our authors
Alphabetical (A-F)
ROBIN ACTON
The author has enjoyed a journalism career spanning three decades that took her from crime scenes and courtrooms in western Pennsylvania to the marbled halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. A recipient of over 100 awards from state and regional professional journalism organizations for her work in investigative projects, general news, features, business, health, and education writing, Robin received such prestigious awards as the 1995 Public Service Award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation for an investigative series on the courts; News Writer of the Year in 2001 and 2008 by the Pennsylvania Women’s Press Association; five Golden Quill Awards and more than a dozen additional Golden Quill nominations from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania. She received four Matrix awards from the Association for Women in Communications in Pennsylvania, including numerous honors in the Pennsylvania Keystone Press Association, the Society for Professional Journalists, and the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors competitions.
EMPTY BOXES (Debuts Nov. 2025 from Amphorae Publishing) - While investigating the shocking murder of a prominent funeral director, crack Pittsburgh crime reporter Rita Locke discovers that the victim has been burying empty coffins. As she peels back the layers of this puzzling development, she uncovers secrets that embroil her in a sinister plot of international proportions. As her dogged investigation exposes troubling facts involving the victim and his ties to an offshore medical school, Rita soon discovers she is in a fight for survival as forces bent on silencing her as her trail of clues leads her from her native state to the Caribbean where she entangled in a web of deception and murder. It’s only after she ends up in a box herself that she finally discovers the truth—but will it ever come to light?
Contact - Dean Krystek
ELLA ALEXANDER
After graduating from Bard College in 2018 with a degree in creative writing Ella Alexander has studied under Porochista Khakpour, Neil Gaiman, Rivka Galchen, and Wyatt Mason, and completed her senior thesis (a novella) under advisor Mary Caponegro. An LA native, she currently resides in Berlin. Her writing has been featured in publications including LongReads and HuffPost. The Sleeping Land is her debut novel.
THE SLEEPING LAND (The Unnamed Press Jan. 2025) - Less than two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, three junior archeologists and their gloryhound advisor arrive at a remote cave in the heart of the Siberian wilderness to carry out the first extensive Western dig on Russian soil since the execution of the Czar. The excavation yields fascinating discoveries, and excitement grows among the team. As each member of the party grapples with the complexities and the challenges of the dig, going deeper into the cave, a strange feeling sets in. Are they really alone out there?
Contact - Zeynep Sen
MICHAEL AMEDEO
A high school dropout, Michael later earned his BA at the University of Illinois and an MA at the University of Chicago. His pre-fiction work was in creative marketing, journalism, and public relations. He earned awards for copywriting at the Chicago area’s Stevens and Tate agency. In journalism, he reviewed film and theatre as a freelancer for Chicago’s New City newspaper and wrote film feature stories as a freelancer for the Chicago Sun-Times, including articles on film noir and on the movies of noir icon Robert Mitchum. His background in noir inspired the Matt Moulton series.
Past Tense - Matt Moulton #1 (Level Best Books, Feb. 2024) - The author’s salute to the hard-boiled detectives of the 40’s and 50’s. Matt Moulton, PI escapes San Francisco after a tragic ending to a case, to settle in LA where he becomes embroiled in murder, corruption, and betrayal that expose the glitter capital’s sinister underbelly. It’s pure “black & white” noir reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.
Fade to Black - Matt Moulton #2 (Level Best Books, May 2025) - Mouton’s high-risk, high-reward client is a black woman who leads her dead white husband’s mob in Chicago. Her daughter disappeared without a trace after moving to LA to pursue the nearly impossible dream of becoming a movie star. The mob lady believes that no one is better suited to find out what happened to her girl than the tough, cynical, but racially sensitive Moulton. The story turns pure noir when Moulton discovers that the daughter is held captive by a corporate movie studio operating a black-sex slave ring.
Contact - Dean Krystek
CHRIS BERG
Chris Berg and Paul James Smith have a combined half-century of boots-on-the-ground law enforcement that gives an unparalleled raw intensity to their narratives. Their careers, spanning undercover operations, SWAT, and high-level state and federal task forces, provide a deep well of firsthand knowledge, and their meticulous attention to detail provides readers with a gripping, authentic portrayal of the criminal underworld. The first draft of Blood Brothers won the Best Investigator Claymore Award at Killer Nashville. and was a Page Turner Award finalist.
