Born in Cleveland, Ohio, James now lives in San Francisco where he works as a screenwriter and producer.

Miles Davis Interviews Author James Dalessandro

“All My Heroes Are Motorcyclists”

Over the past quarter century, motorcycles have sped full throttle into the lap of mainstream society. No longer the private domain of an elite group, bikes have found their way into television, Hollywood blockbusters and modern novels. Motorcycles have become both fashionable rides and practical transportation. It appears that society is finding out what we riders know; that motorcycles can be the ticket to freedom for the individual spirit, and they are fun. In modern literary circles, motorcycling has no greater advocate than James Dalessandro, best-selling author of 1906 and Bohemian Heart, who says of his lead characters, “All my heroes are motorcyclists.”

Earlier this year, James Dalessandro and I donned our denim shirts emblazoned with Triumph logos sent us from Whitehorse Gear (www.whitehorsepress.com), and sped off on a couple of cruisers for a moto-rediscovery of San Francisco. Stoked after riding through city lanes and alleyways for several hours, we stopped for a chat at a North Beach coffee shop to discuss bikes, books and movies:

MILES DAVIS: You are known as a writer whose protagonists are motorcyclists. Was it your own experience with motorcycling that provided the inspiration for your lead characters?

JAMES DALESSANDRO: Absolutely. Not only was it my personal experience, but also my love of motorcycles that led me to have both my fictional heroes Frankie Fagen in Bohemian Heart and Hunter Fallon in 1906 ride bikes. Frankie's mount is a 1970's Norton Commando 750 that's about ten or fifteen years old, so the setting of Bohemian Heart is a relatively modern San Francisco. In my current novel, 1906, Hunter rides a Waltham, which he assembles from scratch for his graduate school engineering project at Stanford University. Sorry, but I just love Chapter One of 1906: the image of a guy hastily finishing his motorcycle in the stable where Leland and Jane Stanford, the founders of the University, kept their prized trotting horses is a strong one. Then Hunter proceeds to break the California motorized speed record by doing 63 MPH in front of his professor and classmates. Nice way to graduate, no?

Hunter is really a variation of Glenn Curtiss, a former Western Union bicycle messenger from New York who assembled his first motorcycle with a tomato can for a carburetor. From 1903 to 1912 Curtiss built motorcycles bearing his name. Then in 1907, at a motorcycle gathering in Ormond Beach Florida, Curtiss set the quarter mile record of 76 mph. Not content with that record, this great American pioneer rolled out a seven-foot long, shaft-driven V-8 motorcycle. Minutes later, after achieving 136 mph, Curtiss became the fastest man on earth. An American hero and legend, Curtiss went on to kick start the American Aviation industry at the dawn of WW1.

But there were practical reasons for the motorcycle as well as the romantic ones. Getting around San Francisco with its hills and traffic congestion in the current age in which Bohemian Heart is set, is much easier on a motorcycle. And in 1906, it was the only vehicle that could go anywhere with all the streets shattered by the great earthquake and cluttered with packages and trunks people had abandoned while fleeing the awful fire. I don't like 'gimmicks' in fiction; I like things that truly fit the characters and the stories. For this motorcycles worked well and the readers loved them.

As for my first motorcycle, my friend and I split the cost of a Triumph Bonneville TT in 1966. We had to keep it at his house so my parents wouldn't find out. I was sixteen at the time. Man, it was fast. I recall racing a Pontiac GTO for two blocks once and burying him. In college I rode a huge old Harley, as well as Bultacos, Ducatis and a Kawasaki dirt bike. Later I got a Kawasaki 500, I remember that they had one color each year—I think I had the green one. Real fast, but not as stable at high speeds as the Triumph. I think that it weighed around four hundred pounds. When I moved to Santa Cruz, California, I was back on a Triumph. I was a carpenter there and used the bike on the job. One thing about motorcycles, if you ride one in your teens, they stay with you your whole life. Once boot leather touches the pegs you're hooked.

MD: Word is going around that your two novels, Bohemian Heart and 1906, are both being considered for the big screen. True?

