2025 Guests of Honor
Kemper Donovan has lived in California almost his entire adult life. He attended Stanford University, where he double majored in English and economics. The econ was his attempt to learn something “useful,” but the joke was on him because his English honors thesis about mystery/suspense author Wilkie Collins turned out to be much more relevant to his future career. It took him many years to get there, however. First, he went to Harvard Law School, where he experienced one of Boston’s coldest winters on record. Is it any wonder he returned to California three years later, doubling down on the weather by moving to Los Angeles? (Much to the chagrin of his parents, he ended up using his law degree as much as his econ major. Technically, he is a retired lawyer, which means that after passing the bar he immediately switched to “retired” status to avoid registration fees and continuing education requirements.)
Out in L.A., Kemper worked for twelve years at a company called Circle of Confusion—no, really—representing screenwriters and comic books. His very first client wrote the feature film Hanna, released by Focus Features. (If you haven’t seen it, do; you won’t be sorry.) He began writing his first novel, The Decent Proposal, when he was still a manager. The story follows a man and woman, complete strangers who are approached by a lawyer representing a mysterious benefactor offering to pay them a significant amount of money to date each other for a year. They have no idea why, but eventually they agree to this outlandish proposition, and the story unspools from there…. Kemper didn’t realize it at the time, but what he was actually trying to write was a mystery.
By the time The Decent Proposal was published in 2016, Kemper was writing full time, and had begun a side project with his dear friend, Catherine Brobeck, who was one of the few people he knew whose lifelong obsession with Agatha Christie ran as deep as his. Together, they created the podcast All About Agatha, devoted to the one and only Queen of Crime, Dame Agatha Christie. Tragically, Catherine passed away at the end of 2021. Since then, Kemper has continued the podcast solo. It was his work on All About Agatha that inspired him to write a mystery series of his own, which is currently being published by Kensington Books. Despite their contemporary setting, tone, and preoccupations, the Ghostwriter Mysteries are very much written in homage to Christie and other writers of the golden age of detective fiction.
Kemper is married to a television writer. He and his husband have two young daughters. When he’s not with his family, or podcasting, or writing, he enjoys activities with a more tangible payoff, such as running and attempting to play the violin (alas, the emphasis is very much on the attempt). You can visit Kemper at www.KemperDonovan.com.
Sara Paretsky revolutionized the mystery world in 1982 by introducing V.I. Warshawski in Indemnity Only. Paretsky challenged a genre in which women historically were vamps or victims by creating a detective with the grit and smarts to take on the mean streets. V.I. struck a chord with readers and critics; Indemnity Only was followed by twenty more V.I. novels. Her voice and world remain vital to readers; the New York Times calls V.I. "a proper hero for these times," adding, "To us, V.I. is perfect."
While Paretsky's fiction changed the narrative about women, her work also opened doors for other writers. In 1986, she created Sisters in Crime, a worldwide organization that advocates for women crime writers. This organization earned her Ms. Magazine's 1987 Woman of the Year award. More accolades followed: the British Crime Writers awarded her the Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement; Blacklist won the Gold Dagger from the British Crime Writers for best novel of 2004, and she has received the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from several universities.
Called "passionate" and "electrifying," V.I. reflects her creator's passion for social justice. After chairing the school's first Commission on the Status of Women as a Kansas University undergraduate, Paretsky worked as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side during the turbulent race riots of 1966. Since then, Paretsky's volunteer work has included advocating for healthcare for the mentally ill homeless, mentoring teens in Chicago's most troubled schools, and working for reproductive rights. Through her Sara & Two C-Dogs foundation, she also helps build STEM and arts programs for young people.
The actress Kathleen Turner played V.I. Warshawski in the movie of that name. Paretsky's work is celebrated in Pamela Beere Briggs's documentary Women of Mystery. Today, Sara Paretsky's books are published in 30 countries.
Paretsky detailed her journey from Kansas farm girl to New York Times bestseller in her 2007 memoir, Writing in an Age of Silence, which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. In addition, Paretsky has written two stand-alone novels, Ghost Country and Bleeding Kansas, set in the part of rural Kansas where she grew up. She has published several short story collections, most recently Love & Other Crimes, and has edited numerous other anthologies.
Learn more about Sara Paretsky at https://saraparetsky.com/.
Caitlin Rother is a New York Times bestselling true crime author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist. She worked for nearly two decades as an investigative reporter and has had work published in Cosmopolitan, The Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe, among others. As a TV crime commentator, she has done more than 200 media appearances on episodes of 20/20, People Magazine Investigates, Crime Watch Daily, Australia's World News, Nancy Grace, Snapped, and numerous shows on Netflix, Investigation Discovery, HLN, REELZ, Oxygen, E!, A&E, C-SPAN and various PBS affiliates. Rother also works as a writing/research coach and consultant, and plays piano and sings in an acoustic band. She lives in Southern California and can be found online at CaitlinRother.com.
