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ABOUT THE EDITORS
Juliet Blackwell, aka Hailey Lind, is the pseudonym for a mystery author who, together with her sister, wrote
the Art Lover’s Mystery Series--including the Agatha-nominated Feint of Art and the IMBA bestsellers Shooting
Gallery and Brush with Death. The fourth in the series, Arsenic and Old Paint, will be released in fall, 2010.
See more information on this series at www.haileylind.com. Juliet’s new paranormal Witchcraft Mystery
series begins with Secondhand Spirits (July, 2009), about a witch with a vintage clothing store in the Haight-
Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Cast-off Coven will be the second in the series.
If These Walls Could Talk, to be released in 2010, is the first in the Sophie Tanner Historic Home Renovation
series about a failed anthropologist running her father’s high-end construction company. A former
anthropologist and social worker, Juliet has worked in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Italy, the Philippines, and France.
She currently resides in a happily haunted house in Oakland, California, where she is a muralist, portrait
painter, and recipient of the overly zealous attentions of her neighbor’s black cat, who seems to imagine
himself her new familiar. Juliet/Hailey is two-term president of Northern California Sisters in Crime.
Naomi Hirahara, born and raised in Southern California, is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai
mystery series (Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, Snakeskin Shamisen), which features a
Japanese American gardener and atomic-bomb survivor. Her crime short stories are featured in Los Angeles
Noir, Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics, A Hell of a Woman, and The Darker Mask. She also writes fiction for
younger readers and contributes a mystery serial to an English-language weekly in Japan. Her fourth Mas
Arai mystery, Blood Hina, will be released in 2010. She is a proud member of Sisters in Crime. Her web site
is www.naomihirahara.com.
Eric Stone worked for many years as a writer, reporter, photographer, editor and publisher in the U.S. and
Asia, covering everything from economics to crime; politics to sex, drugs and rock & roll. He once wrote an
advice to the lovelorn column for a bi-lingual (English-Chinese) fashion magazine. He has traveled the world
for both work and play. He now lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of the four Ray Sharp novels:
SHANGHAIED, FLIGHT OF THE HORNBILL, GRAVE IMPORTS and THE LIVING ROOM OF THE DEAD. The
books are set in Asia and based on stories that Eric covered. He is also the author of the true crime / sports
biography, WRONG SIDE OF THE WALL, the story of Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb, the greatest prison baseball
player of all time.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Paul D. Marks: La-La Land native Paul Marks now lives in a semi-rural area of L.A. County. He has had over
twenty stories published, including Netiquette, which won first place in the Futures Short Story Contest. Dem
Bones was a finalist in the Southern Writers Association contest. His novel White Heat took second place in
the South West Writers contest. And his story Endless Vacation won Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train's
Very Short Fiction competition. His story Terminal Island appears in the Fall 2009 issue of Weber: The
Contemporary West. He has also published several non-fiction articles in various newspapers and
magazines and has lectured on writing at UCLA, Cal State San Bernardino, Learning Tree, as well as writers'
organizations. He works as a script doctor and is currently working on a novel set in the L.A. homefront during
World War II.
Terri Nolan’s love of words started when she wrote her autobiography at seven. By nine she was reading
Vogue feature articles and Playboy interviews. In high school she was nearly suspended for reading The
Exorcist. She argued that since the campus allowed cigarette smoking she should be able to read banned
fiction because reading didn’t kill. She won the argument and avoided punishment. Terri entered college with
the idea of becoming a journalist. She worked at a small paper and experienced modest success when
some of her short stories were published in literary journals. Then rock-and-roll beckoned. She began work
in broadcasting and earned a B.A. in Radio/Television. Today, she writes novels, short stories and feature
articles.
Pam Ripling ("Just Like Jay") feels like a Southern California native since she’s lived here all but two years of
her life. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley made it easy for her to become involved in drama and film,
and the studios were some of her favorite haunts. She would later write about some of those experiences.