JD: 1906 was the subject of a bidding war between Dream Works and Warner Brothers, with the latter winning out. Barry Levinson is one of the producers. It's been 'in development' for six years: and they insist it's going to start soon. It's a big story: an entire city wiped off the face of the earth, the nation's largest disaster, 29,000 buildings burned to the ground. I believe they'll start by April, 2006, which is the 100th anniversary of the quake. Bohemian Heart has been optioned four times, and I've written the film scripts for both my novels. Bohemian Heart has been compared to Chinatown or L.A. Confidential. I'm hopeful, you've got to be in this business.

MD: In poll after poll, motorcyclists affirm that their favorite moto-movie is On Any Sunday. Apart from being a documentary, it was successful because it is motorcyclists on motorcycling. Until the very recent release of Motorcycle Diaries and the Bravo channel series Long Way Round, Hollywood has characteristically portrayed riders as dumb hoodlums. How will your movies portray motorcyclists in a more honest light?

JD: 'Dumb hoodlums?' Sounds more like politicians than the riders I know. I loved Motorcycle Diaries. My heroes are smart, fiercely independent, uncompromising and incorruptible. Hunter Fallon in 1906 and Frankie Fagen in Bohemian Heart either build or maintain their own motorcycles. There are more riders working on their own motorcycles than any other form of transportation. There are millions of people riding motorcycles today: if we were all thugs, there wouldn't be enough jail cells to contain all of us. As far as motorcyclists are concerned, I see the common denominators as a certain level of courage, independence and a love of the open road, not genetic inferiority.

MD: Is there some psychological or other significance of the motorcycle in your books?

JD: Frankie Fagen in Bohemian Heart rides a battered old Norton, which symbolizes his spirit is wounded and needs repair. Still, it's not like him to let his bike be anything less than mechanically perfect. Good fiction is often about redemption. And the wonderful Waltham that Hunter builds in 1906. It's a prototype, a V-twin that represents his love of progress. By 1906, the Waltham Company of Waltham, Mass, had just abandoned the motorcycle business, with my hero Hunter building the last one. The world changed more in the last twenty-odd years of the nineteenth century than it had in 2,000 years prior. The phonograph, the airplane, the automobile, the telephone, electric power plants, skyscrapers, antiseptic surgery, the X-ray machine. Hunter is fascinated by those things. His motorcycle represents a level of personal freedom and physical movement that folks had never imagined until that era.

MD: While researching 1906, what else did you learn about the Waltham?

JD: In 1898, the Waltham Company built the Orient-Aster, the first true American motorcycle. Many of the earlier efforts had been three-and four-wheelers, a lot of the early bikes actually had training wheels on them. Charles Metz, the developer of the Orient-Aster. He went on to found his own company; he was the first person to abbreviate 'motorized bicycle?' to 'motorcycle' in the first-ever catalogue for scooters. In my book Hunter builds and rides a prototype. However, by the year 1906 Metz had built a V-twin engine that got four horsepower; before Indian and Harley-Davidson. He also developed a three-seater model. I just wanted to keep the Waltham name alive, to fan the spark of history. I don't know how many exist today; it's hard to find a Waltham Orient-Aster.

MD: Your books have demonstrated the practical value of the motorcycle in private detective work and in emergency situations. How do you see motorcycles used in the twenty-first century?

JD: Let me go on record as saying that I can't stand this trend toward big, boxy, ugly, clumsy, gas-gobbling SUV monstrosities. 'Yeah, let's keep buying more and more foreign oil and destroying the planet and clogging the streets.' In Italy, I have seen in cities like Florence and Rome that every college kid and half the businessmen ride around on little scooters. Yes, they are noisy and they stink. You want to cut down on gas consumption and traffic congestion? Start using strong, efficient motorcycles and scooters. Discover what that wall-to-wall grin of the riders you know is all about.

As in 1906, San Francisco's earthquake/disaster emergency system has a plan in place for motorcycle riders to bring police and fire fighters into the city when the freeways are damaged and only a two-wheeler will work. Both BMW's R1200 and Honda's ST1300 are being sold nowadays in fire-engine red for emergency use. Ridden by paramedics, these bikes are specially-equipped with oxygen, defibrillators and medical equipment to drastically cut response time to the scene of an accident. In the event of a major earthquake, motorcycles will, just like they were in my fictional 1906, be the only viable form of transportation and rescue.

MD: Is there any particular ride that stands out in your mind, rides that inspired you to create your motorcycling heroes?