Previous Guests of Honor
2024 Guest of Honor – Karen Dionne
KAREN DIONNE is the USA Today and #1 internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novels The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister, both published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in the U.S. and in dozens of other countries. The Marsh King’s Daughter was named one of the best books of 2017 by iBooks and many other booksellers and reviewers and released in 2023 by Lionsgate as a major motion picture starring Daisy Ridley and Ben Mendelsohn. Karen enjoys nature photography and lives with her husband on a small lake surrounded by forest in the middle of Michigan. Read more about Karen at https://karen-dionne.com/
2024 Guest of Honor – Charles Todd
CHARLES TODD is The New York Times Best Selling author of the Inspector Ian Rutledge Series and the Bess Crawford series. A Game of Fear (Ian Rutledge Mystery) 2-1-22 and The Cliffs Edge (Bess Crawford Mystery) 2-14-23. He has published forty titles including two stand-alone novels, anthology and twenty short-stories appearing in mystery magazines and anthologies worldwide. His works have received the Mary Higgins Clark, Agatha, and Barry awards and nominations other major awards. Read more about Charles at https://charlestodd.com/
2024 Guest of Honor – Rebecca Zanetti
REBECCA ZANETTI is the award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over eighty romantic suspense, dark paranormal, and contemporary romances, many of which have also appeared on the Publishers Weekly, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple bestseller lists and sold millions of copies worldwide. Her books have been featured in The Washington Post and New York Times Book Review and received starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, and Kirkus. Previously an art curator, Senate aide, lawyer, college professor, and a hearing examiner, Rebecca has ridden in a locked Chevy trunk, asked the unfortunate delivery guy to release her from a set of handcuffs, and discovered the best silver mine shafts in which to bury a body – all in the name of research. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and can be found online at RebeccaZanetti.com
2023 Guest of Honor – Maureen Corrigan
MUAREEN CORRIGAN is America’s most trusted and beloved book critic. Her distinctive voice is at once incisive and accessible, like a well-read friend who always sends you home with a good book to read. For more than twenty years Maureen has been the book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air. She is also a columnist for The Washington Post and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University where her courses are very popular. As a lecturer she’s been described as “brilliant,” “hilarious,” “passionate” and “eloquent.” She is the author of two books of her own; Leave me Alone I’m Reading and So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why it Endures, which was named one of the ten best books of the year by Library Journal. Aside from her writings for The Washington Post and The Village Voice, Maureen has also written reviews for the New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Nation among others. She serves on the advisory panel of The American Heritage Dictionary, is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers, as well as the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism. She has served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and has also been on the judges’ panel for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. https://maureencorrigan.com/
2023 Guest of Honor – Cindy Dees
CINDY DEES is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers, military romance, and romantic suspense novels that have sold more than two million copies worldwide. An Air Force veteran, Dees enlisted after earning a degree in Russian and East European Studies, becoming the youngest female pilot in the history of the Air Force. She also worked in government intelligence and has amassed a lifetime’s experiences to fuel her stories of life on the edge of danger. A member of ITW, she lives near Ft. Worth, Texas, and can be found online at CindyDees.com.
2023 Guest of Honor – Kathryn Lasky
KATHRYN LASKY is the author of over one hundred books for children and young adults, including the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, which has more than eight million copies in print, and was turned into a major motion picture, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Kathryn’s latest book is the adult amateur sleuth mystery LIGHT ON BONE: A Georgia O’Keeffe Mystery. Her books have received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Washington Post-Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. She has twice won the National Jewish Book award. Her work has been translated into 19 languages worldwide. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, MA. www.kathrynlasky.com
2022 Guest of Honor – Charlie Donlea
CHARLIE DONLEA is the critically acclaimed, USA Today, Indiebound and #1 internationally bestselling author of Summit Lake, The Girl Who Was Taken, Don’t Believe It, Some Choose Darkness, The Suicide House, and Twenty Years Later. Published in nearly 30 countries and translated into more than a dozen languages, Donlea has been praised for his “soaring pace, teasing plot twists” (BookPage) and talent for writing an ending that “makes your jaw drop” (The New York Times Book Review). He was born and raised in Chicago, where he continues to live with his wife and two children. Visit him online at CharlieDonlea.com.
2022 Guest of Honor – Hank Phillippi Ryan
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN is the USA Today bestselling author of 13 psychological thrillers, winning the most prestigious awards in the genre: five Agathas, four Anthonys, and the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. She is also on-air investigative reporter for Boston’s WHDH-TV, with 37 EMMYs and dozens more journalism honors. Book critics call her “a master of suspense,” “a superb and gifted storyteller”; she’s the only author to have won the Agatha in four categories: Best First, Best Novel, Best Short Story and Best Non-Fiction. Hank’s 2020 novel is THE FIRST TO LIE, nominated for both the prestigious Anthony Award for Best Novel and Mary Higgins Clark Award. Her newest book is HER PERFECT LIFE, a chilling psychological standalone about fame, family, and revenge which received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly, which called it “A superlative thriller,” and Mystery Scene called it “A powerhouse of a thriller.” B.A. Paris says, “Shocking, suspenseful… kept me guessing until the end.” and Julie Clark says, “You will read this in one sitting!”
Hank is a founder of MWA University and The Back Room; and National Sisters in Crime past president. Visit Hank at HankPhillippiRyan.com, Twitter @HankPRyan, Instagram @hankpryan and Facebook at HankPhillippiRyanAuthor.
2021 Guest of Honor – Lisa Black
Lisa Black is the New York Times bestselling author of 17 suspense novels, including the Gardiner & Renner series and the Locard Institute series. Her works that have been translated into six languages, optioned for film, and shortlisted for both the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award and the Nero. She is also a full-time Certified Latent Print Examiner and a Certified Crime Scene Analyst, beginning her forensics career at the Coroner’s office in Cleveland Ohio and then the police department in Cape Coral, Florida. She has spoken to readers and writers at numerous conferences, been a consultant for CourtTV, and was a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
2021 Guest of Honor – J.T. Ellison
J.T. Ellison is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 25 novels, and the EMMY® award winning co-host of the literary TV show A WORD ON WORDS. She also writes urban fantasy under the pen name Joss Walker.
With millions of books in print, her work has won critical acclaim, prestigious awards, been optioned for television, and has been published in 28 countries.
