April 11 – 17: “How do you create fresh and unique action scenes?”

Creating fresh and unique action scenes comes with the territory of writing thrillers. This week we ask the question on everyone’s mind: How do you do it? Join ITW Members Allison Brennan, Lisa Preston, Joe Hart, E. M. Powell, Thomas Kirkwood, Connie Archer, Reece Hirsch, Bobby Nash, Adrian Magson, Jeffery Hess, Ryan Quinn and Dustin Dodd for this can’t miss discussion.

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Allison Brennan is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 27 thrillers and numerous short stories. She currently writes two series, the Maxine Revere cold case mysteries and the Lucy Kincaid/Sean Rogan romantic thrillers. Allison lives in Northern California with her husband, five kids, and assorted pets.

Ryan Quinn is the best-selling author of The Good Traitor, End of Secrets, and The Fall. A native of Alaska, Quinn was an NCAA DI Champion while on the University of Utah Ski team. He worked in book publishing for five years in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles where he writes and trains for marathons.

Thomas Kirkwood is an international author best known for his Cold War thrillers. His novels have been published by Macmillan, Collier Macmillan (Europe), Penguin (Donald I. Fine), Signet, Amazon, Brilliance (audio), ACX (audio) and Stjerne-Spenning (Europe). After years in the EU, he now makes his home in Salida, Colorado. His new release, THE THIRTEENTH DISCIPLE: A REQUIEM FOR AMERICA, describes how the world’s oldest democracy set itself up to become the world’s newest dictatorship.

Bobby Nash is an award-winning author. He writes novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, and the occasional screenplay for a variety of publishers and production companies. He is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and International Thriller Writers. For more information on Bobby Nash and his work, please visit him at www.bobbynash.com and across social media and say hi.

E.M. Powell’s medieval thriller Fifth Knight series have been #1 Amazon and Bild bestsellers. Book #3, THE LORD OF IRELAND, is out April 2016. Born and raised in the Republic of Ireland into the family of Michael Collins (the legendary revolutionary and founder of the Irish Free State), she lives in northwest England with her husband, daughter and a Facebook-friendly dog. As well as contributing to The Big Thrill, she blogs for English Historical Fiction Authors and reviews for the Historical Novel Society.

Lisa Preston turned to writing after careers as a fire department paramedic and a city police officer. Experience in her earlier professions enhance the medical and legal passages of her fiction and non-fiction. Her debut novel, Orchids and Stone, was released by Thomas & Mercer in April 2016, and has been described both as a thriller and as domestic noir. Her published work includes non-fiction books and articles on animals, particularly the care and training of dogs and horses. Away from her desk, she spends hours on backcountry trails as a runner and rider, sometimes combining her two outdoor pursuits via the obscure sport of Ride and Tie.

Connie di Marco, writing as Connie Archer, is the national bestselling author of the Soup Lover’s Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. The fifth in the series, A Clue in the Stew, will be released April 5, 2016. Some of her favorite recipes can also be found in The Cozy Cookbook and The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook.

Reece Hirsch is the author of four thrillers that draw upon his background as a privacy attorney. His first book, The Insider, was a finalist for the 2011 International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. His next three books, The Adversary, Intrusion, and Surveillance, all feature former Department of Justice cybercrimes prosecutor Chris Bruen. Hirsch is a partner in the San Francisco office of an international law firm and co-chair of its privacy and cybersecurity practice. He is also a member of the board of directors of The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and a small, unruly dog.

Born in New York and raised on Florida’s Gulf coast, Jeffery Hess served six years aboard the Navy’s oldest and newest ships and has held writing positions at a daily newspaper, a Fortune 500 company, and a university-based research center. He is the editor of the award-winning anthologies Home of the Brave: Stories in Uniform and Home of the Brave: Somewhere in the Sand (Press 53). He holds an MFA in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte and his writing has appeared widely in print and online. He lives in Florida, where he leads the DD-214 Writers’ Workshop for military veterans.

Adrian Magson is the author of 20 crime and spy thrillers, a YA ghost novel and ‘WRITE ON!’ – a writers’ help book. His latest books are ‘THE LOCKER’ (Midnight Ink), the first in a new thriller series featuring private security investigators Ruth Gonzales and Andy Vaslik, and ‘HARD COVER’, the third in the Marc ‘Watchman’ Portman series of spy thrillers.

Dustin Dodd was born and raised in the heart of the Central Valley of California in Clovis. He graduated in four years from California State University, Fresno, with a Bachelor of Science in Criminology with an emphasis in Law Enforcement and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He also attended California State University, Long Beach, where he graduated with a Master’s in Public Administration. Dustin served on the street with his K9 partner Kota for over four years. It was from his exploits as a K9 handler, Bomb Squad technician, SWAT breacher, and detective that he crafted Savage Justice, his first novel with several more on the way.