Albert Waitt

Albert Waitt is a long time resident of Kennebunkport, Maine.  His short fiction has appeared in The Literary Review, Third Coast, The Beloit Fiction Journal, Words and Images, Stymie:  A journal of sport and literature, and other places.  Waitt is a graduate of Bates College and the Creative Writing Program at Boston University.  He teaches Creative Writing for the University of Phoenix.  He also coaches youth basketball and softball when not putting in the miles around town.

Sandra Dutton

Sandra Dutton has published six books for children, the latest from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth.  Dutton has an A.B. in Fine Arts and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition, and taught English at the University of Louisville and New York Institute of Technology.  She was the founder, in 1982, publisher and editor of her own literary magazine, River City Review, in Louisville, Kentucky.  Her musical, Just a Matter of Time, was produced as an Equity Showcase at the Sage Theatre, Times Square, New York City.  She and her husband have four grown sons, six grandchildren, and live on Dancing Lamb Farm near Catskill, New York.

Kelly Brooks-Bay

Kelly Brooks-Bay has written stories all her life. She has used stories to work with students and children as a school counselor. Kelly earned her Master's Degree in Counselor Education in 2008 at the University of Maine. The Rainbow Pants is her first published work, but she has written for many online publications. Kelly lives in Maine with her hardworking and supportive husband and three fantastic sons.

Jen Blood

Born and raised in midcoast Maine, Jen Blood is author of the bestselling Erin Solomon mystery series. She began her writing career as a freelance journalist and editor as an undergraduate at Goddard College, and continued in graduate school at the University of Southern Maine, where she earned an MFA in Creative Writing/Popular Fiction. She was arts editor of the campus Free Press, editor and ghostwriter for the business publisher Aspatore Books, and did transcription, editing, and copywriting for award-winning filmmaker Richard Searls. After grad school, she traveled the country, continuing to study the writing craft and taking whatever jobs she could get in the field of writing. That included editing for the aforementioned Aspatore books, ghostwriting for Hyperink Press, proofreading manga for Random House, and editing zombie erotica (about zombies, not for them) for a publishing house out of L.A. She is currently once again based in the midcoast, where she is hard at work on the next Erin Solomon novel, and runs Adian Enterprises, providing writing, editing, and related consulting services for independent and traditionally published authors. Yes, Jen Blood is her real name.

Jayne Rowe Jones

Jayne Rowe Jones grew up in Bangor, Maine.  She has worked as a college admissions counselor and as an independent college advisor. She lives outside of Boston with her husband, two college-aged children, and her dog. She also has a lake house in Maine. This is her first novel.

Lisa Jahn-Clough and Ed Briant

Lisa Jahn-Clough has been in the field of children's literature for many years as an author, illustrator and professor. She has published over sixteen titles, including the picture books LITTLE DOG, MY FRIEND AND I and ALICIA HAS A BAD DAY, (which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year), and the young adult novels, COUNTRY GIRL/CITY GIRL, ME, PENELOPE and NOTHING BUT BLUE. Lisa grew up in Brunswick, Maine and now divides her time between southern New Jersey where she is full-time professor of writing for children and young adults, and Portland. The Green Light reader series, PETAL AND POPPY is her latest endeavor and first collaboration with her husband, Ed Briant.

Ed Briant began his career as an editorial illustrator and comic artist in London and made his foray into children's literature after moving to the US in the late-90's with his first illustrated book, PAPER PARADE. He has gone on to both write and illustrate his own books as well as to write young adult novels. Some of his titles include, DON'T LOOK NOW, IF YOU LIVED HERE YOU'D BE HOME BY NOW and I AM (NOT) THE WALRUS,  He is the illustrator and co-creator of the Publisher's Weekly comic strip, 'The Slush Pile.'  Ed teaches illustration and creative writing in southern New Jersey and spends his summers in Portland.  The Green Light reader series, PETAL AND POPPY is his latest endeavor and first collaboration with his wife, Lisa Jahn Clough.

Paige W. Pendleton

Paige W. Pendleton is the author of The Keeper and the Rune Stone and The Keeper and the Alabaster Chalice, and Star of Wonder.  She lives in Rockport, Maine, with her husband Richard and daughters.