J.T. lives in Nashville with her husband and twin kittens, where she is hard at work on her next novel.
2021 Guest of Honor – Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley is the 2021 recipient of the Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award. He is one of America’s most celebrated and beloved writers. A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, he has won numerous awards, including an Edgar Award for best novel, the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and several NAACP Image awards.
His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His short fiction has appeared in a wide array of publications, including the New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Playboy, and his nonfiction has been published in the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and the Nation. He is the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series, including most recently Charcoal Joe. He lives in New York City. Learn more about Walter by visiting his website.
2019 Guest of Honor – Alexandra Ivy
Alexandra Ivy is the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of romantic suspense, paranormal and erotic romance, as well as Regency historicals under the name Deborah Raleigh. A five-time RT Book Award Finalist, Ivy has received much acclaim for her Guardians of Eternity, ARES Security, Immortal Rogues and Sentinels series. She lives with her family in Missouri and can be found online at AlexandraIvy.com.
2019 Guest of Honor – Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates, pseudonyms Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly, (born June 16, 1938, Lockport, New York, U.S.), American novelist, short-story writer, and essayist noted for her vast literary output in a variety of styles and genres. Particularly effective are her depictions of violence and evil in modern society.
2019 Guest of Honor – David Morell
David Morrell wrote First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created. He has a PhD in literature from Penn State and was a professor in the English department at the University of Iowa. His NY Times bestsellers include the classic espionage novel The Brotherhood of the Rose, the basis for the only TV mini-series to air after a Super Bowl. An Anthony, Edgar, Ellis, Left Coast, and Thriller finalist, Morrell has Inkpot, Macavity, Nero, RT, and Stoker awards as well as ITW’s Thriller Master award and a Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement award. His latest novels are the acclaimed Victorian mystery/thrillers: Murder As a Fine Art, Inspector of the Dead, and Ruler of the Night. His writing book, The Successful Novelist, describes what he has learned in his four-decade career. Visit him at www.davidmorrell.net
2018 Guest of Honor – Ellery Adams
Ellery Adams is the New York Times bestselling author of over 30 novels, including the Books by the Bay Mysteries, the Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries, the Book Retreat Mysteries and The Secret, Book & Scone Society series. Though she grew up on a beach near the Long Island Sound, she went on to spend her adult life in a series of landlocked towns and cherishes her memories of open water, violent storms, and the smell of the sea. Ms. Adams has held many jobs, including caterer, retail clerk, car salesperson, teacher, tutor, and tech writer, all the while penning poems, children’s books, and novels. She lives with her husband and two children in Chapel Hill, NC.
Visit Ellery Adams online at: www.ElleryAdamsMysteries.com
2018 Guest of Honor – J.A. Konrath
J.A. Konrath has sold more than two million books in twenty countries. He’s written over thirty novels and over a hundred short stories in the mystery, thriller, horror, and sci-fi genres. He’s twice won the Love is Murder Award for best thriller, and has also won the Derringer Award, and the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award, and has been nominated for many others including the Anthony, Macavity, and Gumshoe.
Learn more about J.A. Konrath at his website jakonrath.com!
2018 Guest of Honor – Otto Penzler
The 2018 John Seigenthaler Legends Award winner, Otto Penzler, is the president and CEO of MysteriousPress.com. He's also the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and is regarded as the world's foremost authority on crime, mystery, and suspense fiction.Penzler founded The Mysterious Press in 1975, which he later sold to Warner Books (1989). He reacquired the imprint in 2010 and it now publishes original books as an imprint at Grove/Atlantic, and both original works and classic crime fiction through MysteriousPress.com, in partnership with Open Road Integrated Media.He was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years. He also created the publishing firms of Otto Penzler Books and The Armchair Detective Library. He currently has imprints at Grove/Atlantic in the United States and Head of Zeus in the U.K., publishing such authors as Thomas H. Cook, Andrew Klavan, Thomas Perry, Robert Olen Butler, Charles McCarry, and Joyce Carol Oates.Penzler is also a prolific editor, and his most recent anthologies include Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (Vintage), In Pursuit of Spenser (BenBella) and The Best American Noir of the Century (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), with James Ellroy.Since 1997, he has been the Series Editor of The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), featuring guest editors Robert B. Parker, Sue Grafton, Ed McBain, Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, Nelson DeMille, Joyce Carol Oates, Scott Turow, Carl Hiaasen, George Pelecanos, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Harlan Coben, and Robert Crais.He also was the co-series editor (with Thomas H. Cook) of the annual Best American Crime Reporting (Ecco/HarperCollins). Other mystery anthologies, containing all original stories, include Dangerous Women and a series of seven sports-themed books, including Murder Is My Racquet, (tennis), Murderer's Row (baseball) and Murder on the Ropes (boxing).Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977 and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994 and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.He was born July 8, 1942. He lives in New York and Connecticut.
2017 Guest of Honor – Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins is the recipient of the 2017 Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award. He has earned an unprecedented twenty-two Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus” nominations, winning twice for best novel and once for best short story. In 2007 he received the Eye, the PWA life achievement award, and in 2012 his Nathan Heller saga was honored with the PWA “Hammer” award for its major contribution to the private eye genre.
His graphic novel Road to Perdition (1998), illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner, became the Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks film, and his innovative “Quarry” novels is the basis of a current Cinemax TV series. He has completed a number of “Mike Hammer” novels begun by the late Mickey Spillane, most recently A Will to Kill, and his full-cast Hammer audio novel, The Little Death (with Stacy Keach), won a 2011 Audie.