Pam, who also writes under pen name Anne Carter, started her writing career as a short story author and
poet; her first credits came from Thema and Peace Magazine. She later found success in full length fiction
and has authored a series of paranormal romantic mysteries set in California lighthouses, among them
POINT SURRENDER and CAPE SEDUCTION. Pam lives in Santa Clarita with her husband and three
children, and says she wouldn’t live anywhere else. She is delighted to a part of "Murder in La La Land."
Jack Maeby: A lifelong professional musician, Jack Maeby began writing fiction while on tour in the 1990s. He
was the recipient of a James Kirkwood Literary Award, and his debut novel, "The Thorazine Mirrorball", was
runner-up in the 2008 Preditors and Editors Poll for mystery novels. As a musician, he has performed and
recorded with Etta James, Carly Simon, Aaron Neville and jazz greats Bernard Purdie and Howard Roberts.
He has composed music for numerous films and television shows, and was a Clio nominee for original
music scoring. He can be heard regularly playing in jazz on both coasts.
Jane DiLucchio is the author of the Diega DelValle mystery, Relationships Can be Murder. When not writing,
she can be found digging in the garden, giving a massage, cooking, or reading with a cat in her lap. For the
money-making portion of her life, she is a professor at a community college. She and her partner are the
proud servants of three cats.
Gabriela Vazquez is a graduate of Pomona College and holds a Certificate in Feature Film Writing from the
UCLA Writer’s Program. Her screenplay WRESTLING WITH ANGELS won 3rd Place in the Diane Thomas
Screenwriting Awards. In her first novel, WHAT COMES TO BEAR, two seemingly unconnected murders, a
corpse found floating in San Francisco Bay and a woman gunned down on a street south of Market, lead
private investigator Tom Wells into a clandestine world of government intelligence agencies where no one
can be trusted and no one is accountable.
Jude McGee spent many years as a journalist, Hollywood Bureau Chief of Media Presse Internationale, an
international news agency, even more time as drive-time radio talk show host in Los Angeles, and a
commentator and humorist for public radio's Marketplace before deciding she wanted to write mysteries
when she grew up.
Patricia Morin is a published author, licensed psychotherapist with masters in Counseling Psychology and
Clinical Social Work, and is also a certified herbalist. Her writing accomplishments include: mystery
anthology Little Sisters, Vol 1,"The Pool Room" (Shannon Road Press, CA, 2007); Third Place humorous-
mystery prize winner in Deadly Ink Anthology, "In the Rough" (Deadly Ink Press, NJ, 2008); humorous-mystery
Honorable Mention in Deadly Ink Anthology, "Under the Boardwalk" (Deadly Ink Press, NJ, 2009), and Second
Place prize in Words For Dollars literary website for her memoir, "Grandpa Hoeler and the Race Riots". The
inner complexities of the human mind play a strong part in her stories.
Kathy Kningston: A transplanted New Yorker, Kathy has worked as a bank teller, fashion model, grocery store
cashier, and for the past 27 years as an award winning landscape contractor. Late in life, she decided to get
serious about writing. After a writing class and an inspiring professor at Santa Monica College got her
started, she joined Sisters in Crime. She submitted a story for the new anthology, Murder in La La Land, and
it was accepted, making her dream of becoming a published writer come true. Short stories are her favorite
writing format, but she also has a novel in the works. She lives in Venice, California with a huge stack of
books, a very tall husband, her music producer son and fashion model daughter, an uppity cat and a
Chihuahua.
Donna May grew up in Boston and taught English for a while before someone told her that she was an idiot
for not following her true passion. Ever since, she has been working in Hollywood on television shows such
as "ER," and "The West Wing," and is currently on the crew of NBC’s "Heroes." She has a BA from Oberlin
College, an MFA from UCLA, and she learned that this, her very first short story, was going to be published on
the night after her father died. She hopes he would have been proud.