BLOOD BROTHERS (Crime Fiction) - Detective Vince Driftwood’s world shatters when his Vietnam brother and patrol partner, Sugarcane Flood, is brutally executed. A line is crossed, and Vince’s badge is no longer enough. Suspended and haunted, he becomes a rogue force hunting killers who thought they were untouchable. Armed with just one clue—a brown Camaro—and everything to lose, Vince plunges into a dark underworld where justice comes at a deadly price. Pursued by the relentless Internal Affairs Sergeant Grace Kiddo and battling his own demons, Vince navigates a treacherous landscape where loyalty is currency and revenge is the only language spoken. As the body count rises and the truth unravels, Vince must decide how much he's willing to sacrifice in his quest for justice. Blood Brothers is a pulse-pounding thriller that explores the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood and the consuming nature of vengeance, hurtling towards a conclusion that will leave no one unscathed.
Contact - Dean Krystek
ESTER BLOOM
Ester Bloom is an award-winning writer who currently serves as the Deputy Manager Editor of the money website Grow (CNBC + Acorns). Formerly, she was a Senior Editor at CNBC Make It, an editor at The Billfold (an Awl network site), a Contributing Editor at the Barnes & Noble blog, and a Contributing Writer for The Atlantic. Her awards include the Lois Morrell Poetry Prize and the Dogwood Literary Creative Nonfiction Prize. One of her essays was the Creative Nonfiction Magazine Editor’s Top Pick for the True Crime issue, 2012; another was recognized in the “Notable” section of The Best American Essays 2015. Her work has appeared in Slate, Salon, Creative Nonfiction magazine, New York Magazine’s Vulture blog, Flavorwire, Quartz, the Daily Dot, and the Toast, for which she wrote the advice column Aunt Acid. She has been interviewed on MSNBC, MTV.com, HuffPost Live, WPIX 11 Morning News, the Geraldo Rivera Show, Bitch Magazine’s Popaganda podcast, Vice’s The Business of Life, and Slate’s United States of Debt.
A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME (Speculative Fiction) - Upmarket, speculative fiction which appeals to serious readers of the genre, who would find a place for Ester Bloom on the same shelf as Emily St. John Mandel, Naomi Alderman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ann Leckie, and Connie Willis. Film/TV rights currently unavailable.
Contact - Dean Krystek
KATHERINE BRYANT
As the mother of a non-binary gay child, the author became increasingly interested in LGBTQ history, and in particular, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and The Institute of Sexual Science in Berlin. Tillie, Ruth, James, and Ernesto came to life as she studied the Nazi destruction of The Institute of Sexual Science and their burning of all of Dr. Hirschfeld’s research on the LGBTQ community members of Berlin and the surrounding areas. This is her debut novel.
GIVE MY LOVE TO BERLIN (Debuts May 2025 from Amphorae Publishing) - In 1927, Berlin is the gay capital of the world. Ruth, a performer at one of the nightclubs in the city, and her girlfriend, Tillie, are enjoying the freedom of the Weimer Republic. As the ’20s come to a close, Tillie’s father, a prominent lawyer, becomes more entrenched with the Nazi Party. As his secretary, Tillie meets prominent figures in the Nazi Party, including Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring, and soon discovers there is much more at stake than just her gay relationship with Ruth, who is also Jewish.
In the early 1990s, a young woman named Thea while dealing with the onset of her beloved grandmother’s dementia, discovers secrets hidden away that her grandmother never intended for her to uncover. Alternating between Tillie’s perspective during the waning days of the Weimar Republic and Thea’s perspective in the ’90s as her grandmother’s secret history is revealed, the novel follows the lives of two gay couples—Tillie and Ruth, and their best friends, James and Ernesto—trying to navigate falling in love, thriving in their gay community, and coming to terms with the danger they are in just by being who they are. Fans of The Alice Network (Kate Quinn) and The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah) will find Give My Love to Berlin an intense and emotional experience that not only captures the epic panorama of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany but illuminates a part of history seldom seen: the war on the LGBTQ community.