JD: There are a few that will always stand out in my mind. The first time I climbed onto a Triumph Bonneville and cranked the throttle, and it almost threw me off—roaring and weaving into traffic onto a busy road for the first time, the feeling of the wind in my face—no goggles or helmet, naturally. Then there was the time I rode another Triumph up Skyline Boulevard from Santa Cruz all the way to San Francisco, the Pacific Ocean on my the left, and the bay on the right. Skyline is like a big serpent twisting and turning along the spine of a mountain, snaking through redwood and pine forests, a fantastic liberating place. And this ride we took today, the pleasure of hitting every back alley and steep twisting hill of San Francisco, snaking through the Presidio and under the Golden Gate Bridge, down old brick streets, to places in The City even I have not seen before. I'll be grinning over this ride for some time.

I pity people who don't ride; who have never ridden. An automobile is transportation, a motorcycle is an adventure. Life without adventure is a political luncheon. Riding reminds us of who we are, of what matters in life.

After James and I rode off our separate ways, I spent a few hours in my library once again looking over my own copies of 1906 and Bohemian Heart, both great novels. Suddenly it occurred to me that out of the hundreds of books on my shelves, there are precious few novels. Motorcyclists, it would appear to me, are pragmatists. They enjoy how-to books, real life adventure stories biographies and many enjoy history as well, especially motorcycle history. Why then why would I recommend Dalessandro's novels, to my fellow riders? First, the capable author spent six years researching turn-of-the-century Northern California, and secondly he is a great storyteller. 1906 is an unusual mix of history and fiction, a book in which the fictitious characters serve the historical setting by weaving together the fabric of a lost time and place for the reader. So meticulous was Dalessandro's research, that the net result of 1906 is an adventurous, you-are-there ride with Hunter Fallon through the rubble-strewn streets of Old San Francisco. Over the past century of progress, huge amounts of valuable history have been lost. In 1906 Dalessandro brings those exciting days of gold rush prosperity in a then-new California back to life. This book is a time machine, one that is not easy to put down once opened. Set in modern times, Bohemian Heart is equally readable, and riding along with Detective Frankie Fagen on his old Norton is a thrill any rider will love.

Further, if Hollywood can ever send these two worthy pieces of literature to the silver screen, it could be a chance at redemption for tinsel town in the eyes of us riders. Motorcyclists have been portrayed as frustrated thugs on old Turner-era Triumphs, drug addicts on choppers and insanely evil people on black sport bikes for decades, while many real-life bikers remain as unsung heroes.

For more information, go to www.1906earthquake.com. Once there, either book can be ordered through www.amazon.com.

Paul Davids and Hollace Davids

Paul Davids and Hollace Davids met by chance in Harvard Square in 1971, just after Paul saw George Lucas's first movie, THX 1138. It was love at first sight. Paul had graduated from Princeton, and Hollace from Goucher and the master's program in counseling at Boston University. But they discovered that they had grown up just a few miles apart in Maryland. They married months after they met. They have two children.

Anthony DeStefano

Anthony DeStefano

Anthony DeStefano serves as the executive director of Priests for Life, a not-for-profit religious organization based in New York, as well as the president of various for-profit companies. He is a member of the National Religious Broadcasters Organization (NRB), the Royal Institute of Philosophy, in London, and was recently elected a member of the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), also based in the United Kingdom.

Anthony has a diverse background in business and media. After attending Stuyvesant High School in New York City he obtained a degree in Philosophy/Theology summa cum laude from St. John's University. He then became President of Fulton Electronics Corp., managing a chain of electronics retail outlets in New York City. He also worked for two years as an op-ed columnist for the Staten Island Advance. Recently, Anthony signed a two-book deal with Doubleday Books, as well as Random House Audio, Transworld Publishers in the United Kingdom and a host of other major publishing houses in Europe, Asia and South America. His book, A Travel Guide to Heaven, was published in September of 2003.

Anthony has received many awards and honors from a variety of religious communities. In 2002, he was given an honorary Doctorate from the Joint Academic Commission of the National Clergy Council and the Methodist Episcopal Church for “;the advancement of Christian beliefs in modern culture.” The commission is made up of outstanding Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant theologians and educators. In 2003, he was made a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta—the oldest existing Order in the Catholic Church. In the same year, he was awarded the “Defender of Israel” medal from the International Jewish Center for Hope, in Jerusalem, given in recognition of his “longtime, enthusiastic, and vigorous support of the State of Israel and for Jewish causes throughout the world.”

