December 1 – 7: “Is fear the most common emotion in a thriller?”

This week we’re talking with ITW members Jaden Terrel, Arlene Kay, Suzanne Chazin, William Nikkel, C. Hope Clark, Jack Soren, Patricia Stoltey, Nicholas Pengelley and Jerry Amernic and the topic is fear: “Is fear the most common emotion in a thriller? What other emotions run through your favorite thrillers?”

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Former Federal Executive Arlene Kay traded the trappings of bureaucracy for a career as a mystery novelist. Her work is known for fiendishly clever plots with a dollop of romance and a heaping side of humor. Published novels include Intrusion; Die Laughing; and The Abacus Prize (Mainly Murder Press LLC); and the Boston Uncommons series- Swann Dive; Mantrap; Gilt Trip; & Swann Song (Bellbridge books). Ms. Kay holds graduate degrees in Political Science and Constitutional Law.

Jerry Amernic’s new novel The Last Witness is about the last living survivor of the Holocaust in 2039, but the world is abysmally ignorant of events from the last century. Amernic has produced a video showing how university students today don’t know much either. His biblical-historical thriller Qumran will be out soon, to be followed by the re-release of his earlier novel Gift of the Bambino, and later next year another historical thriller called Medicine Man.

William Nikkel is the author of five Jack Ferrell novels and a steampunk, zombie western featuring his latest hero Max Traver. A former homicide detective and S.W.A.T. team member for the Kern County Sheriff’s Department in Bakersfield, California, William is an amateur scuba enthusiast, gold prospector, and wildlife artist who can be found just about anywhere. He and his wife Karen divide their time between Northern California and Maui, Hawaii.

Jack Soren was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Before becoming a thriller novelist, Soren wrote software manuals, waited tables, drove a cab, and spent six months as a really terrible private investigator. He lives in the Toronto area.

Patricia Stoltey is the author of two amateur sleuth mysteries, The Prairie Grass Murders and The Desert Hedge Murders, as well as her newly released standalone suspense novel, Dead Wrong. She is co-editor of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog and maintains her personal blog where she frequently features guest authors and book reviews. Patricia lives in Northern Colorado with her husband and the very demanding Katie Cat.

Nick Pengelley lives in Toronto, Canada with his family. He has had a varied career as a law librarian and law professor (specializing in international commercial arbitration) in Australia, Canada and the U.K. He has also worked as an analyst for a major Canadian NGO that focuses on the culture and politics of the Middle East, a field about which he is passionate. He is currently a consultant on Australasian law.

Shamus award finalist Jaden Terrell is the author of three Jared McKean mysteries and a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries, a collection of exercises published by Tarcher/Penguin for writers of crime fiction. Terrell is the special programs coordinator of the Killer Nashville Thriller, Mystery, and Crime Literature Conference and a recipient of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

C. Hope Clark is author of The Carolina Slade Mysteries and the newly released Murder on Edisto, book one of The Edisto Island Mysteries. She’s published The Shy Writer and The Shy Writers Reborn, nonfiction motivational books, and is editor of FundsforWriters.com, chosen Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers for 14 years. She lives on Lake Murray in central South Carolina when she’s not strolling Edisto Beach.

Suzanne Chazin is the author of two thriller series. Her first, about the FDNY, include The Fourth Angel, Flashover and Fireplay. The series has been called “searing and emotionally explosive” (USA Today), and her heroine, fire investigator Georgia Skeehan, “incredibly strong” (People Magazine). Chazin’s newest mystery series stars Jimmy Vega, an upstate New York cop navigating the world of the undocumented. The first book in the series, Land of Careful Shadows, is due out in hardcover from Kensington on Nov. 25th. It has already garnered advance praise from Lee Child, Julia Spencer-Fleming, S.J. Rozan, Reyna Grande, Maggie Barbieri and Publishers Weekly, which called the book, “timely and engrossing,” and Jimmy Vega, “engaging, psychologically complex.” A former journalist, Chazin’s essays and articles have appeared in American Health, Family Circle and the New York Times.