Collins has written and directed four feature films, including the Lifetime movie “Mommy” (1996), as well as two documentaries, including “Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane” (1998), which appears on the Criterion Collection’s “Kiss Me Deadly.” His many comics credits include the syndicated strip “Dick Tracy”; “Batman”; and “Ms. Tree” and “Wild Dog,” co-created with artist Terry Beatty. His movie novels include Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster (IAMTW Best Novel “Scribe” Award, 2008).
Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins; as “Barbara Allan,” they have collaborated on thirteen novels, notably the successful “Trash ‘n’ Treasures” mysteries, including Antiques Flee Market (2008) winner of the Romantic Times Best Humorous Mystery Novel award in 2009. Their son Nathan is a Japanese-to-English translator, working on video games, manga and novels.
2017 Guest of Honor – Chris Grabenstein
Chris Grabenstein is the New York Times bestselling author of the Lemoncello series, the Wonderland series, the award-winning Haunted Mystery series, and The Island of Dr. Libris. He is also the co-author (with James Patterson) of the #1 Bestsellers I Funny, House of Robots, Treasure Hunters, Jacky Ha-Ha, Word of Mouse, Pottymouth and Stoopid, and many others.
Winner of all sorts of awards, Chris writes fast-paced and fun page-turners. He's also a playwright and screenwriter not to mention a former advertising executive and improvisational comedian. Sometimes he sleeps.
Chris started writing a long time ago. He and his four brothers used to put on skits and puppet shows in the basement of their home in Buffalo, New York. Their mom and dad were the only paying customers. Admission was a nickel. They usually earned ten cents a show.
2017 Guest of Honor – A.J. Tata
General Anthony J. Tata has more than three decades of public service as a military officer and in leadership roles at the county and state level. His last combat tour was as the Deputy Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division and the Joint Task Force in Afghanistan, commanding nearly 25,000 troops. He is also an acclaimed novelist with nine fiction novels, including national bestsellers Foreign and Domestic, Three Minutes to Midnight, and Besieged. Kensington Books will release Direct Fire December 2017.
General Tata is the president of defense, transportation, and energy services company, KaylaTek, LLC. He also frequently speaks on matters of foreign policy to companies such as Google, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, MetLife, Bank of America, Glaxo Smith Kline and other major corporations. Previously, General Tata served as the North Carolina Secretary of Transportation, leading the state’s 12,000 NCDOT employees and serving as a member of the Governor’s cabinet. Immediately prior to that, he served as the Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System, leading the state’s largest school district of 18,000 employees and 150,000 students to record academic heights.
General Tata served two tours of duty in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. He also served as a brigade commander in the 101st Airborne Division and as the Deputy Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division. Among his military decorations, he has been awarded the Combat Action Badge and Bronze Star, served as a Master Parachutist and graduated from the U.S. Army’s Ranger School. He is listed as a distinguished member of the 502nd, 504th and 505th Parachute Infantry Regiments.
Tony received a Bachelor of Science at the United States Military Academy at West Point, a Master of Arts in International Relations at the Catholic University of America, a Master of Military Art and Science in Strategic Planning at the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies, and was a National Security Senior Fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.
Tony is the National Security Expert for One America News Network and reliably comments on foreign policy matters on dozens of programs and networks, including Fox News (Hannity, Bill O’Reilly Show, Megyn Kelly, Fox and Friends Weekday and Weekend, Geraldo Rivera Show, Fox Weekend News, America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, and others), CNN New Day and with Brooke Baldwin, CBS News with Harry Smith, The Glenn Beck Show on The Blaze, and The Daily Buzz.
General Tata has two children, Brooke and Zachary.
2016 Guest of Honor – Janet Evanovich
When I was a kid I spent a lot of time in LaLa Land. La la Land is like an out-of-body experience –while your mouth is eating lunch your mind is conversing with Captain Kirk. Sometimes I’d pretend to sing opera. My mother would send me to the grocery store down the street, and off I’d go, caterwauling at the top of my lungs. Before the opera thing I went through a horse stage where I galloped everywhere and made holes in my Aunt Lena’s lawn with my hooves. Aunt Lena was a good egg. She understood that the realities of daily existence were lost in the shadows of my looney imagination. After graduation from South River High School, I spent four years in the Douglass College art department, honing my ability to wear torn Levis, learning to transfer cerebral excitement to primed canvas. Painting beat the heck out of digging holes in lawns, but it never felt exactly right. It was frustrating at best, excruciating at worst. My audience was too small. Communication was too obscure. I developed a rash from pigment.
Somewhere down the line I started writing stories. The first story was about the pornographic adventures of a fairy who lived in a second rate fairy forest in Pennsylvania. The second story was about …well never mind, you get the picture.
I sent my weird stories out to editors and agents and collected rejection letters in a big cardboard box. When the box was full I burned the whole damn thing, crammed myself into pantyhose and went to work for a temp agency.
Four months into my less than stellar secretarial career, I got a call from an editor offering to buy my last mailed (and heretofore forgotten) manuscript. It was a romance written for the now defunct Second Chance at Love line, and I was paid a staggering $2,000.
With my head reeling from all this money, I plunged into writing romance novels full time, saying good-by, good riddance to pantyhose and office politics. I wrote series romance for the next five years, mostly for Bantam Loveswept. It was a rewarding experience, but after twelve romance novels I ran out of sexual positions and decided to move into the mystery genre.
I spent two years retooling –drinking beer with law enforcement types, learning to shoot, practicing cussing. At the end of those years I created Stephanie Plum. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Stephanie is an autobiographical character, but I will admit to knowing where she lives.