An avid pilot, Anthony serves as a Senior Member of the U.S. Airforce's Auxiliary Civil Air Patrol. He is also a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the Flight Safety Foundation.

He is 40 years old and lives on Long Island with his wife Kimberly, a kindergarten teacher. A Travel Guide to Heaven is his first book. Visit his website: www.travelguidetoheaven.com.

Joan Detz

Joan Detz is a leading speechwriter for senior executives. She earnee her MA in English from the College of William and Mary. Her speechwriting has received an Award of Excellence from the International Association of Business Communicators. Previously on the faculty of New York University's Business and Management Program, she now lectures on public speaking across the country. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her website is: www.joandetz.com.

David Dreman

David Dreman

The author of the critically acclaimed Psychology and the Stock Market and Contrarian Investment Strategy, David is also a senior investment columnist at Forbes magazine. Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Second Generation was published by Simon & Schuster in hardcover in Spring, 1998, and was a Business Week, Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller.

Michael C. Eberhardt

Michael is a renowned California criminal defense attorney whose 17 year career includes the successful defense of Steven A. Jackson in a 1982 "no body" murder case that was the longest murder trial ever to end with an acquittal. Michael lives in Lancaster, California, with his wife and their three children.

Peter Edles

Peter Edles

Peter Edles is an independent consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the fundraising field. He has worked with every kind of nonprofit organization—including colleges and universities, religious, social services, and cultural and arts groups. His experience covers designing and directing both large and small campaigns across the nation. Mr. Edles also has significant experience in media production, photography, and the creation of communications packages.

Roy Feinson

Roy was born in South Africa and has had a lifelong interest in the relationships between animals and humans. He studied zoology at a South African university and won a university scholarship for a dissertation on the evolution of composite animals. PMA placed Feinson's pop-survey book, The Animal in You (Spring, 1998) and his second book, Animal Attractions, with St. Martin's Press (Spring, 1999). Feinson owns a software company in Southern California. PMA most recently placed Feinson's next book, The Secret Universe of Names.

Christopher Cook Gilmore

Christopher Cook Gilmore

Christopher claims to have spent an entire winter writing short stories in a blue tent on top of a sand dune on the coast of southern Morocco—without getting a grain of sand in his typewriter. Christopher travels extensively, speaks six languages and hasn't had a day job in years. He is the author of Atlantic City Proof, The Bad Room and Road Kills among others. He divides his time between his homes in Morocco and Atlantic City.

John Glatt

John Glatt

Born in England, John Glatt has over 25 years' experience as an investigative journalist, covering crime, music and show business. He is the author of six books, and he divides his time between New York and London. Visit John's website.

Stanley Hilton

Stanley Hilton

Stanley is an attorney who has practiced law for 23 years and now runs his own Law Firm in San Francisco. A Graduate of Duke Law School, he was a classmate to Independent Prosecutor Kenneth Starr. In 1979 and 1980, he worked as a Senate Aide/Counsel to Senator Robert Dole in Washington, D.C. A Member of the California State Bar since 1975, Hilton practices Law in San Francisco.

William Jenkins

William Jenkins (co-author with Rick Oliver)

William Jenkins, Vice Chancellor for Administration of Vanderbilt University, received his B.S. degree from Indiana State University, his M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University. He currently is Vice Chancellor of Administration at Vanderbilt University and has also held administrative positions at North Carolina State, Cornell, and Purdue Universities. In addition to administrative responsibilities, Dr. Jenkins is a faculty member at Vanderbilt University in the Owen Graduate School of Management and often speaks on increased service and productivity values through his nationally acclaimed Service With Enthusiasm program.

Freddie Lee Johnson III

Freddie Lee Johnson III

A native of the Washington D.C metro area, Freddie attended Bowie State College, earning a Bachelor of science degree in history and teacher education. He also served in the United States Marine Corps as a communications-electronics officer and infantry officer. He later received masters and doctorate degrees in history at Kent State University. He now lives in Holland, Michigan, and teaches history at Hope College. Check out his website, www.freddieleejohnsoniii.com.

