N. M. Cedeño lives near Austin, Texas and writes mystery short stories and novels. Her mysteries vary from traditional mysteries, to suspense, to science fiction in genre. Her romantic suspense novel, All In Her Head, was published in 2014 by Lucky Bat Books. Her science fiction mystery A Reasonable Expectation of Privacy was published by Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine in 2012 and nominated for best short story in the 2013 Analog Readers Poll. The story tied for third place in the poll. Her second novel, a near-future mystery entitled For the Children’s Sake, was published in 2015 and selected for a book award by the East Texas Writers Guild in 2016. She is currently working on her Bad Vibes Removal Services Series which includes two sets of shorts stories and the novel, The Walls Can Talk. More short stories and another novel in the series are coming soon.
The N stands for Noreen, an uncommon name in Texas, but not in Ireland, (and apparently also common in Pakistan, according to information received from my neighbor). The M stands for Marie, a very common name in multiple languages and countries.
Although she lives near Austin, the author has also lived in Houston, Dallas, Plano, and Amarillo. She is a native Texan.
N. M. attended the University of Texas at Austin as a Plan II student. Plan II students were, at that time, known as “the Undecided” or “the double majors who never sleep” depending on how well they were able to direct their curiosity.
The author is married and has three children, a German shepherd mix-breed dog, and a red-eared slider turtle, who are all native Texans, too. The husband, however, is not a native Texan. He got here as fast as he could, so we forgive him for being born elsewhere and for speaking something other than Texan as his first language.
Helen Currie Foster is the author of the Alice MacDonald Greer Mystery series. She earned a BA from Wellesley College, an MA from the University of Texas, and a JD from the University of Michigan.
Having grown up in Texas surrounded by books and storytelling, she taught high school English and later became a prize-winning feature writer for a small Michigan weekly. Following a career of more than thirty years as an environmental lawyer, the character Alice and her stories suddenly appeared in Foster’s life. In her writing, Foster explores the interaction between history and the present and the reasons we tell the stories we do.
Married with two children, she lives north of Dripping Springs, Texas, supervised by three burros. She works in Austin, and she’s active with the Hays County Master Naturalists and the board of Austin Shakespeare.
K.P. Gresham, author of the Pastor Matt Hayden Mystery series and Three Days at Wrigley Field, moved to Texas as quick as she could. Born Chicagoan, K.P. and her husband moved to Texas, fell in love with not shoveling show and are 30+ year Lone Star State residents. She finds that her dual country citizenship, the Midwest and Texas, provide deep fodder for her award-winning novels. Her varied careers as a media librarian and technical director, middle school literature teacher and theatre playwright and director add humor and truth to her stories. A graduate of Houston’s Rice University Novels Writing Colloquium, I.P. now resides in Austin, Texas, where life with her tolerant but supportive husband and narcissistic Chihuahua is acceptably weird.
Renee Kimball loves books and reads widely–literary and genre fiction, autobiography and memoir, humor, psychology, philosophy, and religion among them. She has a master’s degree in Criminal Justice and is involved in rescuing, fostering, and finding forever homes for homeless dogs. She’s working on a novel set in the southwestern United States.
A native New Yorker and a Texas transplant, Francine Paino, aka F. Della Notta, loves learning about her new State and enjoys melding the cultures and characteristics of two cities: New York and Austin.
Appropriately, the Live Music Capitol of the World is where she and her husband now live, under the watchful and loving direction of their cat, Miss Millie.
Ms. Paino has had a varied career in the business end of dance. She has worked for several dance notables, including Ali Pourfarrokh, and the late Kaleria Fedicheva. Her passion for ballet, opera, and history fuel much of her writing.
Her first book, a Young Adult, Paranormal murder mystery, TO LIVE AND DIE FOR DANCE, received recognition from Purple Dragonfly and The Hollywood Book Festival, and her children’s book, MAMA’S LITTLE LADY: A SPECIAL PONY, also won an award from the Purple Dragonfly Book Contest.
Her short stories, “An Unwelcome Image,” a psychological thriller was published in Over My Dead Body, an online mystery magazine, and one of her humorous tales, “A Supermarket Nightmare,” was carried in Funny Times Magazine.
In 2018, writing as F. Della Notte, she created the Housekeeper Mystery Series in the tradition of the clergy amateur sleuths, with a 21st-century twist. The housekeeper isn’t a sidekick; she is the sleuthing equal of the priest. The second book in the Housekeeper Mystery Series, CATWALK DEAD, will be released in 2019.
Contact: franpaino@gmail.com OR fdellanotte72@gmail.com
WEBSITES: www.francinepaino.com/ and fdellanotte.com/
M. K. Waller, aka Kathy, is a former teacher, former librarian, former paralegal, and former pianist at various small churches desperate for someone who could find middle C.
She writes crime fiction, literary fiction, humor, memoir, and whatever else comes to mind. Her short stories appear in the Silver Falchion Award winner Murder on Wheels, Austin Mystery Writers’ first crime fiction anthology, and in their second, Lone Star Lawless, as well as in other print publications and online. She’s working on a mystery novel. She blogs at Telling the Truth–Mainly.
Memories of growing up in a small town on the San Marcos River in Central Texas, and life in a large extended family, inspire much of her work. She now lives in Austin with two cats and one husband.
Ink-Stained Wretches 