It turns out I’m a really boring workaholic with no hobbies or special interests. My favorite exercise is shopping and my drug of choice is Cheeze Doodles.
I read comic books and I only watch happy movies. I motivate myself to write by spending my money before I make it. And when I grow up I want to be just like Grandma Mazur.
2016 Guest of Honor – Kevin O’Brien
Before his thrillers landed him on The New York TimesBestseller list, Kevin O’Brien was a railroad inspector who worked all the live long day and wrote novels at night. He grew up on Chicago’s North Shore, the youngest of six children, and studied Journalism at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He moved to Seattle in 1980. His railroad job took him all over the Pacific Northwest, and he wrote most of his first novel in Best Westerns and Red Lions. The result, ACTORS (1987) was translated into three languages. He took the advice of author, Terry Brooks, who told him: “Don’t quit your railroad job until you’ve made enough money on your writing to support yourself for two years.” Kevin’s second book, ONLY SON (1997) was optioned for film rights thanks to interest from Tom Hanks. ONLY SON was also chosen by Reader’s Digest for their Select Editions—alongside John Grisham’s THE PARTNER. That same year, Kevin bid farewell to the railroads and began writing full time. His first thriller, THE NEXT TO DIE (2001) became a USA Today Bestseller. Three more USA Today bestselling thrillers followed, and then came THE LAST VICTIM (2005), which hit the New York Times Bestseller list and won the Spotted Owl Award for Best Pacific Northwest Mystery. Kevin has continued to turn out New York Times best-selling thrillers, and his books have been translated into fourteen languages. Kevin is on the board of Seattle 7 Writers (www.seattle7writers.org) , a collective of bestselling, award-winning authors, dedicated to supporting literacy, writing and education. He’s burning the midnight oil while working on his 20th novel.
2016 Guest of Honor – Robert J. Randisi
Robert J. Randisi is the recipient of the 2016 Killer Nashville John Seigenthaler Legends Award. An exceptionally prolific author—he has written over 650 novels in the western, mystery, sci-fi, horror, and spy genres, under different pseudonyms—Randisi’s dedication to the craft is rivaled only by his passion for advocating, encouraging, and featuring other genre writers.He has edited over 30 short-story anthologies, collections in which numerous authors found their first breaks. His willingness to share professional insights led him to serve as co-founder and editor of Mystery Scene magazine, a publication that has influenced and guided aspiring writers since 1985. His desire to highlight new talent birthed another of his brainchildren, the now-coveted Shamus Award. And in founding The Private Eye Writers of America, and co-founding the American Crime Writers League, he not only raised the bar for multiple genres, but also demonstrated the legitimacy of crime writers by showing that they were not sensationalists, but real writers addressing real problems.Sometimes referred to as “last of the pulp greats”, which we view as a high compliment, Robert Randisi is a living legend, and a quintessentially American author: a true writer, not a brand or a celebrity. He shares the vision of Killer Nashville, and has exemplified it consistently throughout his life. We are truly thankful to have him joining us this year.
2015 Guest of Honor – John Gilstrap
John Gilstrap is the New York Times bestselling author of Against All Enemies, End Game, High Treason, Damage Control, Threat Warning, Hostage Zero, No Mercy, Nathan’s Run, At All Costs, Even Steven, Scott Free and Six Minutes to Freedom. In addition, John has written four screenplays for Hollywood, adapting the works of Nelson DeMille, Norman McLean and Thomas Harris. He is contracted to write and co-produce the film adaptation of his book, Six Minutes to Freedom.A frequent speaker at literary events, John also teaches seminars on suspense writing techniques at a wide variety of venues, from local libraries to The Smithsonian Institution. Outside of his writing life, John is a renowned safety expert with extensive knowledge of explosives, hazardous materials, and fire behavior. John lives in Fairfax, VA.
2015 Guest of Honor – M. William Phelps
M. William Phelps is the New York Times best-selling author of 30 books and winner of the 2013 Excellence in (Investigative) Journalism Award. He is also a crime, murder, and serial killer expert, creator/producer/writer and former host of the Investigation Discovery series Dark Minds. A respected journalist, beyond his book writing, Phelps has written for numerous publications—including the Providence Journal, Connecticut Magazine, and Hartford Courant —and consulted on the first season of the hit Showtime cable television series Dexter. He is also one of the regular and recurring experts frequently appearing on two long-running series, Deadly Women and Snapped. Killer Nashville Founder Clay Stafford interviewed Phelps during a special session. Phelps gave a presentation during a breakout session, and was available to sign books, and was recognized during the Guest of Honor Dinner.
2015 Guest of Honor – Robert K. Tanenbaum
Robert K. Tanenbaum is a New York Times bestselling author of three nonfiction books, including Echoes of My Soul, The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer and Badge of the Assassin. He is also the bestselling author of the Butch Karp series featuring two fictional District Attorneys in New York. The August 2015 release of his latest Butch Karp novel, TRAP (Simon & Schuster), marks Tanenbaum’s 30th published book.Tanenbaum is also known for his distinguished career in law, politics and writing, and his tireless hunt for truth and justice. He was an Assistant District Attorney in New York County, where he ran the Homicide Bureau, and as a prosecuting attorney, he never lost a felony trial. He was later appointed Deputy Chief Counsel for the Congressional committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Following an esteemed career as a successful prosecuting attorney and high profile defender, he served two terms as Mayor of Beverly Hills and continues to teach law in California, New York and Pennsylvania.Tanenbaum was recognized as the John Seigenthaler Legends Award recipient during the Guest of Honor dinner October 31.
