September 29 – October 5: “Dialogue can be tricky. How do you do it?”

We have a full house this week and ITW Members Karen Harper, Kira Peikoff, Sharon Linnea, Ethan Cross, Patrick Oster, David Swatling, Ovidia Yu, Toni L.P. Kelner, Jon McGoran, Reed Farrel Coleman, B.K. Sherer, A. J. Kerns and David Healey are discussing dialogue. It can be tricky, as the author has to give each character a unique voice that is also distinct from his or her own. How do you do it?

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Jon McGoran is author of Drift, a critically acclaimed thriller about biotechnology and genetically engineered foods, and its newly released sequel, Deadout, which expands on those themes and also looks at the mysterious disappearance of honeybee populations worldwide. Writing as D. H. Dublin, he is also the author of the forensic thrillers Body Trace, Blood Poison and Freezer Burn. He is currently working on the follow-up to Deadout, due out in 2015.

Sharon Linnéa is the co-author of the bestselling Eden thrillers (CHASING EDEN, BEYOND EDEN, and TREASURE OF EDEN), as well as the mystery THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS and award-winning biographies. She lives outside of New York City with her family.

Leigh Perry is Toni L.P. Kelner in disguise, or maybe vice versa. As Leigh, she writes the Family Skeleton mysteries. As Toni, she’s the co-editor of New York Times best-selling anthologies with Charlaine Harris. She’s also the author of the “Where Are They Now?” mysteries and the Laura Fleming series (all available as e-books and audiobooks), and an Agatha Award winner for short fiction. Leigh/Toni lives just north of Boston with her husband and fellow author Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., their two daughters, and two guinea pigs.

Reed Farrel Coleman has published twenty-one novels and novellas and will be continuing Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series. He is a three-time Shamus Award winner and a three-time Edgar Award nominee. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. He is an adjunct English instructor at Hofstra University and a founding member of MWA University. He lives with his family on Long Island.

Patrick Oster is a managing editor at Bloomberg News in New York. He was previously editor-in-chief of the National Law Journal and has worked for Business Week in Europe, Knight Ridder in Mexico, and covered the White House, State Department, and the CIA as Washington Bureau Chief of The Chicago Sun-Times. His reporting in Mexico won an Overseas Press Club award. He won a Worth Bingham award for investigative reporting of the Reagan administration and three ABA Silver Gavel awards for coverage of the Supreme Court and other legal topics. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. His thriller “THE COMMUTER” was published in 2014 by Perseus Books Argo Navis imprint. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers.

David Healey has been a journalist, librarian and teacher. He has written several novels, including mysteries such as, “The House that Went Down with the Ship” and his recent World War II thriller, “Ghost Sniper.” His nonfiction books include “Great Storms of the Chesapeake” and “1812: Rediscovering Chesapeake Bay’s Forgotten War.”  When not writing, he enjoys hiking, working on his old house, and exploring historical sites.

B. K. Sherer is a Presbyterian minister who currently serves on active duty as a chaplain in the U.S. Army. Her work has taken her to Argentina, Korea, Somalia, and Iraq. She holds masters degrees from Princeton Seminary and U.S. Army War College, and a doctorate from Oklahoma State.

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Karen Harper is a former high school teacher and university (The Ohio State University) English instructor. The winner of The Mary Higgins Clark Award, Harper is the author of 60books, including contemporary suspense and historical novels. Her books are published in many foreign languages, and she is a bestseller in the UK and Russia.

Kira Peikoff is a writer based in New York City. She graduated with high honors from New York University in 2007 with a degree in journalism, after four years of various reporting internships: covering street crime for The Daily News, writing about Capitol Hill for The Orange County Register in Washington, D.C., reporting on business and technology for Newsday, and researching feature stories for New York magazine. After completing her first book, LIVING PROOF, Peikoff worked for several years in the editorial departments at two New York publishing houses, which gave her an invaluable inside look at the publishing process and the rapidly changing industry. Her latest thriller NO TIME TO DIE will be released in Fall 2014. Peikoff is working on her third thriller, freelancing for a variety of major media outlets, and attending Columbia University’s Master of Science program in Bioethics.

Ethan Cross is the international bestselling and award-winning author of THE SHEPHERD, THE CAGE, CALLSIGN: KNIGHT, BLIND JUSTICE, and THE PROPHET—a novel described by bestselling author Jon Land as “The best book of its kind since Thomas Harris retired Hannibal Lecter,” while #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner said, “The surprises are fast and furious and will leave you breathless to read more.” His latest book in the Shepherd series, FATHER OF FEAR, is in the stores.

David Swatling grew up in New York, studied theatre, and moved to Amsterdam in 1985. He produced arts and culture programs for Radio Netherlands and is three-time winner of the NLGJA Excellence in Journalism Award. CALVIN’S HEAD is his first novel.

Singaporean writer Ovidia Yu has had over thirty plays produced in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, including ’3 Fat Virgins’, ‘The Woman In A Tree On The Hill’ (Edinburgh Fringe First) and ‘Hitting (On) Women’ (Singapore Audience Award, Singapore Life! Theatre Awards Best Original Script). Her children’s book THE MUDSKIPPER (Scholastic, 2012) was runner up for the Scholastic Asian Book Award. Her Singaporean Murder Mystery series (AUNTY LEE’S DELIGHTS 2013 and AUNTY LEE’S SPECIAL POISONS, 2014) is published by William Morrow/ Harper Collins.

Arthur Kerns is a retired FBI supervisory special agent and past president of the Arizona chapter of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO). His award-winning short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. He is a book reviewer for the Washington Independent Review of Books. In March 2013 Diversion Books, Inc. published his espionage thriller, The Riviera Contract and in May 2014 the sequel, The African Contract.