Contact - Mira Perrizo
MICHAEL CAHLIN
Michael started his career as a newspaper reporter but contributed to developing a vast array of software whose DNA can be found in today’s desktop publishers, word processors, spell checkers, file managers, backup programs, and system utilities. He co-created The Official XTree MS-DOS & Hard Disk Companion, one of the blueprints for the successful “Dummies” Series. He has contributed articles to Basketball Weekly, Family Circle, PC World, Tom’s Guide and The Writer. His fiction appears in Mystery Weekly, Black Cat’s Mystery Megapack, and Down & Out Mystery Magazine. Michael has a Master of Education from Pepperdine University, is a member of The League of Vermont Writers, and currently working on his next book.
WICKED PROBLEMS (Historical Thriller) - Based on true events. The narrative is ingeniously woven around the US Government’s Operation Paperclip where the US, in the waning months of WWII, smuggled Nazi scientists into the US to continue their work in various scientific programs. Hidden in plain sight in towns and cities across the country, their deadly pasts were kept secret. Cahlin’s novel explores this hidden world, where those who worked for the displaced Nazis were unaware of their employer’s onerous past, and the deadly consequences when one person discovers the truth about the man for whom she works and decides to expose him.
Contact - Dean Krystek
EDEN CAMPBELL
Eden Campbell is a published freelance writer and poet out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Her work can be found in Romper, Severance Mag, Full Mood Mag, and through Cardigan Press. As an awkward middle-schooler she found her escape within the pages of romance novels and dreamed of writing in the genre ever since. When the keyboard grows dusty and her nose isn’t crammed in a book, she’s probably on social media where she finally feels at home among the creative crowd. Proudly autistic and ADHD, she loves to pen stories highlighting the neurodivergent experience alongside the healing power of self-acceptance and belonging.
DRAWN TOGETHER (Romance-Comedy) - Sweet as pie kinder teacher Amelia depends on her rich, stuffy parents to fund her nonprofit, but when she reconnects with her bad boy tattoo-covered childhood crush Jack, her parents make her choose: her dreams or the man of her dreams. It’s a childhood friends-to-lovers adult romcom featuring dyslexia representation.
Contact - Macey Howell
KATIE CUNNINGHAM
Katie is a queer Scottish writer, who loves horror, long distance running and cold-water swimming. Primarily published in comics, Katie’s first graphic novel, Rotten Under the Snow, came out in 2021 at Time Bomb Comics. She currently writes an ongoing series, Space Banshee Exorcist, for Time Bomb’s bi-monthly annual, Quantum, and has also featured in several of their other books. She was part of the Eisner winning Sensory anthology in 2022. Her debut prose novel, Something to Live For, is coming from Dead Sky Publishing in early 2026.
BONES (YA Fantasy/Horror) - Set in an alternative version of 1800s London, it’s a story about personhood, bodily autonomy, and academic cannibals. Drawing on the real life Victorian and Renaissance belief that consuming mummies would cure diseases, Bones creates a world where Historians control access to Necromancy- the ability to use the dead to heal the living and extend lives into near-immortality. This has led to even more social stratification, with the rich living forever by exploiting the poor. We follow Uan Bones, a loyal Museum employee with a mysterious past, and Maricar, the desperate illegitimate daughter of the world's foremost Historian, as they try to untangle their lives from what they believe they owe their toxic father figure.
Contact - Macey Howell
ELORA DODD
Elora Dodd is a social media influencer, who goes by the handle @online1roomschoolhouse. Having established a solid presence on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and X, Dodd creates autism-related, humorous content for her channels. In creating this content, she seeks to provide autistic people like her with a sense of community, connection and meaning that might be difficult to come by in the world that we live in. She has over 575K followers on social media at present.
GOD MADE MY BRAIN AN OCTOPUS (Children’s Picture Book) Growing up Southern Baptist set Elora in a world of high harsh expectations. Having undiagnosed autistic rendered her incapable of meeting those expectations. Often, she felt like a failure, and recommitted herself over and over and over to “take God more seriously.” But no amount of willpower that would make her brain function in the same way as other people. God Made My Brain An Octopus is a love letter to the small child Elora once was, looking to God in loneliness and shame. Every child deserves to be adored for who they are, not who the people around them wish they were.