2014 Guest of Honor – Lisa Jackson
Lisa Jackson can’t keep away from murderers, especially serial killers. She’s been helping to kill people everywhere from Savannah and New Orleans to San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest—and it’s been worth it as her readers come back again and again, and her novels are fixtures on bestseller lists. Having made serial killing her business—sort of—she has put her characters through the wringer. They have been up to their necks in danger and stared death, usually a pretty gory one, right in the face. She continues to be fascinated by the minds and motives of both her killers and their pursuers—the personal, the professional and downright twisted. As she builds the puzzle of relationships, actions, clues, lies and personal histories that haunt her protagonists, she must also confront the fear and terror faced by her victims and the harsh and enduring truth that, in the real world, terror and madness touch far too many lives and families. Lisa began writing at the urging of her sister, novelist Nancy Bush. Inspired by the success of authors she admired and the burgeoning market for romance fiction at the time, Nancy was convinced they could work together and succeed. They sat down, determined to write and to be published. They did and they were. Initially they wrote together. Later, they moved in different directions. Lisa brought more and more suspense to her work and began writing much darker stories. Nancy’s writing expanded to include not just her own novels, but she also spent several years writing for one of television’s leading soap operas, even transplanting herself for a time from the sister’s Pacific Northwest roots to Manhattan. In February 2009 they worked together again—for the first time in years—on Wicked Game, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly and became a New York Times bestseller.In a nutshell, who is Lisa Jackson? Before she became a nationally bestselling author, she was a woman struggling to keep food on the table by writing novels, hoping against hope that someone would pay her for them. Today, neck deep in murder, her books appear on The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly national bestseller lists. As those who know her can attest, this funny, smart woman who enjoys making the hair stand up on the back of her readers’ necks, is a mom, a daughter, a workaholic and an amazing writer. Clay Stafford, founder of Killer Nashville reviewed her most recent book title Tell Me, read his review here.
2014 Guest of Honor – William Kent Krueger
Raised in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, William Kent Krueger briefly attended Stanford University—before being kicked out for radical activities. After that, he logged timber, worked construction, tried his hand at free-lance journalism, and eventually ended up researching child development at the University of Minnesota. He currently makes his living as a full-time author. He’s been married for over 35 years to a marvelous woman who is an attorney. He makes his home in St. Paul, a city he dearly loves.Krueger writes a mystery series set in the north woods of Minnesota. His protagonist is Cork O’Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe. His work has received a number of awards, including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize. Northwest Angle (2011) and Trickster's Point (2012) were New York Times bestsellers.A stand-alone novel, Ordinary Grace, was released in March 2013 and also became a New York Times bestseller. The thirteenth book in the Cork O'Connor series, Tamarack County, was release in August 2013.Clay Stafford, founder of Killer Nashville reviewed Ordinary Grace, click here to read his review.
Awards
Bush Artist Fellowship, 1988
Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, 1998
Minnesota Book Award, 1999
Anthony Award for Best First Novel, 1999
Barry Award for Best First Novel, 1999
Friends of American Writers Prize, 1999
Minnesota Book Award, 2002
Readers Choice Award, 2003
Anthony Award for Best Novel, 2005
Anthony Award for Best Novel, 2006
Minnesota Book Award, 2007
Dilys Award (Independent Mystery Booksellers Association), 2008
Lovey Award (Love is Murder Conference), Best PI/Police Procedural category, 2008
Minnesota Book Award, 2008
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award (NEMBA), 2008
Midwest Booksellers Choice Award for Best Fiction, 2013
2013 Guest of Honor – D.P. Lyle
D. P. Lyle, MD is the Macavity Award-winning and Edgar, Agatha, Scribe, and USA Best Book Award nominated author of many non-fiction books as well as numerous works of fiction, including the SAMANTHA CODY and DUB WALKER thriller series and the ROYAL PAINS media tie-in novels. His essay on Jules Verne’s THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND appears in THRILLERS: 100 MUST READS and his short story “Even Steven” in ITW’s anthology THRILLER 3: LOVE IS MURDER.He has worked with many novelists and with the writers of popular television shows such as Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Diagnosis Murder, Monk, Judging Amy, Peacemakers, Cold Case, House, Medium, Women’s Murder Club, 1-800-Missing, The Glades, and Pretty Little Liars. He was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama where his childhood interests revolved around football, baseball, and building rockets in his backyard. The latter pursuit was common in Huntsville during the 1950’s and 60’s due to the nearby NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. After leaving Huntsville, he attended college, medical school, and served an internship at the University of Alabama; followed by a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas at Houston; then a Fellowship in Cardiology at The Texas Heart Institute, also in Houston. For the past 35 years, he has practiced Cardiology in Orange County, California.Also, read about fellow 2013 Killer Nashville Guest of Honor Anne Perry.
2013 Guest of Honor – Anne Perry
Anne Perry is the award-winning, bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including A Sunless Sea, Dark Assassin and The Shifting Tide, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including The Cater Street Hangman, Callander Square, Buckingham Palace Gardens and Long Spoon Lane. She is also the author of the World War I novels No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade, and We Shall Not Sleep, as well as six holiday novels, most recently A Christmas Garland. Anne Perry lives in Scotland.Also read about fellow 2013 Killer Nashville Guest of Honor D.P. Lyle.
