Join us for a special reception with award-winning mystery author Reed Farrel Coleman.  Meet the author while enjoying the atmosphere at one [...]]]> The Southeast Wisconsin Festival of Books and Martha Merrell’s Books launch a new writers series on February 9, 2012.   First in our lineup:  An Evening With Reed Farrel Coleman.

Join us for a special reception with award-winning mystery author Reed Farrel Coleman.   Meet the author while enjoying the atmosphere at one of historic downtown Waukesha’s premier venues – newly renovated Taylors People’s Park.  Coleman will read a selection from his new release HURT MACHINE and be available to sign your copy.  This event is advance ticket sales only.  Hurry!  Space is limited!

Reception only $25
Reception and reserved copy of HURT MACHINE   $40

Tickets on sale at Martha Merrell’s Books
231 W. Main Street, Waukesha –   (262) 547-1060

Marcia Carmichael enjoys all aspects of heirloom plants, from propagation to harvest, and from folklore to fact. As the historical gardener at Old World Wisconsin, a 576 acre living history museum, she exercises her passion for historical accuracy and enjoys the research as much as the design, creation, and nurturing [...]]]>

Jess Lourey is the author of the Lefty-nominated Murder-by-Month mysteries set in Battle Lake, Minnesota, and featuring amateur sleuth, Mira James. November Hunt, the seventh in the series, hit shelves March 2012. In a starred review, Booklist says, “It’s not easy to make people laugh while they’re on the edge of their seats, [...]]]>

Jess Lourey is the author of the Lefty-nominated Murder-by-Month mysteries set in Battle Lake, Minnesota, and featuring amateur sleuth, Mira James. November Hunt, the seventh in the series, hit shelves March 2012. In a starred review, Booklist says, “It’s not easy to make people laugh while they’re on the edge of their seats, but Lourey pulls it off!” Jess has also been teaching writing and sociology at the college level since 1998.

When not raising her wonderful kids, teaching, or writing, you can find her gardening, traveling, and navigating the niceties and meanities of small-town life. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, The Loft, and Lake Superior Writers, and serves on the national board of Mystery Writers of America.

Adrienne Giordano writes romantic suspense and women’s fiction. She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her workaholic husband, sports obsessed son and Buddy the Wheaten Terrorist (Terrier). She is a co-founder of Romance University blog. For more information on Adrienne’s books please visit www.AdrienneGiordano.com.

Adrienne [...]]]>

Adrienne Giordano writes romantic suspense and women’s fiction.  She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her workaholic husband, sports obsessed son and Buddy the Wheaten Terrorist (Terrier). She is a co-founder of Romance University blog. For more information on Adrienne’s books please visit www.AdrienneGiordano.com.

Adrienne can also be found on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/AdrienneGiordanoAuthor and Twitter  http://twitter.com/AdriennGiordano.

In 2008 Anne was named [...]]]>
Anne Laughlin is the author of Veritas, which won a 2010 Goldie award in the Mystery category. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies from Cleis Press, Alyson Books, Bold Strokes Books and others. Runaway, her next novel with Bold Strokes Books, will be published in March 2012.

In 2008 Anne was named an Emerging Writer Fellow by the Lambda Literary Foundation. She has been accepted into writing residencies at the Ragdale Foundation (2009) and Vermont Studio Center for the Arts (2010).

Anne lives in Chicago with her partner, Linda.

Impressed by the kindness of her first teachers, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Flynn decided to follow their example and professed vows as a School Sister of Notre Dame at the age of 20. Â She graduated from Mount Mary College and holds a masters degree in theology from St. Mary’s [...]]]>

Impressed by the kindness of her first teachers, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Flynn decided to follow their example and professed vows as a School Sister of Notre Dame at the age of 20.  She graduated from Mount Mary College and holds a masters degree in theology from St. Mary’s University of San Antonio.

After 15 years of classroom teaching, she began a full-time career in spirituality, becoming a national speaker, retreat and spiritual director, archdiocesan leader of Catholic Charasmatic renewal, and later, director of adult and family ministry at the large parish where she first met Regina and David Bakula.   In June 2005, with Regina’s case ongoing, Sister retired from parish ministry to begin writing Rescuing Regina.  She also co-founded and currently chairs the Archdiocesan Justice for Immigrants Committee.

On October 25, 2011, at the invitation of Human Rights First, Sister Flynn spoke at Georgetown Law in Washington, D.C. to set the tone for a conference on asylum reform by sharing Regina’s story (Rescuing Regina).  The day-long conference, “Reaffirming Protection: Strengthening Asylum in the United States,” was sponsored by the UNHRC, Human Rights First, and Georgetown’s Human Rights Institute, in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. She also presented a signed copy of Rescuing Regina to the UN High Commissioner of Refugees Antonio Guterres. In the days following, she spoke to staff members of the Department of Migration and Refugee Services at the USCCB (national headquarters for the Catholic Church) and to national leaders of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC).

Sister is a well-known speaker, at ease with a variety of groups. She has addressed local teen groups as well as law students at Marquette University.