OUR MEMBERS
Joanne writes romantic suspense, romantic thriller, paranormal, supernatural suspense, and contemporary romance. She loves to submerge herself in the world of her characters, to live and breathe their lives, and marvel at their decisions and predicaments. She enjoys a wide variety of books including paranormal, suspense, thriller, mystery, and of course romance.
Joanne is a PAN member of Romance Writers of America, (RWA), Kiss of Death, (KOD), Greater Seattle Romance Writers Chapter, (GSRWA), Sisters in Crime, (SIC), and Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal, (FFPRWA). She served as President of Peninsula Romance Writers, which was Debbie Macomber’s home chapter.
Grace writes romance in women’s fiction, life issues for the over 50 group, contemporary, Christian suspense, and dragon fantasy…as well as poetry/prose, and self-help.
Along with writing, she is a successful editor, artist, and mom to two adult sons, and a beautiful cat, named Bou. She enjoys old movies, promoting independent musicians, artists, and authors, and creating new adventures.
CHAD ELLIOTT
He performs more than 200 shows each year and is lauded as “Iowa’s Renaissance man” by Culture Buzz. He has cultivated more than 1,000 songs in his career while also honing his skills as a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and author.
In August 2018, Chad released his 20th album, Wreck & Ruin, recorded at the famous Sun Studios in Nashville.
He resides in Iowa with his wife, Alyssa, and their children.
CYNTHIA LAND
Cynthia comes from the fast-paced world of broadcast news. As a reporter and anchor at KOMO radio in Seattle, she’s gone from interviewing CEOs including Starbucks Howard Schultz to breaking news of earthquakes.
She left broadcast in 1996 to pursue a career in high-tech public relations, working for several start-up companies. At the turn of the century, she shifted her focus, did a 180 and became a yoga teacher. In 2002 Cynthia opened Expansions Yoga in Silverdale, WA. The following year she began the tradition of Yoga in the Park, offering free yoga classes at Evergreen Park in nearby Bremerton, WA. Those classes eventually moved to Waterfront Park in Silverdale.
Along the way, she studied with renowned teachers Rodney Yee, Tias Little, Rod Stryker, and Erich Schiffmann gaining valuable advanced teaching experience. In 2004, Cynthia became a licensed massage therapist and worked in a chiropractic office for several years. Her specialty is Thai Yoga Massage. In 2005, Cynthia started teaching yoga classes at Olympic College in Bremerton. She brings a wealth of both yogic and anatomical knowledge to her teaching, making certain that students receive a safe and rich practice.
Jacquolyn McMurray and her husband live on a macadamia nut farm on the island of Hawaiʻi where they feed a clowder of cats and a flock of hodgepodge chickens.
Jacquolyn is a member of the Romance Writers of America, the Greater Seattle Romance Writers and the American Christian Fiction Writers.
When she’s not writing, Jackie enjoys spending time with her family, reading, sewing, and solving crossword puzzles. In a past life, she was an elementary school teacher.
LORI ROBERTS
Lori Roberts is an educator, historian, author, and presenter for historical events and workshops. She has taught for twenty-seven years. Currently, she teaches United States History at the Middle School level and presents the personas of Mrs. General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (Mary Anna Morrison Jackson), as well as Corrie Ten Boom, Concentration Camp survivor, the 1st First Lady of Indiana, Ann Gilmore Hay Jennings, and First Lady Martha Washington.
Lori writes historical fiction and paranormal/mystery. She lives in rural southern Indiana with her husband. She has three grown children and eight grandchildren.
Kristine Raymond didn’t figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up until later in life. You guessed it! It’s being an author. Since writing and publishing her first book in 2013, she’s gone on to complete two romance series – one historical western and one contemporary – write an anecdotal, non-fiction short about her first year as an indie author and try her hand at contemporary erotic drama.
When she’s not writing, she’s learning how to navigate the publishing and promotional side of the business. When she’s not doing that, she enjoys spending time with her husband and furry family, reading, gardening, and binge-watching shows on Netflix.
KRISTINE RAYMOND
When she’s not writing, she’s learning how to navigate the publishing and promotional side of the business. When she’s not doing that, she enjoys spending time with her husband and furry family, reading, gardening, and binge-watching shows on Netflix.
Darlene Kuncytes is the best-selling author of The Supernatural Desire series. She was born and raised in Ohio, and still happily resides there. She's a complete smart ass with a wicked sense of humor who has been told on more than one occasion that she is irritatingly chipper in the mornings. And, honestly, she really could care less! She is the eternal optimist, and you can usually find her with a coffee mug in hand and a smile on her face ~ causing all kinds of trouble.
A popular radio personality in his native Iowa, Dennis's adventures as a DJ have been covered by newspapers from Anchorage to Los Angeles. He has also worked on the stage, TV, and independent film.