2012 Guest of Honor – C.J. Box
C. J. Box is the New York Times bestselling author of fifteen novels including the Joe Pickett series. He won the Edgar Alan Poe Award for Best Novel (Blue Heaven, 2009) as well as the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award, and the 2010 Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association Award for fiction. His short stories have been featured in America’s Best Mystery Stories of 2006 and limited-edition printings. 2008 novel Blood Trail was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin (Ireland) Literary Award. The novels have been translated into 25 languages. Open Season, Blue Heaven and Nowhere To Run have been optioned for film.Box is a Wyoming native and has worked as a ranch hand, surveyor, fishing guide, a small town newspaper reporter and editor, and he co-owns an international tourism marketing firm with his wife Laurie. In 2008, Box was awarded the "BIG WYO" Award from the state tourism industry. An avid outdoorsman, Box has hunted, fished, hiked, ridden, and skied throughout Wyoming and the Mountain West. He served on the Board of Directors for the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. They have three daughters. He lives in Wyoming.In 2011, Cold Wind debuted at #10 and Back Of Beyond debuted at #15 on the New York Times best seller list. Force of Nature debuted at #3 on March 20, 2012.Two new novels are scheduled for publication in 2013: Breaking Point (A Joe Pickett novel) in March and The Highway (a stand-alone featuring Cody Hoyt) in July.
2012 Guest of Honor – Heywood Gould
Bestselling Author and Screenwriter Heywood Gould got his start as a reporter for the NY Post. Later he financed years of rejection with the usual colorful jobs - cab driver, mortician's assistant, bartender. Gould is the author of thirteen books and nine screenplays, including Fort Apache – the Bronx, Boys From Brazil, Cocktail, and Rolling Thunder. He has directed four features, One Good Cop, starring Michael Keaton, Trial By Jury with William Hurt, Mistrial starring Bill Pullman and Double Bang with William Baldwin. His novel Leading Lady (2008) won the Independent Publishing Award bronze medal, was a finalist for the Hammett Prize, which honors literary excellence in the field of crime writing and was voted Forward Magazine Mystery/Thriller of the Year. Kirkus Review wrote, "Veteran screenwriter/novelist Gould writes with infectious crackle and humor." Gould's 2011 novel Serial Killer's Daughter was described by Library Journal as "...this high-caliber redemptive road trip is quick-witted, stylish, and highly entertaining.”
2012 Guest of Honor – Peter Straub
Peter Straub is the author of more than 17 novels, several poetry and short story collections, seven novellas, and a collection of nonfiction essays. Although he is most famous for his work in the horror genre, he has also received acclaim for his poems, literary novels, and thrillers. As one of the century's most honored horror writers, he has received a number of literary awards, including the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the International Horror Guild Award. Straub's first novel, Marriages, was published in 1973, but it was his fifth, Ghost Story, that made him a household name. The book was a national bestseller, and Stephen King called it one of the best horror novels of the latter half of the 20th century. Later, Straub and King collaborated on two fantasy novels: The Talisman and its sequel, Black House. Straub also edited H. P. Lovecraft: Tales. His most recent thriller, A Dark Matter, was released in February 2010.
2011 Guest of Honor – Donald Bain
Donald Bain is the author of more than 100 books, many of them bestsellers.He currently writes the USA Today bestselling series of 37+ original novels based upon the television series, Murder, She Wrote. They're published by Obsidian, a new imprint from Penguin (NAL/Dutton), and are written “in collaboration" with TV's most famous mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher of "Murder, She Wrote," who exists only as a fictitious character.He has also written crime novels under the pseudonyms Nick Vasile (Sado Cop & A Member of the Family) & Mike Lundy (Raven & Baby Farm).His autobiography, Murder HE Wrote: A Successful Writer's Life, published by Purdue University Press, is available everywhere.For more about Donald Bain, visit his website at www.donaldbain.com.
2011 Guest of Honor – Robert Dugoni
New York Times Bestselling Author Robert Dugoni was born in Pocatello, Idaho and raised in Burlingame, California. Growing up the middle child in a family of ten siblings, Robert jokes that he didn't get much of a chance to talk, so he wrote. By the seventh grade, he knew he wanted to be a writer. Robert wrote his way to Stanford University where he majored in communications/journalism and creative writing. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and worked briefly as a reporter before deciding to attend the UCLA law school. Robert practiced law full-time in San Francisco as a partner at the law firm, and still practices as counsel for a law firm in Seattle.In 1999 he made the decision to quit the full-time practice of law to write novels and settled in Seattle to pursue his dream. In the next three years, he completed three novels, two of which won the 1999 and 2000 Pacific Northwest Writer's Association Literary Contests. His debut novel, The Jury Master became a New York Times bestseller. Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine chose it as one of the three "Best of the Best" debut novels of 2006. The Seattle Times and Library Journal have likened Robert to a young John Grisham, calling The Jury Master, "A riveting tale of murder, skullduggery and treachery at the highest level." Robert’s second novel, Damage Control, reached number 8 on several national independent booksellers’ lists. Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal called Damage Control "a page-turner" with "a fast-moving plot and a few twists that will surprise even seasoned thriller readers."Wrongful Death, Robert’s sequel to The Jury Master has also received critical acclaim. Mysterious Reviews touted Wrongful Death as "among the best books to be published this year." Kirkus called it, "An entertaining thriller about a hotshot lawyer with good guys to like, villains to hiss, and windmills to attack." And Booklist wrote, "Mixing the suspense of a Grisham legal thriller with the political angle of a Baldacci. Dugoni is knocking on the A-list thriller door." Robert’s fourth novel and third in the David Sloane series, Bodily Harm, was voted one of the top five thrillers of 2010 and critics are calling it his best book yet. Robert’s books have been published in 18 foreign countries. In addition to writing novels, Robert teaches the craft of writing and writing novels throughout the United States.