POEMS FOR UNUSUAL WOMEN (Poetry) - The book explores the complex relationship women have with their bodies, their men, children, and more Poems for Unusual Women is a work for unusual readers. Yet at the same time, it’s a work that speaks to all women, be they neurotypical or neurodivergent, young or old, American or of a whole other nationality entirely. Envisioned as a poetry and puzzle book, Poems for Unusual Women narrates the unique experience of womanhood and resonate deep within them.
THE ACTUALLY AUTISTIC GUIDE (Debuts Spring of 2026 from Apollo Publishing) - with co-author C. R. R. Hillin, the book has been carefully crafted by autistics for autistics in order to enable community members to conquer daily challenges heads on. Authors Elora Dodd, whose social media account buzzing with anecdotes from her experiences as a neurodivergent has acquired more than seven hundred thousand followers, and her fellow activist C. R. R. Hillin, use their signature humor, creativity, and relatability to provide guidance acquired from their own experiences as well as from members of the #actuallyautistic online community.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
REPRESENTATIVE MICKEY DOLLENS
Oklahoma House Minority Whip Mickey Dollens played football and was a member of the US national bobsledding team. The former high school teacher entered politics in 2016 and won his seat with 60% of the vote. His passion for direct democracy comes from his deep belief that citizens—not just politicians—should have a say in shaping their government.
A CITIZEN’S GUIDE TO POLITICAL CHANGE (Current Affairs) - Across the United States, citizens have bypassed legislative gridlock and corporate-driven agendas by taking public policy into their own hands through grassroots ballot initiatives. Author Mickey Dollens, lays out a step-by-step blueprint for launching, organizing, and winning citizen-led ballot initiatives. This book isn't just about ballot initiatives, though. Packed with personal stories, historical context, and hands-on advice, it is a call to action and a challenge issued to readers to harness the tools of direct democracy to create a government that is responsive, just, and accountable—a government that works for the people. Hence, it is the kind of book every citizen must read, regardless of what their political leanings are.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
RACHEL DuBRUELER
Rachel DuBrueler has been spellbound by the macabre since childhood, when her wonderfully unconventional parents indulged her with as many age-inappropriate scary movies as she could get her hands on, fueling a permanent fascination with all things creepy, namely the storytelling she loves today. Rachel proudly earned four degrees from West Virginia University, her home state’s flagship institution, and considers herself a perpetual student even though she stopped paying Mensa dues years ago. She lives just outside of Richmond, VA, with her husband, twin stepsons, and adopted Doberman Pinschers, and while her days are spent in corporate strategy and finance, her late nights and weekends are spoken for by the twisty psychological thrillers she can’t keep herself from writing.
THE TANGLED WEBS WE WEAVE (Psychological Thriller) - The women’s reckoning you’ve been waiting for. It is not your mother’s domestic suspense novel, as it pushes the boundaries of everything from race and sexuality to social status and loyalty in relationships, and you should ask yourself: when you’ve got secrets of your own to keep, how far would you be willing to go to find the truth?
SKELETONS FOR FURNITURE (Psychological Thriller) - The author lets loose an intriguing, disturbing narrative that serves up both sizzle and steak, weaving an insidious tale of paranoia wrapped in fear and resentment, of what happens when hysteria guides good intentions straight into the gutter, as three neighboring families wage wars with themselves and each other. Suspicion, meet obsession.
Contact - Mira Perrizo
JAHA DUKUREH
Jaha Dukureh is a Gambian women's rights activist. She was subjected to female genital mutilation in The Gambia when she was a little more than a week old. She was forcibly married at the age of 15, then again at 17. Jaha is the founder and executive director of Safe Hands for Girls, an organization working to end FGM, and was the lead campaigner in The Guardian's End FGM Guardian Global Media Campaign. She has since gotten FGM banned in the Gambia and is working to have it banned in all of Africa. Safe Hands for Girls has since expanded its work to ban other practices, such as child marriages. In April 2016, Jaha was named on the 2016 Time 100 List. In February of 2018, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize Since then she has won the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal and become a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador for Africa. Accidental Pictures and The Guardian released a feature film about Jaha's life. Jaha is currently campaigning to be the Vice President and the President-in-Waiting of The Gambia and divides her time between New York and the Gambia.
