[HTML1]More about Jerry Cleaver
Jerry Cleaver is a writing coach, creativity specialist, the creator of Chicago’s famed Writers’ Loft, a ghostwriter, and the author of Immediate Fiction – A Complete Writing Course (St. Martin’s Press).
Before creating his workshops, he taught Professional Fiction at Northwestern University for ten years. Besides coaching writers to become successful authors, one of his missions is helping beginning writers find the right agent and avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous agents, editors and publishers.
More about Carla Neggers
New York Times bestselling author Carla Neggers is always plotting her next adventure, whether it’s in life or for one of her books. Her fertile imagination and curious nature make her ready for anything. It is also these qualities that sparked her love of reading as a child and continue to drive her passion for storytelling today.
With her trademark blend of action, suspense and down-to-earth, realistic characters caught up in extraordinary circumstances, her novels never fail to take her readers on an exciting journey.
Growing up in western Massachusetts, the third of seven children, Carla would grab a pad and pen and climb a tree to spin her stories. Just before she was born, her Dutch immigrant father and Southern-born mother packed up the car with two kids and all their belongings and headed north from the Florida Panhandle to start a new life. They settled in an eighteenth-century New England carriage house on 90 acres and began a long process of renovation.
After graduating as valedictorian of her high school class, Carla studied music at Boston University before graduating magna cum laude with a degree in journalism. She enjoyed a brief stint as a freelance journalist, then turned to writing fiction full-time and now has more than 50 books to her credit.
Cold Dawn, Carla’s newest novel, is set in her home state Vermont. “I drew on my own experience snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and firing up a woodstove, but I also turned to people I know who are experts in arson investigation, search-and-rescue and handling and training search dogs. I’m grateful to know such people are out there if trouble strikes!”
Part of Cold Dawn takes place in Southern California. “That’s where my love of traveling helped. I have family in Southern California and enjoy visiting,” says the author. “I have to admit wandering the streets of Beverly Hills wasn’t a tough research assignment.”
Carla’s novels have also taken her atop the northeast’s highest peaks, onto a shooting range with a police academy instructor and across the world as she scouts out locations and seeks the authenticity that imbues her characters and settings with the richness and reality readers have come to expect.
The author’s greatest pleasure comes in those moments when she feels she’s gotten the story just right—when the elements all come together on the pages of her book, exactly the way she’s envisioned them in her mind. Then, when readers connect with the story, her satisfaction is complete. “Everything comes down to the individual reader and the finished book,” says Carla. “When I hear from a reader that the story resonated, that he or she had a great time reading it, I know I’ve done my job and done it well.”
When she’s not working on her next book, Carla enjoys traveling, hiking and kayaking. She’s always planning the next trip and the next adventure—either of which just might inspire a new story.
Carla and her husband live on a hilltop in Vermont not far from picturesque Quechee Gorge.
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Project Night Night and their efforts to put a new or slightly used children’s book in the hands of homeless children in shelters in the United States. Since 2005, they have hand-delivered more than 100,000 night night packages which include a stuffed animal, a blanket and a children’s book tucked inside a canvas night night bag. We encourage you to find out how you can donate to support their efforts today.
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