Lynne Kaufman

Lynne Kaufman is an accomplished playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. Her first novel Slow Hands was published by Mira Books in June 2003. Her second novel Wild Womens' Weekend will follow in June 2004. Lynne is the author of eleven full-length plays which have been produced in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Louisville etc. at such theatres as The Magic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville,and Theatreworks. Her plays have won many awards including the NEA/Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays and Theatreworks Best New Play in California. Her short stories have appeared in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and McCalls. Check out her website: www.lynnekaufman.com.

Brian Karem

Former President George Bush called him “rude.” Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich refused to be interviewed by him, saying, “I'd rather talk to anyone else.” And syndicated columnist Carl Rowan once said of Brian Karem that he wished “...we had a hundred reporters with the guts and irreverence that (Karem) displayed.”

Brian Karem, 41, author of five books, including the best selling Above the Law is an award-winning investigative reporter, writer, producer, and former correspondent for Fox Television's America's Most Wanted.

He is “a tough, honest reporter,” Sam Donaldson once wrote of him, and one who has also managed to aggravate, prod and poke at every leading politician in the country during the last ten years. A well-known incident occurred in 1992 with former President George Bush at the International Drug Summit News Conference in San Antonio, Texas. When Bush refused to answer Karem's question about why many DEA Agents considered the “War on Drugs” a joke, Karem was fired from KMOL-TV.

Karem has won major awards for two documentaries, Texans at War and Good to Go, which chronicled the Persian Gulf War through the eyes of the members of a Combat Support Hospital. He was also one of the first reporters in the world to enter Kuwait City during the Gulf War, arriving just after that city's liberation from Iraq.

Besides covering the Gulf War, Karem has traveled extensively through Mexico, Canada and Colombia. While in Colombia he covered the international search for drug lord Pablo Escobar and became the first Western reporter allowed inside Escobar's palatial prison following Escobar's escape. Following that, he went on to cover thirty-seven days of the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

Karem's first book, Shield the Source, (New Horizon Press, 1992) chronicles the events that occurred in 1990 when he became one of the first television reporters in the country ever to be jailed for protecting a confidential source. He was jailed four times and spent more than two weeks behind bars before being freed. He subsequently appeared as a guest on a variety of national news programs including Nightline and CNN's Crossfire discussing the situation and its ramifications. Karem vs. Priest is now considered a precedent setting case in providing journalists with the ability to protect their sources (Mass Media Law, 1993). Karem was the recipient of the National Press Club's Freedom of the Press Award for his actions in that case.

Karem then went on to Fox's America's Most Wanted. and continued to write. His second book Above the Law a true crime book was published by Pinnacle Press in August of 1999 and has sold more than 40,000 copies. His third book Innocent Victims also a true crime book was published in November of 2001. Spin Control a book of short stories and essays published in June of 2000 has been lauded by ABC News, Newsday and Salon.com as a “Must Read” and a “wake up call” for journalists and has sold nearly 20,000 copies.

His latest book Warning Signs a parenting guidebook was written with Clinician John Kelly from New Jersey and was released in April, 2002. Warning Signs makes use of much of Brian's research in the last 20 years covering crime to help parents reach out to their children.

Brian has also interviewed James Carville, Mary Matalin and G. Gordon Liddy for Playboy. His articles have also appeared in People Magazine Electronic Media, the prestigious IRE Journal and others. His work at America's Most Wanted led directly to the capture of more than a dozen fugitives, including convicted serial killer Kenneth McDuff. Karem's efforts in the McDuff case led to a massive overhaul of the Texas Pardons and Parole Board.

Karem is married to Pamela Jane Russell. They have three children; Zachary, 12, Brennan, 9 and Wyatt, 6. Brian now splits his time between writing and coaching football, soccer and basketball for his sons. They reside outside of Washington D.C. near Gaithersburg Maryland. You can learn more about Brian from his website: www.briankarem.com.

Gary C. King

Gary is one of the country's foremost crime writers, a reputation he has earned over the last 20 years with the publication of over 400 stories in crime magazines in the United States, Canada, and England. His stories have regularly appeared in True Detective, Official Detective, Inside Detective, Front Page Detective, and Master Detective. He is also the author of five true-crime books. Most recently, PMA has sold the rights to Gary's next book, Murder in Hollywood to St. Martin's Press. Check out his website www.gary-c-king.com.