I WILL SCREAM TO THE WORLD (Dafina Publishing, Dec. 2024) - An unflinching account of Dukureh’s fight against Female Genital Mutilation and child marriage and her unceasing efforts to lift women and children out of poverty, it is also a deeply personal exploration of Jaha’s past. The author boldly discusses her three marriages, two of which were arranged for her when she was a child, her experience with FGM, her fight to end the practice in the Gambia, her career as an activist, the struggles, hurdles, and racism she has faced as a black woman in the development field, her venturing into the political field and so much more. Honest and gripping, necessary and vital, I Will Scream to the World is the full, human story of a girl and a woman who became a leader.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
ERIK EDSTROM
Erik Edstrom enlisted in the Army after watching the Twin Towers fall and received an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point, where he became the youngest person to ever pass officer selection for US Special Forces. In Afghanistan, Edstrom led combat missions in Kandahar and a Presidential Escort to President Obama. He is a recipient of the Bronze Star and winner of the 2012 Best Ranger Competition Rippetoe Trophy. He later attended the University of Oxford, completing dual degrees in environmental change and management.
UN-AMERICAN - A SOLDIER’S RECKONING OF OUR LONGEST WAR (Bloomsbury, May 2020) - A captivating and thought-provoking memoir detailing an infantry officer’s extraordinary experiences as a platoon leader in the Afghanistan war.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
KRISTY ENSOR
Kristy Ensor is an award-winning writer weaving stories of hope with threads of Southern charm. Known as the “Back Road Diva” due to her love of traveling off the beaten path, she aspires to offer hope, comfort, and encouragement through her writing and in everyday life. Prior to embarking on her writing career, she worked with children and adults with autism and other learning differences for many years. Kristy co-wrote the devotional Hope is... (Bold Vision Books, 2022) regularly contributes to Lifeway’s Journey magazine, and also writes articles, essays, and devotions for other publications. Kristy lives in Tennessee with her husband. You can find her online (@thebackroaddiva) where she shares about life, local travel experiences, inspiration, and Monday Motivations
ALL KINDS OF KIND (Children’s Picture Book) - The author draws from her experience in special education to create a picture book about how children can show kindness to children with autism, disability, or learning differences. The book is a wonderful classroom tool to assist teachers and administrators in developing classroom instruction that creates a healthy, inclusive experience for children with disabilities and children who interact with peers with special needs.
Contact - Macey Howell
CHARLES B. FANCHER
Charles B. Fancher is a former journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Detroit Free-Press and a former senior executive at Knight-Ridder's Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. and at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He has also been a Howard University faculty member and an adjunct instructor at Temple University. Charles is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for Journalists at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He began his career as a local TV news reporter in Nashville, Tennessee, and as an ABC-TV publicist in New York.
TITLE TBD (Coming Feb 2027 from Blackstone Publishing) - In this powerful companion to his debut, Red Clay, Charles B. Fancher grips hearts with ease, only to bend and break them as beloved characters lean on each other through joyous highs and unspeakable lows in a Deep South town still haunted by ghosts from its dark past and deep passions of its complex present.
RED CLAY (Blackstone Publishing) - A multigenerational saga that follows the interwoven lives of an enslaved Black family and their white owners as the Civil War ends and Reconstruction begins. With a vivid sense of place and a cast of memorable characters, Fancher draws upon personal family history to weave a riveting tale of love, betrayal, and redemption, set against a backdrop of societal change and racial animus that reverberates in contemporary America.
Contact - Chip Rice
GEORGE FARAG
Dr. George Farag is a former U.S. diplomat & consul who provides expert analysis on immigration policy and processes. A member of America’s “expeditionary diplomats,” he served with an elite group of foreign service officers that specialize in high-risk missions, diplomacy's equivalent of the military's special forces. He is decorated by the State Department and has written on immigration policy, including op-eds in the New York Daily News and the National Law Review. Born in Egypt, George immigrated to the U.S. and is a proud product of America’s public welfare and education systems.
