Orange County Noir

About the Contributors

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s first book, Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within, was a Los Angeles Times best seller and won a 2005 ASJA Outstanding Book Award. Her articles and essays have appeared in many publications, including Orange Coast Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Westways, and Poets & Writers. She has taught creative writing at UC, Irvine Extension, since 2000, and also produces and hosts a radio show, Writers on Writing, on KUCI-FM.

Mary Castillo, a former reporter for Los Angeles Times Community News, is the author of three novels and two novellas.

Dan Duling is an award-winning playwright, best known for Stranglehold, which won the Oregon Playwrights Award. He is also a former journalist, having written for publications such as the L.A.Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. The feature film Last Lives, based on his screenplay, originally premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel and is now available on DVD. Behind the Orange Curtain, Duling is the scriptwriter for the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach.

Robert S. Levinson is the author of the novels The Traitor in Us All, In the Key of Death, Where the Lies Begin, and Ask a Dead Man, as well as the Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner series of mystery-thrillers, which to date consist of The Elvis and Marilyn Affair, The James Dean Affair, The John Lennon Affair, and Hot Paint: The Andy Warhol Affair. The Derringer Award — winner’s short stories appear often in the Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines.

Dick Lochte is the author of ten popular crime novels, including, most recently, Croaked! His novel Sleeping Dog won a Nero Wolfe Award, was nominated for Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony awards, and was named one of the “100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century” by the Independent Booksellers Association. Lochte, who lives in Southern California with his wife and son, is also an award-winning drama critic and has written screenplays for such actors as Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, and Roger Moore.

Lawrence Maddox works as a film and television editor, and has written a number of independent features. He lives with his wife in northeast Los Angeles, less than an hour’s drive from the badlands beyond the Orange Curtain.

Gordon McAlpine is the author of three novels, Joy in Mudville, The Persistence of Memory, and Mystery Box. His short fiction and book reviews have been featured in magazines and journals both in the U.S. and abroad. He lives in Orange County with his wife and three children.

Patricia McFall is a freelance writer and editor. She also teaches fiction and coaches writers privately. She has published one suspense novel, a half-dozen short stories, and many newspaper features. Her work has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Orange Coast Magazine, and Writer’s Digest.

T. Jefferson Parker was born in Los Angeles and has lived in Southern California his whole life. He has published seventeen novels, numerous articles and short stories, and is a three-time Edgar Award winner. His most recent novel is Iron River.

Gary Phillips writes stories of chicanery and misadventure in various formats, including novels and short stories. He has contributed stories to several volumes in the Akashic Noir Series, including Los Angeles Noir, Dublin Noir, and Phoenix Noir. He recently published Freedom’s Fight, a novel set in World War II.

Rob Roberge is the author of the story collection Working Backwards from the Worst Moment in My Life and the novels More Than They Could Chew, and Drive. His stories have been featured in ZYZZYVA, Chelsea, Other Voices, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Literary Review. His work has also been anthologized in Another City, It’s All Good, and SANTI: Lives of the Modern Saints. Roberge plays guitar and sings with the L.A.-area bands the Violet Rays, the Danbury Shakes, and the Urinals.

Martin J. Smith is currently editor-in-chief of Orange Coast Magazine and formerly senior editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine. He is also the author of three crime novels, Time Release, Shadow Image, and the Edgar Award — nominated Straw Men, and is coauthor of two nonfiction pop culture histories, Poplorica and Oops.

Susan Straight is a native of Riverside, California, just over the Orange County border. She has published six novels, including Highwire Moon, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Million Nightingales, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her new novel, One Candle, will be published in 2010. Her short story “The Golden Gopher,” from Los Angeles Noir, won an Edgar Award in 2008.

Nathan Walpow is the author of the Joe Portugal mystery series. His short story “Push Comes to Shove” was reprinted in the Best American Mystery Stories series. He is a past president of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America.

Robert Ward’s 2006 novel Four Kinds of Rain was nominated for a Hammett Prize. He is a former writer-producer on TV shows New York Undercover, Hill Street Blues, and Miami Vice. His latest novel, Total Immunity, was published in 2009 by Harcourt.