Kate Flora

Award-winning mystery and true crime writer Kate Flora is the author of 14 books, including the true crime story Death Dealer and the novel And Grant You Peace, both forthcoming in the fall of 2014. Her book Finding Amy (true crime), co-written with a Portland, Maine deputy police chief, was a 2007 Edgar Award nominee.  Kate’s other titles include the Thea Kozak mysteries and the starred-review Joe Burgess police series, the third of which, Redemption, won the 2013 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction.

A former assistant attorney general in the areas of battered children and employment discrimination, Kate is a founding member the New England Crime Bake and Maine Crime Wave conferences, a founder of Level Best Books where she worked as an editor and publisher for seven years. She has served as international president of Sisters in Crime. When she’s not riding an ATV through the Canadian woods or hiding in a tick-infested field waiting to be found by search and rescue dogs as research for her books, she can be found teaching writing at Grub Street in Boston.

Ken Trextor

Ken Textor has ranged the Maine coast by land and sea since the late 1970s. He is a contributing editor for Down East magazine and has been boating columnist for the Maine Sunday Telegram, contributing editor for Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors and Country Journal, columnist for Popular Woodworker, and managing editor for Boating Digest. H

Ken began his writing career as a general assignment reporter for the Concord (NH) Monitor and was bureau chief for the Claremont (NH) Eagle-Times. He is the author of two previous books, Innocents Afloat (Sheridan House, 1993) and The New Book of SAIL Trim (Sheridan House, 1995).

Francine McEwen

Francine McEwen, a resident of Manchester, Maine, is a retired manufacturing manager and training consultant who worked for many years at Digital Equipment in Augusta. Inspired by fond memories of a special-needs child, Francine wrote the children’s book Billy Big Ears and Bob the Bully based on her belief that all bullying starts with hurtful words—verbal abuse. She is a strong supporter of the “stand up against bullying” movement, and is frequently invited to speak to school classes and other groups. Billy Big Ears shows both sides of the issue and how kids could work together to eliminate it. When not writing or doing book signings and readings, Francine designs and delivers what she describes as “healing workshops” on topics that range from bullying to managing change.

Bob Branco

A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Bob Branco served in Navy destroyers and fleet operations staffs all over the world for more than 25 years. He retired in 1991 after working to plan the first Gulf War while on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served as Commanding Officer of USS Molala (ATF-106) in Vietnam in 1972 and of USS Charles F. Adams DDG-2 in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq War in 1985. His naval service took him to 42 countries around the globe.

After working in government contracting for several years, he taught high school history and government before retiring to write mystery/suspense stories.  Bob and his wife, Tina, live in mid-coast Maine where he is currently working on his next book.

Betsy Sholl

Betsy Sholl served as Poet Laureate of Maine from 2006 to 2011.  Her eighth collection of poetry, Otherwise Unseeable, winner of the Four Lakes Poetry Prize, was just published by the University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.   Previous books include Rough Cradle (Alice James Books), Late Psalm, Don't Explain (both from the University of Wisconsin Press), and The Red Line (University of Pittsburgh Press).  Her awards include the AWP Prize for Poetry, the Felix Pollak Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and two Maine Individual Artists Grants.  She’s been a visiting poet at the University of Pittsburgh and Bucknell University, and has read recently at Creighton University, the University of Virginia (Wise), and Holy Cross.  She was one of the founding members of Alice James Books.   Recent poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Image, Field, Brilliant Corners, The Massachusetts Review, Best American Poetry, 2009, Best Spiritual Writing, 2012.  She has taught in a variety of places from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to elementary schools and prisons.  Until recently she taught at the University of Southern Maine, and currently teaches in the MFA Program of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Gary Urey

Gary Urey is the author of Super Schnoz and the Gates of Smell, which Kirkus called in its starred review “…a winner, especially for reluctant readers.” Gary is also a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City where he has portrayed everything from a Shakespearean messenger to a mime trapped in a box on the subway. He puts his professional theatre training to good use every time he sits down to write funny stories for kids. Besides being an actor, Gary spent several years in the city as a theatre reviewer and script reader. He now lives and writes in Portland, Maine with his wife and two daughters. Super Schnoz and the Invasion of the Snore Snatchers—book two in the Super Schnoz saga—is scheduled for release this coming September.