Kathleen Piché is the Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and
is responsible for all media interface, publications and event coverage for the department. Kathleen has
previously published short fiction and is Editor in Chief and contributing writer of the Department’s weekly e-
newsletter "LACDMH E-News," and quarterly magazine, "Minds & Matters." For almost ten years, Kathleen
was a Patients’ Rights Advocate and represented the chronically mentally ill in probable cause hearings,
trained hospital and clinic staff about patients' rights and state mental health law, and investigated
complaints of abuse.
Lenore Carlson began studying playwriting in the 1980’s. The Recruiter, a one act, was selected as part of
the West Coast Ensemble’s tenth anniversary of plays. Palladium Is Moving, a two act, was given a
production at The Court Theatre in the early 1990’s. It received 8 Dramalogue awards, 2 LA Drama critic
choice nominations, and was on 3 critics choice lists. Mystery writing is a new venture for Lenore. Mrs.
Spacek is her first short story. She would like to thank The Writers Circle for their support, in particular Robert
S. Birchard, filmographer and writer, for his spot-on input.
For more information visit http://toppub.com
Juliet Blackwell, aka Hailey Lind, is the pseudonym for a mystery author who, together with her sister, wrote
the Art Lover’s Mystery Series--including the Agatha-nominated Feint of Art and the IMBA bestsellers Shooting
Gallery and Brush with Death. The fourth in the series, Arsenic and Old Paint, will be released in fall, 2010.
See more information on this series at www.haileylind.com. Juliet’s new paranormal Witchcraft Mystery
series begins with Secondhand Spirits (July, 2009), about a witch with a vintage clothing store in the Haight-
Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. Cast-off Coven will be the second in the series.
If These Walls Could Talk, to be released in 2010, is the first in the Sophie Tanner Historic Home Renovation
series about a failed anthropologist running her father’s high-end construction company. A former
anthropologist and social worker, Juliet has worked in Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Italy, the Philippines, and France.
She currently resides in a happily haunted house in Oakland, California, where she is a muralist, portrait
painter, and recipient of the overly zealous attentions of her neighbor’s black cat, who seems to imagine
himself her new familiar. Juliet/Hailey is two-term president of Northern California Sisters in Crime.
Naomi Hirahara, born and raised in Southern California, is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai
mystery series (Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, Snakeskin Shamisen), which features a
Japanese American gardener and atomic-bomb survivor. Her crime short stories are featured in Los Angeles
Noir, Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics, A Hell of a Woman, and The Darker Mask. She also writes fiction for
younger readers and contributes a mystery serial to an English-language weekly in Japan. Her fourth Mas
Arai mystery, Blood Hina, will be released in 2010. She is a proud member of Sisters in Crime. Her web site
is www.naomihirahara.com.
Eric Stone worked for many years as a writer, reporter, photographer, editor and publisher in the U.S. and
Asia, covering everything from economics to crime; politics to sex, drugs and rock & roll. He once wrote an
advice to the lovelorn column for a bi-lingual (English-Chinese) fashion magazine. He has traveled the world
for both work and play. He now lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of the four Ray Sharp novels:
SHANGHAIED, FLIGHT OF THE HORNBILL, GRAVE IMPORTS and THE LIVING ROOM OF THE DEAD. The
books are set in Asia and based on stories that Eric covered. He is also the author of the true crime / sports
biography, WRONG SIDE OF THE WALL, the story of Ralph "Blackie" Schwamb, the greatest prison baseball
player of all time.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Paul D. Marks: La-La Land native Paul Marks now lives in a semi-rural area of L.A. County. He has had over
twenty stories published, including Netiquette, which won first place in the Futures Short Story Contest. Dem
Bones was a finalist in the Southern Writers Association contest. His novel White Heat took second place in
the South West Writers contest. And his story Endless Vacation won Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train's
Very Short Fiction competition. His story Terminal Island appears in the Fall 2009 issue of Weber: The
Contemporary West. He has also published several non-fiction articles in various newspapers and
magazines and has lectured on writing at UCLA, Cal State San Bernardino, Learning Tree, as well as writers'
organizations. He works as a script doctor and is currently working on a novel set in the L.A. homefront during
World War II.
