October 13 – 19: “Is there room to eat amidst all the chasing?”

We’ve covered weather, descriptions, and settings. This week we cover food, as ITW Members M.C. Grant, Rob Brunet, Alex Shaw, Karen Traviss, Eric Red, Mauro Azzano, Robert Boeder, Rex Burns, Colin Campbell, Tom Wither and Alan Jacobson discuss the role of “food” in contemporary thrillers. Is there room to eat amidst all the chasing?

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Tom Wither is 25 year veteran of Air Force intelligence, with a Master’s degree in Computer Systems management, and intelligence certifications from the NSA and the Director of National Intelligence. He lives near Baltimore. His second novel is AUTUMN FIRE, a sequel to THE INHERITOR.  In AUTUMN FIRE, America’s deadliest enemy returns—and he’ll stop at nothing to carry out his catastrophic plot against the U.S. to restore the Islamic Caliphate.  As the man known only as Aziz carries out his brutal attacks, the dedicated intelligence and special ops force assigned to stop him—David Cain, Sergeant Thompson, FBI Agent Johnson, and navy SEAL Lieutenant Mathews—relentlessly pursue him across the globe in their covert operation, codenamed AUTUMN FIRE.

Ex-policeman. Ex-soldier. International tennis player. And full-time crime novelist. Colin Campbell is a retired police officer in West Yorkshire, having tackled crime in one of the UK’s busiest cities for 30 years. He is the author of UK crime novels, BLUE KNIGHT WHITE CROSS and NORTHERN EX, and US thrillers JAMAICA PLAIN and MONTECITO HEIGHTS featuring rogue Yorkshire cop Jim Grant. He counts Lee Child and Matt Hilton among his fans.

Eric Red is a Los Angeles based motion picture screenwriter, director and author. His films include The Hitcher, Near Dark, Blue Steel, Cohen And Tate, Body Parts, Bad Moon and 100 Fee. His first novel, Don’t Stand So Close, is available from SST Publications. His second and third novels, The Guns Of Santa Sangre and It Waits Below, are available from Samhain Publishing. His fourth novel, White Knuckle, will be published by Samhain in 2015.

Mauro Azzano was born in Italy, north of Venice. He grew up in Italy, Australia and finally Canada, settling with his family on the west coast outside Vancouver, Canada. He has a broad experience to call on as a writer, having worked as a college instructor, commercial pilot, IT specialist and a number of other unusual occupations. Currently, he is writing the Ian McBriar Murder Mystery series and training as a distance runner.

National bestselling author Alan Jacobson’s twenty years of research and training with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, DEA, US Marshals Service, SWAT, NYPD, Scotland Yard, and the US military bring unparalleled realism to his stories and characters. Jacobson’s thrillers have made numerous “Best Books of the Year” lists, they’ve been published in a dozen countries, five have been optioned by Hollywood…and James Patterson, Nelson DeMille, and Michael Connelly have called series protagonist FBI profiler Karen Vail one of the most compelling heroes in suspense fiction. Visit him on Facebook and Twitter: @JacobsonAlan

Alex Shaw spent the second half of the 1990s in Kyiv, Ukraine, teaching and running his own business consultancy before being head-hunted for a division of Siemens. The next few years saw him doing business across the former USSR, the Middle East, and Africa. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers organisation, the Crime Writers Association and the author of the Aidan Snow SAS thrillers. Alex, his wife and their two sons divide their time between homes in Kyiv, Ukraine and Worthing, England.

#1 New York Times best-selling novelist, scriptwriter and comics author Karen Traviss has received critical acclaim for her award-nominated Wess’har series, and her work on Halo, Gears of War, Batman, and other major franchises has earned her a broad range of fans. She’s best known for military science fiction, but GOING GREY, the first of her new techno-thriller series, is set in the real world of today. A former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, she lives in Wiltshire, England.

Among Rex Burns‘ 18 books, The Alvarez Journal won an Edgar, and another, The Avenging Angel, became a Charles Bronson film. His articles appear in periodicals and anthologies, and his series of Aboriginal short stories runs in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. His latest novel, Crude Carrier, was published by Mysterious Press (print, e-format, audio) on 7 October 14.

M.C. Grant is Grant McKenzie, an award-winning screenwriter, editor, and novelist. He is the author of SWITCH and NO CRY FOR HELP (both published by Bantam TransWorld UK). His short stories have been featured in the First Thrills anthology edited by Lee Child (Tor/Forge), and Out of the Gutter and Spinetingler magazines. His first screenplay won a fellowship at the Praxis Centre for Screenwriting in Vancouver. As a journalist, he worked in virtually every area of the newspaper business, from the late-night “dead body beat” at a feisty daily tabloid to editor at two of Canada’s largest broadsheets. Born in Glasgow, Grant currently resides in Victoria, British Columbia.

Rob Brunet’s award-winning short crime fiction appears and is forthcoming in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Thuglit, Shotgun Honey, and Out of the Gutter. Before writing noir, Brunet produced award-winning Web presence for film and TV, including LOST, Frank Miller’s Sin City, and the cult series Alias. He lives in Toronto and loves beaches, the bush, and bonfires.

Robert Boeder is the author of two thrillers, Red Star Over Pattaya set in Thailand, and Zambezi River Bridge that takes place in Southern Africa. He has also published the prize winning historical novel The Chinese Laundry and Silverton Burning, both set in Southwestern Colorado as well as two non-fiction works on long distance trail running, Beyond the Marathon and Hardrock Fever. Boeder divides his time between Colorado and Thailand.