day of Evil Comes, The Soul Hunter, and My Soul to Keep (Waterbrook/Multnomah, a Division of Random House). Melanie holds two masters degrees and is a licensed psychotherapist and licensed marriage and family therapist. She is the founder and director of The LifeWorks Group, P.A., a collaborative, creative community of psychotherapists (www.wefixbrains.com), with offices in Dallas and Ft. Worth. She lives in Dallas with her dog, Gunner, who wishes she would not spend so much time at her computer. Fun fact: Lyle Lovett and Robert Earl Keen have both signed her fiddle case.

About I Told Two Friends:

I Told Two Friends is an online campaign led by Dallas author, Melanie Wells, to rally book lovers to help fight adult illiteracy. Readers are invited to join our effort to raise $100,000 for the cause by purchasing Melanie Wells’ novel, My Soul To Keep, and encouraging two friends do the same. 100% of the author’s profits will go to ProLiteracy, an international non-profit whose mission is to end adult illiteracy worldwide. For more information please check out the I Told Two Friends Website.

Check out Melanie’s website here.

This interview can also be downloaded via iTunes.

More about Eric Wilson:

Born in California in 1966, raised in Oregon, and a traveler in over thirty-five countries, Eric comes to his writing with an international perspective and an eye for historical intrigue and struggles of faith.

While earning a B.A with high honors from Life Pacific College, he published non-fiction articles and served on the editorial staff for the campus newspaper. He married his wife, Carolyn Rose, after his junior year, in 1990, and they went on to youth-pastor together, run an espresso cart business, and raise two daughters who are both now in their teens.

After years of dreaming to be a novelist, Eric signed his first contract with WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, and published his first novel in 2004. Since that time, he’s written a total of ten novels, and will soon have a million words in print. His most recent book was based on the original screenplay of Fireproof, a grass-roots hit movie. The book spent 17 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into five languages, and has 250,000 copies in print.

Eric’s Website: www.wilsonwriter.com

Jerusalem’s Undead Website: www.jerusalemsundead.com

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More about Joseph Finder:

Joseph Finder, internationally bestselling author of eight novels, launches a new series in August 2009 with the publication of VANISHED. VANISHED introduces high-level corporate security consultant Nick Heller, and will be the first in a series of at least four books to be published by St. Martin’s Press.

Finder’s most recent book, POWER PLAY (2007), debuted at #7 on the New York Times list; before that, the international bestseller KILLER INSTINCT won ITW’s Thriller Award for Best Novel of 2006. Other bestselling titles include COMPANY MAN, PARANOIA, and HIGH CRIMES, which became a hit movie starring Ashley Judd & Morgan Freeman.

A summa cum laude graduate of Yale, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Finder did graduate work at the Harvard Russian Research Center. He lives in Boston with his wife, their teenage daughter, and a neurotic golden retriever, Mia, a dropout from seeing-eye-dog school.

Fore more information about Joseph Finder and his novels please visit his website, and check out our Vanished Giveaway details here.

You can also download this interview via iTunes.

You can also subscribe to our podcast feed on iTunes.

You can also subscribe to our podcast feed on iTunes.