By day, he is the general manager of Iowa's only jazz radio station, KCCK-FM. And if it's 5:30 am, you can probably find him in the pool, working out with the Milky Way Masters swim club.
His novel, TRAVELER, a sci-fi thriller in the tradition of Daniel Suarez and Dean Koontz, has a 4-star review average on Amazon. It scored in the Top Ten in the Ben Franklin Independent Publishing awards.
The adventures of parallel universe-jumping cop Trav Becker continue in PRISONER. The final volume of the trilogy, HUNTER, is due in 2019.
KIM HORNSBY
Kim's Dream Jumper Series is optioned for film with the first movie scheduled to begin filming next year on Maui. She's won the Chanticleer Paranormal Mystery Thriller Award, was nominated for Best Indie First Book and was a finalist in the Rone Award. As a screenwriter, she has won multiple awards including Best Feature Screenplay at Royal Wolf Film Festival.
In her former life: Kim taught scuba in Fiji and Hawaii, as a singer opened shows for Jay Leno and Jamie Foxx, once found a boa constrictor under her bed, has taken supplies to remote Nicaraguan villages, dived with dolphins, humpback whales, and sharks, and was the host of an international infomercial.
These days she writes books outside Seattle, overlooking a tree-lined lake.
LINDA BOULANGER
Along with being an author, she designs book covers for herself and others through Tell~Tale Book Covers and TreasureLine Designs, all from her desk just north of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tell~Tale Book Covers is the baby of author Linda Boulanger, who happens to be an award-winning cover designer as well. Linda works with authors from around the world to provide their readers with that all-important first glimpse of what they'll find on the pages inside. Teaming up with bestselling authors, debut authors, and everyone in between, her main objective is to make sure every author she works with falls in love with his/her cover and she claims success by that measure alone.
RALPH DUNCAN
I learned early in life that producing something with your hands not only allows you to realize your creative vision but also gives you a feeling of self-sufficiency. Throughout my life, I started to develop a passion for art of all kinds, influenced by some explorations early in life and a grandmother who was a well-known New Mexico painter.
Over time, this passion manifested itself through carving wood, building studio furniture, and generally exploring various art mediums. However, intrigued by the exploration of light and shadows that graphite drawing provides I began a formal atelier program led by the artist Jonathan Hardesty to hone my classical drawing skills.
Today, I strive to create visual art that has a clear basis in drawing skills and shows a liberal use of mixed media. My work is very much inspired by the work of accomplished artists and teachers like Mary Whyte, Ian Murphy, and Eileen Sorg. Most of the time my subject matter comes from the sea and my life as a sailor, deep-sea diver, lover of the ocean, pilot, engineer and designer, and naval officer.
Ruth Ross Saucier was born and raised on the continental U.S., where its only fjord meets its only rain forest. A cynical dreamer from the age of three, she began college still vaguely dreaming of being America’s first woman astronaut. However, a traumatic encounter with third-quarter calculus found her relinquishing her spacey dreams, rejecting her mother’s sensible advice, and majoring in Russian literature. Ultimately she recaptured some common sense when she reverted to type and finished library school.
A generalist by nature, she rejected the notion of a Ph.D., preferring instead to know a little about a lot of things, the perfect temperament for a community college library dean. Today, after 37 years of writing, editing, and wrangling a variety of nonfiction and fiction, she is retired to a life of writing, editing, and investigating any and all curiosities she deems fascinating.
She lives under the watchful gaze of the Olympic Mountains, somewhere out west of the waters west of Seattle, with two elderly rescue Chihuahuas, Chrissie Maybelle and Beedler Bee.
RUTH ROSS
A generalist by nature, she rejected the notion of a Ph.D., preferring instead to know a little about a lot of things, the perfect temperament for a community college library dean. Today, after 37 years of writing, editing, and wrangling a variety of nonfiction and fiction, she is retired to a life of writing, editing, and investigating any and all curiosities she deems fascinating.
She lives under the watchful gaze of the Olympic Mountains, somewhere out west of the waters west of Seattle, with two elderly rescue Chihuahuas, Chrissie Maybelle and Beedler Bee.
LEXA FISHER
Lexa writes seasoned romance—romance between characters who are over forty. Her characters value integrity in a partner and a relationship founded on trust. Gratitude and thanks are predominant themes in her cards, and sparkle is always an element in her designs.
If she had to depend on her green thumb she wouldn’t survive a year, but for some inexplicable reason year after year she tries to grow edible plants.
 |
MAZIE |
**********************
Group Posts
11/01/2019 Happy Birthday Originality by Design!
12/25/2018 Merry Christmas by the OBD Members
Honored to be included among such a talented group of people!
ReplyDelete