Starting with the University of Houston extension program, then at Rice University School of Continuing Studies, and finally in a private Master Class, I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazingly talented individuals. While my time with them may be completed, their experience and expertise will grow and their work will make an impact on readers. I often feel humbled in the presence of these outstanding talents and I am always excited when I see their stories in print or their names in the winner’s list in writing contests.

Graduating students from the Master Class of 2004. From left, top: Ann Faye Williams, Heather Shelley, John Oehler, Stacey Keith, Todd Jett, Bill Stevenson. Bottom: Karen Daniels, Sally Love. Not pictured: Doug Schlatter, JoAn Martin, Roger Paulding.

Martha Everhart Braniff

Martha Everhart Braniff lives and writes from her Houston, Texas home, and has been a tireless and lifelong champion of the underprivileged. For years, she worked as a nurse at Ripley House in a community health program serving a mostly Hispanic neighborhood. After creating the first art program at the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center, in 1984 she founded Child Advocates, a non-profit organization serving abused children. Her field of work has given her a special empathy for "saints and sinners" that is reflected in her poems and stories.

L. B. Cobb was born and grew up in Tennessee, but has lived in Houston almost long enough to pass for a Texan. She holds degrees in and has had careers in geology and law. Her stories are about the balancing act American family life has become, disguised as mystery novels, since her main characters are lawyers who have jobs in the criminal justice system. Her stories tend to be "whydunits" as much as "whodunits." Promises Town delivers a rich blend of memorable characters, a fascinating view of the two-sided search for truth in criminal cases, an intriguing mystery, wry humor, and Virginia Rodriguez, a woman who has it all — a killer of a job, a child and a dog to feed, a house to keep, promises to remember, and no Prince Charming in view. Bill Glasscock, a suspended-for-malpractice attorney, wakes from his girlfriend's bed to a crystalline May morning in beautiful Splendor Bay and faces the challenge of his life. The stiff the local cops have just found on the beach below girlfriend Sally Solana's bay view mansion is Governor Wallace Moreno, Bill's soon-to-be ex-wife's lover. For more information, please visit the author's website at www.lbcobb.com. This book was published by Advance Books Company.

L.B. Cobb

Jim Hime

Jim grew up reading Hardy Boys mysteries and science fiction. In high school he was captivated by Sherlock Holmes, but his early writing attempts were tributes to his love of baseball. He dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player like his hero, Mickey Mantle. As a student in the rural ranching community of Kingsville, Texas, Jim wrote for the school newspaper and edited the school sports page. He became the only junior to edit his school's literary magazine, The Descant, where his first written works were published. At the end of his junior year, Jim got a job working at the Big Scoop Ice Cream parlor in Kingsville. The ice cream parlor and its owner became the inspiration for scenes in Night of the Dance. Over the years, Jim started two or three novels, but never finished them. He wrote a short story about an old rancher whose daughter was dying of cancer, which he later used this short story as a basis for Night of the Dance. His earliest draft was 25,000 words long and read like a legal brief. Jim stopped writing and read works by some of his favorite authors—Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard and James Ellroy—to get a better feel for writing in a distinctive voice. He finished rewriting his novel in a much looser style. Jim and his wife Paulette live in Houston with their Golden Retriever, Merlin. A retired Texas Ranger, a good ol' boy sheriff, and a hotheaded deputy team up to solve a Texas county's most notorious missing-persons case in James Hime's debut crime novel, The Night of the Dance. For more information, please visit the author's website at www.jimhime.com. This book was published by St. Martin's Minotaur.

Kay Finch is a Pennsylvania native but, as her husband likes to say, she got to Texas as fast as she could. She has worked as a legal assistant in Houston for the past seventeen years, beginning in the criminal law arena at Richard “Racehorse” Haynes’ firm before turning to a specialization in family law. Kay meets with clients at one of the worst, most emotional, times of their lives. Though the typical clients are law-abiding citizens, to the best of her knowledge, it’s not hard to imagine them each with a motive for murder. And so the Corie McKenna mystery series was born, beginning with Final Decree, a novel sparked by one particularly memorable client many years ago. Houston PI Corie McKenna spearheads investigations by day and relaxes by writing country music lyrics at night. But when a routine divorce case turns into murder and Corie finds herself tangled in a web of greed and deception, even the most soothing ballad won't slow her down. Struggling to prove her obnoxious client is innocent, Corie follows a trail from a seedy warehouse to the medical center's disinfected hallways, and finally to a men's club, where she makes a disturbing personal discovery. Attorney Wade Alexander urges her to bow out, but an unsettling truth hits far too close to home and cannot be ignored – a revelation that may well cost Corie her life. For more information, please visit the author's website at www.kay-finch.com. This book was published by Top Publications.

Kay Finch

JoAn W. Martin

JoAn W. Martin, author of the novel Yankee Girl, taught in public school for 22 years before retiring, and continues as a reading/writing consultant for Houston area schools. She has taught several years in the Alpha Gifted and Talented program at Clear Creek School District. She also serves as an adjunct instructor in the School of Education at University of Houston/Clear Lake, teaching an undergraduate class, Language Arts in the Elementary School. JoAn was born and raised in a small South Alabama town. Many of her stories are based on her experiences growing up in the South during the thirties and forties. Wanda Wayne Colter, seventeen, is the oldest of five children. Her family lives behind Boar’s Head Tavern, isolated from neighbors, twenty miles from Harpersville, New York. One night Wanda is attacked by a traveler. Mistreated by her family and unloved at home, Wanda disguises herself as a boy. She cuts her hair, wears a man’s hat and insists the family call her “Wayne.” Her man-sized clothes hide her body so well that no one, except her family, knows her true gender. For more information, please visit the author's website at www.xlibris.com/yankeegirl.html. This book was published by Xlibris.

John Oehler is an exploration geologist. He based Tepui on his own experiences in Venezuela coupled with the 16th-Century chronicle of Francisco Orellana's voyage down the Amazon River. Read the winning chapter of Tepui.

John Oehler

Doug Schlatter is a native of Kansas City who moved to Houston to attend Rice University and has lived there ever since, delighting his wife and kids and the most precious, cutest, most talented granddaughter in the world (aren't they all?). Doug works as a business analyst for a Houston manufacturing company and, when not working, writes and enjoys long walks on the beach at sunset. Read the winning chapter of Loved to Death.

Though Rick Nelson loves working on his Jack Brenner series, he also has a day job serving as the Director of Human Resources for the City of Pasadena. Rick enjoys reading mysteries (of course), playing golf, taking walks with his wife, listening to live music, and enjoying good wine with friends. Read the winning chapter of Bound By Blood.

Rick Nelson

Stacey Keith

The daughter of an ordained minister-turned-rock musician, Stacey Keith has led a life as varied and colorful as her famous father. At nineteen, she authored Drive Your Woman Wild in Bed, traveled the U.S. and Canada lecturing to 1000-person venues, appeared on "Geraldo", "Montel Williams", "Sally Jesse Raphael", "Real Personal with Bob Berkowitz" and over five-hundred radio shows. An avid writer of romantic fiction, she is a 2004 Golden Heart finalist in Romantic Suspense, and winner of multiple RWA writing contests. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, one Chihuahua, a blind cat, turtles, fish, and frogs. Read the nominated chapter of Love's A Thief.

Vanessa Leggett is also a freelance writer and lecturer in English and criminal justice at the University of Houston Downtown. She has written scholarly articles and co-edited books published by the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI National Academy, where she has also lectured. In 2002, Leggett won the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in recognition of the 168 days she spent in the Federal Detention Center.

Vanessa Leggett

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