Jodi Thomas
A fifth-generation Texan who taught family living, Jodi Thomas chooses to set the majority of her novels in her home state, where her grandmother was born in a covered wagon.
With a degree in Family Studies, Thomas is a marriage and family counselor by education, a background that enables her to write about family dynamics. Honored in 2002 as a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Thomas enjoys interacting with students on the West Texas A & M University campus, where she currently serves as Writer In Residence.
When not working on a novel or inspiring students to pursue a writing career, Thomas enjoys traveling with her husband and renovating an historical home they bought in Amarillo. TEXAS RAIN, the first book in her latest historical "Whispering Mountain" series, was released in November 2006. TEXAS PRINCESS, the next novel in the series was published in November 2007. An anthology of short stories, GIVE ME A TEXAN, will be available in February 2008. Her newest mainstream novel, TWISTED CREEK, is garnering rave pre-release reviews and is set for release in April 2008.
Lori Wilde
Lori Wilde is a pen name of Laurie Blalock Vanzura, who was born in Texas, USA. She started writing at age eight. She credits her father, Fred Blalock, as the guiding force behind her career. She can't remember a time when she didn't want to write. She even went to nursing school so she could have a schedule flexible enough to allow her to write on the side. She nursed for 20 years, working in a variety of settings from the newborn nursery to the recovery room, to dialysis. But she never lost her desire to write. She sold her first book in 1994 as Laura Anthony, but later discovered she had a flair for comedy and branched out under the pseudonym Lori Wilde. She has achieved a lifelong dream and now pursues writing fiction full-time.
First married with Anthony Moeller, now she is married with Bill Vanzura, her own real-life hero. She continued living in her native Texas, with a red heeler/Australian shepherd dog, Cinnamon, and four ducks, Quacker, Big Guy, Affleck, and Sheepidy. She is an adventuresome, she traveled Europe as a teenager, hiked volcanoes in Hawaii, trod on glaciers in Alaska, shot white-water rapids, water-skied, snow-skied, raced all-terrain vehicles, bodysurfed in the Gulf of Mexico, and photographed grizzly bears in Yellowstone. She's taken flying lessons, rode in a hot-air balloon, completed two marathons, and performed with a professional jazz band.
You can visit her web site: www.loriwilde.com or write to her at loriwilde@yahoo.com
