July 13 – 19: “Which determines character behavior the most – cultural background, education, or wealth?

Which determines character behavior the most, cultural background, education, or wealth? That’s the pressing question this week as ITW members Lynette Eason, Haris Orkin, Melissa Kosci, Paul D. Marks, Colin Campbell, Elizabeth Goddard, Otho Eskin, Elisabeth Rose, TG Wolff, Emily Liebert and Frank Zafiro weigh in with their thoughts. Check out this great group of authors and their latest novels below, and scroll down to the “comments” section to follow along. You won’t want to miss it!

Lynette Eason writes for Revell and Harlequin. Her books have appeared on the CBA, ECPA, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists. In 2016, Lynette placed in the top ten in the James Patterson co-writers contest. She has won numerous awards including the Killer Nashville’s Reader’s Choice Award, the Christian Retailing’s Best Award and more. In 2018, Lynette’s novel, Her Stolen Past was made into a Lifetime Movie Network. Lynette is a member of ACFW, RWA, MWA, ITW, FHL and KOD.

Emily Liebert is the USA Today bestselling author of seven books—Facebook Fairytales, You Knew Me When, When We Fall, Those Secrets We Keep, Some Women, Pretty Revenge, and Perfectly Famous. Emily is also the Books Correspondent for Moffly Media, a Connecticut magazine conglomerate. She’s been featured often in the press by outlets such as: Today Show, The Rachael Ray Show, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, InStyle, and Good Housekeeping.

Ex-army, retired cop, and former scenes of crime officer, Colin Campbell served with the West Yorkshire police for 30 years. He is the author of the UK crime novels Blue Knight, White Cross and Northern Ex, and the US thrillers featuring rogue Yorkshire cop Jim Grant.

Haris Orkin is an author, playwright, screenwriter, and game writer. His play Dada premiered at The La Jolla Playhouse. A Saintly Switch was produced by Disney and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. His games have been nominated for the WGA Award and the BAFTA. His debut novel, You Only Live Once, was published by Imajin Books in 2018.  The sequel, Once is Never Enough, was released in April.

Elizabeth Goddard is the bestselling author of more than 40 books, including Never Let Go, Always Look Twice, and the Carol Award–winning The Camera Never Lies. Her Mountain Cove series books have been finalists in the Daphne du Maurier Awards and the Carol Awards. Goddard is a seventh-generation Texan.

TG Wolff writes thrillers and mysteries that play within the gray area between good and bad, right and wrong. Cause and effect drive the stories, drawing from 20+ years’ experience in civil engineering, where “cause” is more often a symptom of a bigger, more challenging problem. Diverse characters mirror the complexities of real life and real people, balanced with a healthy dose of entertainment. T G Wolff holds a master’s degree in civil engineering and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Frank Zafiro was a police officer in Spokane, Washington, from 1993 to 2013. He retired as a captain. He is the author of numerous crime novels, including the River City novels and the Stefan Kopriva series. He lives in Redmond, Oregon, with his wife Kristi, dogs Richie and Wiley, and a very self-assured cat named Pasta. He is an avid hockey fan and a tortured guitarist.

Melissa Kosci is a fourth-degree black belt in and certified instructor of Songahm Taekwondo. In her day job as a commercial property manager, she secretly notes personal quirks and funny situations, ready to tweak them into colorful additions for her books. She and Corey, her husband of twenty years, live in Florida, where they do their best not to melt in the sun.

Paul D. Marks is the author of the Shamus Award-Winning mystery-thriller White Heat. His short stories have won numerous awards: Windward was included in the Best American Mystery Stories of 2018 and won the Macavity Award. His story Ghosts of Bunker Hill was voted #1 in the 2016 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Award. Brendan DuBois, NY Times best-selling author, says Paul’s latest novel The Blues Don’t Care is “finely written” and “highly recommended.”

Multi-published in romance and romantic suspense, Elisabeth Rose lives very happily in Canberra with her musician husband. Travel is a big part of their lives now that the family has left home. Elisabeth’s original training was in clarinet performance, but she was also a tai chi instructor for 25 years. An avid reader, her preference is for a happy ending regardless of genre, and she is most annoyed if a main character dies or leaves—unless, of course, it’s the villain.

A lawyer and former diplomat, Otho Eskin served in the US Army and in the United States Foreign Service in Washington and in Syria, Yugoslavia, Iceland and Berlin (then the capital of the German Democratic Republic). He was Vice-Chairman of the US delegation to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, participated in the negotiations on the International Space Station, was principal US negotiator of several international agreements on seabed mining and was the US representative to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. He speaks French, German and Serbo-Croatian. He was a frequent speaker at conferences and has testified before the US Congress and commissions. Otho Eskin has also written plays including: Act of God, Murder As A Fine Art, Duet, Julie, Final Analysis, Season In Hell, among others, which have been professionally produced in Washington, New York and in Europe. Otho is married and lives in Washington, DC.