Jessie Crockett

A nearly life-long resident of the Granite State, Jessie Crockett naturally adores black flies, 98% humidity, killing frosts in August and snow banks taller than the average grandmother. When not working on her next murderous adventure she enthusiastically combs the beach, designs bento lunches and throws parties. She delights in mentoring young writers at local schools. Jessie lives with her dark and mysterious husband and exuberant children in a village so small most other New Hampshire residents have never heard of it. Her debut mystery, Live Free or Die, was the 2011 winner of the Daphne DuMaurier Award for Mainstream Mystery.

Barbara Ross

Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mystery series. The most recent book, Boiled Over, was published in May 2014. The first book, Clammed Up was a finalist for the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction and was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel as well as the RT Book Reviews, Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Amateur Sleuth. 

Barbara is a co-editor/co-publisher at Level Best Books, which produces an award-winning anthology of crime and mystery stories by New England authors every November. “Bread Baby” in Best New England Crime Stories 2014: Stone Cold was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Short Story. Barbara also blogs with a wonderful group of Maine mystery authors at Maine Crime Writers and with a group of writers of New England-based cozy mysteries at Wicked Cozy Authors.

Barbara’s first mystery novel, The Death of an Ambitious Woman, was published by Five Star/Gale/Cengage in August, 2010. In her former life, Barbara was a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of two successful start-ups in educational technology.

Barbara and her husband own the former Seafarer Inn at the head of the harbor in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. When they aren’t in Boothbay, she and her husband live in Somerville, MA.

Vicki Doudera

Local author Vicki Doudera writes page-turning mysteries grounded in a reality she knows all too well: luxury real estate. A top producing agent for Camden Real Estate Company and former Realtor of the Year, Vicki's Darby Farr Mystery series features a smart and savvy real estate agent solving crimes and making sales. Fifth and latest in the series is Deal Killer, a story described by reviewers as “twisty,” and “well-crafted.”

Vicki is also the author of the guide Moving to Maine, about to be released in a brand-new third edition, and several short stories, one of which was chosen in the recently published anthology Ice Cold: Tales of Intrigue from the Cold War. She belongs to Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the National Association of Realtors. Find her on Facebook and at her website www.vickidoudera.com.

Chris F. Holm

Chris F. Holm’s work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Needle: A Magazine of Noir, and THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2011. His critically acclaimed Collector trilogy blends fantasy with old-fashioned crime pulp, and his forthcoming thriller THE KILLING KIND is about a man who makes his living hitting hitmen, only to wind up a target himself. Chris lives in Portland, Maine.

Paul Doiron

Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher's Son, which won the the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and a Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for "Best Fiction of 2010." PopMatters named it to its Best Fiction of 2010 list. His second book, Trespasser, won the Maine Literary Award, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Bestseller, and has been called a "masterpiece of high-octane narrative" by Booklist. The third novel, Bad Little Falls, was a Bookscan Bestseller and a nominee for the RT Reviewers Choice Award and the Maine Literary Award. Massacre Pond, the fourth in the series, was an Indie Next pick and an Indie Favorite, as well as Bookscan Bestseller. The Bone Orchard will be published on July 15, 2014.

Paul is Editor Emeritus of Down East: The Magazine of Maine, having served as Editor in Chief from 2005 to 2013, before stepping down to write full time. A native of Maine, he attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. He is a former member of the Maine Arts Commission and a current member of the Maine Humanities Council. He is also a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine.

The Bangor Daily News named Paul one of its 12 Mainers to Watch in 2012.

Gerry Boyle


Gerry Boyle is a crime novelist based in Maine. Boyle is the author of a dozen novels, including the acclaimed Jack McMorrow mystery series, featuring ex-New York Times reporter Jack McMorrow and his social worker girlfriend Roxanne Masterson.

Boyle also is the author of a second mystery series featuring rookie Portland cop Brandon Blake. Boyle recently completed the 10th Jack McMorrow novel, ONCE BURNED (to be published by Islandport Press in May 2015), and a stand-alone crime novel set in Ireland, written in collaboration with his daughter, Emily Westbrooks.

A former newspaper reporter and columnist, Boyle is the editor of the alumni magazine of Colby College, his alma mater. He lives with his wife Mary in a small village on a lake in central Maine.

Megan Frazer Blakemore

Megan Frazer Blakemore is the author of Secrets of Truth & Beauty (Disney-Hyperion, 2009), The Water Castle (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2013), and The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill (Bloomsbury, 2014). The Water Castle was named Kirkus Best Children’s Book of 2013, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and to the New York Public Library’s list of Titles for Reading and Sharing. It also received the Lupine Honor for 2014.

