January 7 – 13: “What is your New Year’s resolution for 2019?”

Happy New Year! As we enter 2019 we’re joined by ITW Members J. T. Ellison, Robert E. Kearns, Jess Montgomery, Larry Loftis, Mark Alpert, William L. Myers, Jr. and Samuel W. Gailey who will be discussing…what else? New Year’s resolutions, both writing related and perhaps even personal. Scroll down to the “comments” section to follow along – you won’t want to miss this!

Robert E. Kearns was born in Dublin in 1971. He worked in the Accounting and Finance Departments for a number of multi-national organizations in several industries both in Ireland and Texas where he lived for nine years. His world experiences and background are evident in the writing he employs, which conveys a maturity and discernment to the plot and characterizations. Robert currently lives and writes in Dublin. Hy Brasil, Island of Eternity is his first novel.

Samuel Gailey was raised in a small town in northeast Pennsylvania (population 379) and now resides on Orcas Island with his wife, author Ayn Gailey, and daughter. The Guilt We Carry is his second novel, following the critically acclaimed Deep Winter (Penguin). Gailey’s novels are intriguing studies of human nature and portray how the simplest act of fate can alter and shatter lives. Before writing novels, he wrote and developed shows for Showtime and Fox.

Jess Montgomery is the author of the Kinship Historical Mystery series, inspired by Ohio’s true first female sheriff and published by Minotaur Books. THE WIDOWS, the first book in the series, is set in 1920s Appalachia and follows two women who investigate murder and fight for their community. Jess is also a newspaper columnist, focusing on the literary life, authors and events of her native Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Daily News.

Larry Loftis is the international bestselling author of the nonfiction spy thriller, INTO THE LION’S MOUTH: The True Story of Dusko Popov — World War II Spy, Patriot, and the True Life Inspiration for James Bond.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J. T. Ellison writes standalone domestic noir and psychological thriller series, the latter starring Nashville Homicide Lt. Taylor Jackson and medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens, and pens the international thriller series “A Brit in the FBI” with #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter. Cohost of the EMMY Award-winning literary television series A Word on Words, Ellison lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens.

Mark Alpert is an internationally bestselling novelist and a contributing editor at Scientific American. His first thriller, Final Theory (Simon & Schuster, 2008), was published in twenty-four languages, optioned for film, and condensed for Reader’s Digest. His other novels include The Omega Theory (S&S, 2011), Extinction (St. Martin’s Press, 2013),  The Furies (SMP, 2014), and The Orion Plan (SMP, 2016). He has also written a trilogy of Young Adult science-fiction novels—The Six, The Siege, and The Silence, all published by Sourcebooks. His next thriller, THE COMING STORM, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in January 2019.

William L. Myers, Jr. is the No. 6 bestselling author for Amazon Kindle in 2017 for his debut. Once you pick up his legal thriller and bestselling novel, A Criminal Defense, it becomes obvious he is not new to the intricacies of the legal profession. Open A Criminal Defense and you’ll find yourself lost in a labyrinth of deceits and hidden agendas, a world where everyone has a secret. You never know what is going to happen next or when the plot is going to take another unexpected turn.