2010 Guest of Honor – Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is a former journalist, folksinger and attorney, Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the Times of London, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, theSydney Morning Herald and the Los Angeles Times. His books are sold in 150 countries and have been translated into over twenty-five languages.The author of thirty novels and two collections of short stories, he's been awarded the Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers' Association, is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year and is a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award. The Bodies Left Behindwon the "Best Thriller Of The Year" award from the International Thriller Writers Organization in 2009. His thriller The Cold Moon won a Grand prix from the Japanese Adventure Fiction Association and was named Book of the Year by the Mystery Writers Association of Japan.Jeff has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony Award and a Gumshoe Award. He was shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Best International Author. Jeff won a "Lovey Readers Award" for best series of 2008, for the Lincoln Rhyme series, at the Love Is Murder writers' conference. His book A Maiden's Grave was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.His most recent novels are XO, a Kathryn Dance thriller, for which he wrote the lyrics for an album of country-western songs, available on iTunes and as a CD. And before that, Carte Blanche, the latest James Bond continuation novel, a number-one international bestseller. Other books by Jeff are The Bodies Left Behind, The Broken Window,The Sleeping Doll and More Twisted: Collected Stories, Volume II. And, yes, the rumors are true; he did appear as a corrupt reporter on his favorite soap opera, As The World Turns. Jeff is presently alternating his series featuring Kathryn Dance, who will make her appearances in odd number years, and Lincoln Rhyme, who will appear in even.
2009 Guest of Honor – J.A. Jance
J.A. Jance was introduced to Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz series in the second grade. She read the first one and was hooked and knew, from that moment on, that she wanted to be a writer.The first book Jance wrote, a slightly fictionalized version of a series of murders that happened in Tucson in 1970, was never published. For one thing, it was twelve hundred pages long. Since she was never allowed in the creative writing classes, no one had ever told her there were some things she needed to leave out. For another, the editors who turned it down said that the parts that were real were totally unbelievable, and the parts that were fiction were fine. Her agent finally sat her down and told her that she thought Jance was a better writer of fiction than non-fiction.The result of that conversation was the first Detective Beaumont book, Until Proven Guilty. Since 1985 when that was published, there have been 21 more Beau books. Jance's work also includes 14 Joanna Brady books set in southeastern Arizona where she grew up, and seven Ali Reynolds books, set in Sedona, AZ. In addition there are four thrillers, starting with Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees, that reflect what she learned during the years when she was teaching on the Tohono O’Odham reservation west of Tucson, Arizona.Jance says "One of the wonderful things about being a writer is that everything–even the bad stuff–is usable. The eighteen years I spent while married to an alcoholic have helped shape the experience and character of Detective J. P. Beaumont. My experiences as a single parent have gone into the background for Joanna Brady–including her first tentative steps toward a new life after the devastation of losing her husband in Desert Heat. And then there’s the evil creative writing professor in Hour of the Hunter and Kiss of the Bees, but that’s another story."
2008 Guest of Honor – Dr. Bill Bass (Jefferson Bass)
Dr. Bill Bass is a world-renowned Forensic Anthropologist. He is the author or co-author of more than two hundred scientific publications, as well as a critically acclaimed memoir about his career, Death's Acre. He is also a dedicated teacher, honored as National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.Bill is among the most famous Americans in his field, which is the use of physical anthropology to resolve medical and criminal matters about the dead. He is the former director and founder of the University of Tennessee's Forensic Anthropology Center (FAC), a two-acre compound known colloquially as "The Body Farm", where human remains are left to decay in various natural and controlled environments. At the FAC, the world's only laboratory devoted to the study of human decomposition, Bill’s research has helped provide the basis that allows crime scene investigators to determine, among myriad other details, the cause of death in cases where police are working with victims' skeletal remains, or the time of death.Jon Jefferson (the other half of Jefferson Bass) is a veteran journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. His writings have been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, and Popular Science and broadcast on National Public Radio. The coauthor of Death's Acre, he is also the writer and producer of two highly rated National Geographic documentaries about the Body Farm.
2007 Guest of Honor – Michael Connelly
Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing ' a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews. After graduating in 1980, Michael worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale, he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors that was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Michael into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written. After three years on the crime beat in Los Angeles, Michael began writing his first novel The Black Echo and was published in 1992. He won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Michael has followed that up with 18 more novels including The Concrete Blond, The Poet, Blood Work, and The Lincoln Lawyer. His books have been translated into 31 languages and have won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, Shamus, Dilys, Nero, Barry, Audie, Ridley, Maltese Falcon (Japan), .38 Caliber (France), Grand Prix (France), and Premio Bancarella (Italy) awards.
2006 Guest of Honor – Carol Higgins Clark
Born in New York City, Carol Higgins Clark received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College. During her college career, she began re-typing her mother's transcripts. She also made contribution such as renaming locations and characters. Out of her four other siblings, Carol was the only one to go into writing. One thing that made a great impact on this decision was helping her mother.While Mary Higgins Clark attempted juggling a full time job and also trying to finish her second book, the younger Higgins grasped this opportunity to familiarize herself with the process of writing a book and telling tales, not knowing this would be her start in becoming a well-known author. Just as her mother does, Carol Higgins Clark also writes suspense books. One main difference in the writings of the two Higgins Clarks is that Carol's books contain a slight sense of humor that he mother's, Mary Higgins Clark do not posses.All of Carol's novels feature Regan Reilly (the famous recurring character), plot points about male escorts, and pantyhose conventions that come from real sources. In her video for NJN Public Television, Carol explains how she uses her first job experience to help her with ideas about her book. She has penned fifteen books including Gypped, Iced, Burned, and Wrecked. Carol has also co-authored five books with her mother Mary including Deck the Halls and Santa Cruise.