Terri Nolan’s love of words started when she wrote her autobiography at seven. By nine she was reading
Vogue feature articles and Playboy interviews. In high school she was nearly suspended for reading The
Exorcist. She argued that since the campus allowed cigarette smoking she should be able to read banned
fiction because reading didn’t kill. She won the argument and avoided punishment. Terri entered college with
the idea of becoming a journalist. She worked at a small paper and experienced modest success when
some of her short stories were published in literary journals. Then rock-and-roll beckoned. She began work
in broadcasting and earned a B.A. in Radio/Television. Today, she writes novels, short stories and feature
articles.
Pam Ripling ("Just Like Jay") feels like a Southern California native since she’s lived here all but two years of
her life. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley made it easy for her to become involved in drama and film,
and the studios were some of her favorite haunts. She would later write about some of those experiences.
Pam, who also writes under pen name Anne Carter, started her writing career as a short story author and
poet; her first credits came from Thema and Peace Magazine. She later found success in full length fiction
and has authored a series of paranormal romantic mysteries set in California lighthouses, among them
POINT SURRENDER and CAPE SEDUCTION. Pam lives in Santa Clarita with her husband and three
children, and says she wouldn’t live anywhere else. She is delighted to a part of "Murder in La La Land."
Jack Maeby: A lifelong professional musician, Jack Maeby began writing fiction while on tour in the 1990s. He
was the recipient of a James Kirkwood Literary Award, and his debut novel, "The Thorazine Mirrorball", was
runner-up in the 2008 Preditors and Editors Poll for mystery novels. As a musician, he has performed and
recorded with Etta James, Carly Simon, Aaron Neville and jazz greats Bernard Purdie and Howard Roberts.
He has composed music for numerous films and television shows, and was a Clio nominee for original
music scoring. He can be heard regularly playing in jazz on both coasts.
Jane DiLucchio is the author of the Diega DelValle mystery, Relationships Can be Murder. When not writing,
she can be found digging in the garden, giving a massage, cooking, or reading with a cat in her lap. For the
money-making portion of her life, she is a professor at a community college. She and her partner are the
proud servants of three cats.
Gabriela Vazquez is a graduate of Pomona College and holds a Certificate in Feature Film Writing from the
UCLA Writer’s Program. Her screenplay WRESTLING WITH ANGELS won 3rd Place in the Diane Thomas
Screenwriting Awards. In her first novel, WHAT COMES TO BEAR, two seemingly unconnected murders, a
corpse found floating in San Francisco Bay and a woman gunned down on a street south of Market, lead
private investigator Tom Wells into a clandestine world of government intelligence agencies where no one
can be trusted and no one is accountable.
Jude McGee spent many years as a journalist, Hollywood Bureau Chief of Media Presse Internationale, an
international news agency, even more time as drive-time radio talk show host in Los Angeles, and a
commentator and humorist for public radio's Marketplace before deciding she wanted to write mysteries
when she grew up.
Patricia Morin is a published author, licensed psychotherapist with masters in Counseling Psychology and
Clinical Social Work, and is also a certified herbalist. Her writing accomplishments include: mystery
anthology Little Sisters, Vol 1,"The Pool Room" (Shannon Road Press, CA, 2007); Third Place humorous-
mystery prize winner in Deadly Ink Anthology, "In the Rough" (Deadly Ink Press, NJ, 2008); humorous-mystery
Honorable Mention in Deadly Ink Anthology, "Under the Boardwalk" (Deadly Ink Press, NJ, 2009), and Second
Place prize in Words For Dollars literary website for her memoir, "Grandpa Hoeler and the Race Riots". The
inner complexities of the human mind play a strong part in her stories.