Megan has a B.A. from Columbia University, and an MLS from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She has over ten years’ experience as a librarian and has taught writing to students in elementary through graduate school.

Kevin C. Mills

Kevin C. Mills is a product of his own maritime history. His ancestors were privateers, shipbuilders, merchant mariners and lighthouse keepers. A love of the ocean and its history has been passed down from numerous Mills generations.

Mills is a native of Gorham, Maine and graduated from Gorham High School. He earned an English degree and a minor in Biblical Studies at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.

After working extensively for the college newspaper, where he was a writer and sports editor,  Mills embarked on a career in sports journalism. He has worked for the The Boston Globe, the Portland Newspapers, the Lynn Daily Evening Item and the Lewiston Sun Journal. He has also free-lanced for a variety of other newspapers and magazines.

During his sports journalism career, he has been recognized on numerous occasions by the Maine Press Association and the New England Press Association. He has also been honored by the Maine Basketball Coaches Association and the Maine Intersholastic Athletic Administrators Association.

D. Allan Kerr

D. Allan Kerr's own stint in the U.S. Navy was highlighted by four years at sea aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Guam (LPH 9), which took part in the invasion of Grenada and two tours off the coast of Beirut. He has since been employed as a dishwasher, deckhand, road crew laborer, factory worker, and newspaperman. He spent seven years unloading lobster boats on northern New England docks, including two years on an island off the Maine coast.

He is currently employed by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Kerr graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Hampshire and earned his master's degree from the school's graduate fiction program. He resides in Kittery, Maine, with his amazing wife, Nicole, and between them they have four challenging and remarkable children spanning two decades.

Paul Betit

A former Maine newspaperman, Mr. Betit is the author of three mystery-suspense novels featuring U.S. Army CID investigator John Murphy. His books include Phu Bai, Kagnew Station and the recently-published The Man In The Canal.

Mr. Betit worked as a general assignment reporter or as a sportswriter for nearly 39 years, including stints with the Kennebec Journal (1974-85) in Augusta and the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram (1985-2013). In 1991 and 1996, he received awards from the Maine Press Association for his sports features. He continues to cover high school, college and pro sports on a free-lance basis.

Mr. Betit lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Debbie. They have two sons. Recently, a grandson, Alexander, joined the family.

Patricia Hughes

Patricia Hughes has been looking for lost treasure for many years. She has written Lost Loot: Ghostly New England Treasure Tales and More Lost Loot: Ghostly New England Treasure Tales.

Mark Scott Ricketts

Mark Scott Ricketts is a Maine-based, Arkansas-born writer/illustrator who has enjoyed national success in advertising, graphic novels, and comic books, including as author of several Iron Man comics. Ricketts published A Flatlander’s Guide to Maine with Islandport Press in 2013.

http://www.mscottricketts.com

Dylan R. Boyd

Dylan R. Boyd is an attorney as well as an author, practicing primarily criminal defense in southern Maine. He was born and raised in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where he attended school and spent summers working in the seasonal tourism industry. He attended the University of Vermont and earned a degree in English before returning to Maine to attend the University of Maine School of Law. During his time in law school, he published an article in the Maine Law Review and served as the journal's Executive Editor. He now lives with his wife near Portland and is working on a new crime novel.

His debut novel, Blue Lobster, is now available online and at select Maine retailers. Visit www.dylanrboyd.com for more information.

Richard Shain Cohen

Richard Shain Cohen of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is originally from Boston. He retired from the University of Maine at Presque Isle after serving as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of English. He holds B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees.

He served as editor of the journal Husson Review and was principal participant in a National Endowment for the Arts Grant for “Images of Aroostook” that was exhibited throughout the State of Maine. His own publications include: Healing After Dark: Pioneering Compassionate Medicine at the Boston Evening Clinic (2011), The Forgotten Longfellow: Man in the Shadows (2010), Only God Can Make a Tree, poetry from himself and his brother, Alfred Robert Cohen; and the novels Our Seas of Fear and Love, Monday: End of the Week, Be Still, My Soul, and Petal on a Black Bough. He also wrote chapters for Aroostook: Land of Promise, academic reviews, other articles, and – with the help of a Shell Grant – a monograph on Samuel Richardson that can be found in major library holdings.