Tammy Kling

Tammy Kling

Tammy is the author of Searching for a Piece of My Soul: How to Find a Missing Loved One. She travels the country speaking on adoption issues, family searches and reunions, and coping with the emotional aspects of the search for a biological parent or child. A graduate of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, she resides in Dallas, Texas, where she is hard at work on her first novel.

Timothy Knight

Tackling everything from cinema to sports to science in several books and documentaries, Timothy Knight has proven himself to be a remarkably versatile non-fiction writer/editor whose prose is lucid, accessible and entertaining. Currently editing The Myth of Mother Nature, Dr. Joseph Devinny's provocative look at environmentalism and the accepted images of nature that drive it, Timothy also recently edited the memoirs of Dr. Irving Reed, a mathematician who played an integral role in the development of modern computers and error-correction coding.

A Cum Laude Graduate of Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Timothy also holds a Masters Degree in Critical Studies from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television, where he received the Mary Pickford Foundation Scholarship.

Since 2003, Timothy has been the primary film/DVD critic and features writer for REEL.COM, owned by the Hollywood Entertainment Corporation.

His credits also include the screenplay Track of the Tiger, which was optioned by the National Wildlife Federation's Feature Film Division.

Writing Credits: (Documentary Films and Books)

• Co-Writer, Their First Time in the Movies Documentary
• Co-Writer, Rose Colored Sixties Documentary
• Co-Writer, Not Till the Fat Lady Sings Sports Documentary, Starring Jim McKay
• Co-Writer, Dark Horses and Underdogs Sports Documentary Starring Jim Lampley
• Manuscript Editor, Their First Time in the Movies (Overlook Press)
• Co-Author, The Best and Worst of Golf (Triumph Books)
• Co-Author, Stuck on You: Do-It-Yourself Dating Patches for the Single Girl (Penguin/Puntam)
• Contributing Editor, The Wall Street Journal's Jobs Rated Almanac (Barricade Books)
• Contributing Writer, Not Till The Fat Lady Sings (Triumph Books)
• Contributing Writer, Their First Time in the Movies (Overlook Press)
• Manuscript Editor/Contributing Writer, The World's Worst (HarperCollins)
• Contributing Writer, Dark Horses and Underdogs (Warner Books)
• Copy Editor, All the Money in the World (HarperCollins)

Walter Maksym

Publisher of Perfect Pleasure: Beyond the One Hour Orgasm, The New York Times Best Seller Diets Don't Work! (that together have surpassed over one million sold) and other breakthrough books, Walter is the Lawyer Super Lawyers seek out when they need the best. Walter holds several Law and other degrees, has taught and lectured about Law and other subjects, served as a Commissioner of the Illinois Supreme Court, and represented More University (where he earned a Master of Communications Degree and an Expansion of Sexual Potential Certification). He represented More's founder, the late Dr. Victor Baranco, the creator of the “More Philosophy™” and courses exploring the basic concepts of pleasure, responsibility and perfection. He has also represented other educational organizations, charities and prominent judges, politicians, authors, actors, celebrities and entrepreneurs. A street-wise philosopher, author, screenwriter and film producer, as well as a public and guest speaker on numerous subjects, Walter has appeared before universities, organizations and on numerous TV and radio shows.

John McCord

John S. McCord is a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and has published many articles in various magazines, including Frontier, Army, Highlander, and Organic Gardening.

Fred Minnick's work has been published in newspapers and magazines all over the world. He is a contributing writer to Simon & Schuster's The Blogs of War. He is the author of Camera Boy: How I Sold the Truth (and the Lies) About Iraq, and Frat Boy: Surviving Brotherhood Through Drugs, Whores and Foreclosure.

Kien Nguyen

Kien Nguyen

Kien Nguyen was born in Nha Trang, South Vietnam. He left the country in 1985 through United Nations' Orderly Departure Program. His first book, The Unwanted, is a critical acclaimed memoir, deals with the struggle of growing up as an Amerasian under the communist rule. The Unwanted has been recommended by many professors and teachers throughout the United States. He has also written two novels, The Tapestries, and Le Colonial. Both have shared equal success domestically and internationally. All three of his books were published by Little, Brown. He was nominated for the 2004 Grinzane Cavour Prize and won the 2005 NCM Pulitzera Award for Ethnic Writers. Also later this year, a short story “The Lost Sparrow” will be included in The Mixed Anthology published by W. W. Norton. He is now writing his fourth book, the sequel to The Unwanted.