Kathy Kningston: A transplanted New Yorker, Kathy has worked as a bank teller, fashion model, grocery store
cashier, and for the past 27 years as an award winning landscape contractor. Late in life, she decided to get
serious about writing. After a writing class and an inspiring professor at Santa Monica College got her
started, she joined Sisters in Crime. She submitted a story for the new anthology, Murder in La La Land, and
it was accepted, making her dream of becoming a published writer come true. Short stories are her favorite
writing format, but she also has a novel in the works. She lives in Venice, California with a huge stack of
books, a very tall husband, her music producer son and fashion model daughter, an uppity cat and a
Chihuahua.
Donna May grew up in Boston and taught English for a while before someone told her that she was an idiot
for not following her true passion. Ever since, she has been working in Hollywood on television shows such
as "ER," and "The West Wing," and is currently on the crew of NBC’s "Heroes." She has a BA from Oberlin
College, an MFA from UCLA, and she learned that this, her very first short story, was going to be published on
the night after her father died. She hopes he would have been proud.
Kathleen Piché is the Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and
is responsible for all media interface, publications and event coverage for the department. Kathleen has
previously published short fiction and is Editor in Chief and contributing writer of the Department’s weekly e-
newsletter "LACDMH E-News," and quarterly magazine, "Minds & Matters." For almost ten years, Kathleen
was a Patients’ Rights Advocate and represented the chronically mentally ill in probable cause hearings,
trained hospital and clinic staff about patients' rights and state mental health law, and investigated
complaints of abuse.
Lenore Carlson began studying playwriting in the 1980’s. The Recruiter, a one act, was selected as part of
the West Coast Ensemble’s tenth anniversary of plays. Palladium Is Moving, a two act, was given a
production at The Court Theatre in the early 1990’s. It received 8 Dramalogue awards, 2 LA Drama critic
choice nominations, and was on 3 critics choice lists. Mystery writing is a new venture for Lenore. Mrs.
Spacek is her first short story. She would like to thank The Writers Circle for their support, in particular Robert
S. Birchard, filmographer and writer, for his spot-on input.
For more information visit http://toppub.com
| Top Publications, Ltd. to publish LA Sisters in Crime Anthology MURDER-IN-LALA LAND |
Dallas, Texas, December 1, 2009: Top Publications, Ltd., announced today that it has signed a contract
with the LA Chapter of Sisters in Crime to publish a third anthology entitled Murder-in-LA LA Land.
Previously Top Publications has published Murder on Sunset Strip and LAndmarked for Murder. This third
anthology will include 12 stories from authors Lenore Carlson, Kathleen Piché, Donna May, Kathy
Kningston, Patricia Morin, Jude McGee, Gabriela Vazquez, Jane DiLucchio, Jack Maeby, Pam Ripling, Terri
Nolan and Paul D. Marks.
with the LA Chapter of Sisters in Crime to publish a third anthology entitled Murder-in-LA LA Land.
Previously Top Publications has published Murder on Sunset Strip and LAndmarked for Murder. This third
anthology will include 12 stories from authors Lenore Carlson, Kathleen Piché, Donna May, Kathy
Kningston, Patricia Morin, Jude McGee, Gabriela Vazquez, Jane DiLucchio, Jack Maeby, Pam Ripling, Terri
Nolan and Paul D. Marks.
| MURDER-IN-LA-LA LAND, ISBN 978-1-929976-64-5, Trade Paperback, 250 pages, Top Publications, Ltd., $15.00, MAY 2010 CONTENTS Introduction by Michael Mallory CONTINENTAL TILT by Paul D. Marks HOBO JOE by Terri Nolan JUST LIKE JAY by Pam Ripling BEETHOVEN’S LAST CHORUS by Jack Maeby BLONDES HAVE MORE FUN by Jane DiLucchio AVERAGE MONSTER by Gabriela Vazquez DEATH IS GOLDEN by Jude McGee RAP SHEET by Patricia Morin THIS I KNOW by Kathy Kingston THE ACQUISITION by Donna May BOARD AND CARE by Kathleen Piche MRS SPACEK by Lenore Carlson |
| PRESS RELEASE |