THE CONSUL (Memoir) - In 2003, George Farag was among the first U.S. State Department diplomats to enter Iraq to “promote civilian governance.” He was a 28-year-old Egyptian immigrant and a foreign service officer for only eight weeks when he landed in the Iran-controlled province of Najaf, less prepared than a kid arriving at summer camp. Five months later, with a murdering warlord in close pursuit, he laid bloody and begging for an American ambassador’s life. This memoir is a braided narrative, weaving the story of his hardscrabble childhood and seeking redemption in America’s failed invasion of Iraq. Ultimately, it’s a political thriller that illustrates the resilience of the human spirit and resonates with the universal experiences of love and loss.
BUSINESS LESSONS I LEARNED FROM THE WARLORDS (Business) - George Farag never intended to study Iraqi warlords. These men had American and Arab blood on their hands, some of it belonging to his friends. But as one of the first U.S. diplomats to enter Iraq in 2003, he quickly realized that understanding them could be a matter of life or death. He saw these radicals leverage chaos and demand loyalty to build militias that challenged the strongest military and diplomatic forces on earth. Years later, while building his own business, he relied more on their lessons than on the training I received for my diplomatic career. This book distills twelve warlord tactics for business success. It challenges conventional leadership wisdom while grappling with the ethical dilemmas of applying insights rooted in dark experiences from the Middle East.
Contact - Zeynep Sen
SUMMER FEAKER
Summer Feaker was drawn to the morbid and unknown for as long as she can remember. Her gothic horror trilogy, Haven Manor (D&T Publishing), was written after a haunted road trip with her sister. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and enjoys traveling to local libraries and indie bookstores for readings and interviews about her writing experience. Before Summer dedicated her time to writing, she worked in marketing, banking, housing, and sales. She enjoys exploring known haunted locations and launching full paranormal investigations with her sister. When not on the road or writing, she enjoys spending time with her three children and husband at their home in rural Iowa.
GHOSTS OF GREENROSE (Psychological Thriller/Horror) - A chilling tale in which woman is haunted by spirits drawn to her trauma and family dysfunction, leading to a frightful fight for her mental health.
Contact - Dean Krystek
L. A. FLEMING
First as a newspaper reporter and now in public relations and marketing, L. A. Fleming has spent many years as a professional writer. Previously invited to the Iowa Writers Workshop, she holds a master’s degree in creative writing, has ghostwritten numerous articles, and her prize-winning poetry has been published in a variety of academic journals and anthologies.
DOWN AT THE RADIO CAFE (Historical Fiction) - In this compelling glimpse into one of America’s lesser known examples of systemic racism, a conflicted white teen being groomed by the klan finds his life entwined with a Black man risking all to infiltrate the evil empire.
BRIAN J. CANO
Brian J. Cano has been exploring the unknown since childhood. He now has nearly two decades of experience as a paranormal researcher. Brian began his television career as an investigator on SCARED! before being cast as tech specialist on SyFy’s Haunted Collector. He is currently a featured analyst for Trvl Channel’s Paranormal Caught on Camera, with guest appearances on History Channel’s The Curse of Oak Island and The UnXplained. A respected member of the paranormal field, Brian’s primary goal is to empirically support claims of paranormal activity while maintaining his skeptical edge. When not delighting fans on-screen, he can be found sharing his wit and wisdom at prominent events and universities worldwide. He also hosts his own events, at home and abroad, and Brian’s trailblazing “History of the Paranormal” interactive exhibit is currently making its inaugural tour at unique historical locations across the US.
GRAINS OF SAND (Roswell Press, Feb. 2022) - From his early years as a pioneer in paranormal television to his frightening encounters on the sets of major networks, Brian’s collection of accessible tales provides an entertaining yet thoughtful account of his most life-changing experiences and the existential lessons they hold for us all. * Winner of a 2022 SUNNY Award.
Contact - Chip Rice