Kien Nguyen also wrote and directed his first feature film, FIVE SPICES. The movie is about a Vietnamese immigrant couple and their four grown children, who meet for their traditional Sunday brunch, only to find that nothing is what they expect. These five interconnected personal stories build to a crisis that eventually changes all of them. His next film project is to turn his best-selling novel, The Tapestries, into a full-length feature in 2007. Kien has recently optioned the motion rights picture to THE UNWANTED to Jump In, Inc., a Division of Mark Burnett Productions.

He resides in Orange County, along with his three sons and wife Kathleen.

Dr. Richard W. Oliver

Dr. Richard W. Oliver serves as CEO for, American Learning Solutions (ALS) & Provost, American Graduate School of Management (AGSM) Visiting Professor of Management, Johnson School of Management, Cornell University Adjunct Professor of Management, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University

Dr. Oliver is the author of the following books: What Is Transparency? (Mc Graw Hill), The Biotech Age: The Business of Biotech & How to Profit From It (Mc Graw Hill) The Coming Biotech Age: The Business of Bio-Materials (Mc Graw Hill), The Shape of Things to Come: 7 Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business (Business Week Books), The Eagle and the Monk: 7 Principles of Successful Change, with W. Jenkins (United Publishers), Hockey Tonk: The Amazing Story of the Nashville Predators, with Craig Leipold.

He Co-founded ALS and AGSM in 2000 with (now) U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander & J.B. Wyatt, Chancellor Emeritus, Vanderbilt University. AGSM (accredited) offers a variety of Online Executive MBA Programs. Recently founded Praetor International University (accredited) offering Masters Degrees in Life Sciences. Visit his website to learn more.

Holly Payne

Holly L. Payne is a screenwriter, novelist and triathlete living in San Francisco, where she teaches screenwriting at the Academy of Art College. She received her B.A. in journalism from the University of Richmond, Virginia and her MFA in professional writing from USC, Los Angeles. She has lived and worked in London, Hungary and Turkey. You can learn more about her from her website, www.holly-payne.com.

M. William Phelps

M. William Phelps

M. William Phelps, a full-time author, was born and raised in New England, and has published in some of the Northeast's most respected newspapers: The Providence Journal, The Journal Inquirer, The Hartford Courant, The New London Day, along with many others. He is also a monthly correspondent for New England Entertainment Digest in Boston, MA, where he has written about the music business for the past five years.

Phelps just finished working on Murder in the Heartland (A Kensington Hard Cover, May 2006), which chronicles the murder of 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, Missouri, a book, Phelps says, that will transform what Americans think about small-town America and the Midwest, displaying “perfectly the archetype of the American dream crushed by tragedy.” Early praise for the book: “The most disturbing and moving look at murder in rural America since Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.”

With over 300,000 copies of his books in print, M. William Phelps has been called one of the country's most esteemed experts on crime and murder and has spent years building an outstanding platform to showcase his work. He has appeared on dozens of national radio and television programs as an expert correspondent on crime, most notably on Court TV, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Biography Channel, History Channel, Montel Williams and Radio America.

Profiled in such noted publications as Writer's Digest, NY Daily News, Newsday, Albany Times-Union, Hartford Courant, Advance for Nurses Magazine, Forensic Nursing, The Globe Magazine, NY Post, Columbia Daily Tribune, and the New London Day, in September 2003 Phelps was invited to Washington, DC, to give a keynote address in front of the Veterans Affairs Administration and members of Congress regarding some of the information he uncovered and wrote about in his book Perfect Poison. He lives in a small Connecticut farming community with his wife, children and Labrador. He can be reached at www.mwilliamphelps.com. Visit the author's Blog.

Listen to the Audio Interview: Getting at the Truth: A Conversation With M. William Phelps

Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers

Chris is the creator of the hugely successful Dixie Flannigan Mystery Series (Bitch Factor, Rage Factor and Chill Factor). She teaches mystery writing at the University of Houston and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Two of her short stories were published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, she has published various non-fiction articles and co-authored two non-fiction books. She lives in Houston. The trilogy is also the basis for a TV series, under option to Dan Paulson Productions. Check out her website, www.chrisrogers.com.

Steve Salerno

Steve Salerno