WordLink Authors G-L

CHAD ALAN GIBBS

Chad Alan Gibbs is the author of two nonfiction books published by Zondervan (HarperCollins), including God and Football, named one of Christianity Today’s Ten Best Books on Sports and Christianity of the Decade. His independently published YA fiction received two starred reviews and Best Books of the Year selections from Kirkus Reviews. He has written for The Washington Post and CNN.com and made multiple appearances on ESPN’s Outside the Lines. A former newspaper columnist and collector of vintage toys, Gibbs’s recent fiction reflects a lifelong fascination with old places, lingering obsessions, and the way certain moments refuse to fade.

THE MALL AT THE END OF TIME (Speculative Mystery/Thriller) - In a dying Southern mall slated for demolition, a haunted man discovers a door to 1994 and a second chance with the woman he lost. But as they begin to unravel the mystery of her death, he realizes some secrets were buried for a reason...and digging them up could cost him everything. A tense and twisty delve into grief, memory, and the cost of living in the past when the present feels impossible.

Contact - Chip Rice

GABRIELA GONZALES

Gabriela Gonzales holds a BA in creative writing from Belmont University. A former literary nonprofit program coordinator, she has had her poetry and fiction featured in Wigleaf, Lost Balloon, Chestnut Review, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. She has also performed at TEDxNashville. Gabriela lives in Pennsylvania.

HOW TO LOVE YOU WHEN YOU’RE GONE (Coming May 2026 from Little Brown Books for Young Readers) - For fans of Ann Liang and Lynn Painter, this humorous, relatable novel gives an honest look at what it’s like to fall in love for the first time—while simultaneously healing from loss.

Contact - Chip Rice

ELVIRA GONZALEZ

Elvira Gonzales is plant-based athlete, professional track & field coach, entrepreneur and writer. Elvira was born in Laredo, TX, where she was voted “2009 Female Athlete of the Year” for breaking numerous track and field records. As a college freshman, she set new hurdle records and earned All Lone-Star conference honors. In the past, she has coached at the University of Pennsylvania and privately trained two-time Olympic hurdler Ahmed Hazer. Elvira is currently a coach at The Armory, the premier indoor track & field facility in the US. As an athlete, she qualified for the NCAA National Championship in track & field in 2011 and recently punched a ticket to the 2020 USA Triathlon National Championships. Elvira is a member of the New York Writer’s Workshop, run by Charles Salzberg, and has founded her own writing initiative called NYC Writer’s Voice, a writing community for young and minority writers. For the past five years, she has been an active member of Las Comadres, the largest Latino book club that has partnered with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) to promote reading.

HURDLES IN THE DARK (Roaring Brook Press, May 2024) - In the summer of 2006, Elvira was just 14 years old when she was given 24 hours to save her kidnapped mother from cartels in Mexico. The price for her mother’s life was $40,000. Through sheer grit, and with 2 hours to spare, Elvira managed to raise most of the ransom. Luckily, this proved enough to save her mother’s life. Yet the ordeal changed Elvira’s mother and her relationship with her daughter suffered for it. Two years later, Elvira ended up locked behind bars at a juvenile detention center in Laredo, Texas. Determined to never wind up anywhere like that again, she embarked on a journey in a dark stadium, at the very early hours of the morning, with only her running shoes and a set of hurdles standing in her lane. With rugged perseverance and the will to survive, she harnessed her athletic abilities to win her ticket to freedom.

Contact - Zeynep Sen

GIRISH GUPTA

Girish Gupta went to Cambridge University and upon his graduation, he took a one-way flight to become a foreign correspondent primarily based in Venezuela. Leaving journalism, Girish turned to creating applications to ensure public data became accessible to the public. He created such products as Globalpost, Readywise2Roam, GlobalPost, Readwise2Roam, and Math for Journalists. As Chief Technology Officer at Stanford-conceived, Deepnews, he helped build a machine learning algorithm to identify quality journalism at scale.  In 2022, he co-founded Tellen.

ALWAYS GO (Memoir/Current Affairs) - The author’s deeply moving memoir documenting his childhood where his mother saved him from a violent household and instilled in him a fierce sense of justice. Against many obstacles, Gupta earned a Master’s in Physics from Cambridge and then bought a one-way ticket to Venezuela—where he became a journalist with Reuters and covered everything from prison riots to multi-billion-dollar corruption as the country spiraled into hyperinflation and authoritarianism. His reporting appeared in Reuters, TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and others. He uncovered a dark journalistic reality, filled with unpaid interns, exploited stringers, warzone safety ignored, fabricated stories—an industry that too often valued awards over truth. Class barriers kept journalism’s upper ranks an exclusive club, and institutional betrayal eroded both public trust and the well-being of reporters on the ground, two issues that are particularly important in today's age of misinformation.

Contact - Zeynep Sen

C. R. HILLIN

Catherine Rose Hillin lives in Beaumont, Texas with a small menagerie of pets. She graduated with degrees in Psychology and Pre-Medical from The University of Texas at Austin and is currently working on her Master’s Degree in Social Work. Her pastimes include music, art, languages, martial arts, and reading large, fat books, the longer the better.

THE ACTUALLY AUTISTIC GUIDE (Debuts Spring 2026 from Apollo Publishing) - with co-author Elora Dodd, 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

RAYMOND PAUL JOHNSON

The author is an LA Magazine “Super Lawyer”, former US Air Force and CIA pilot, Vietnam veteran, and recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross. He is the principal co-author of Defective Product: Evidence to Verdict, Juris Publishing/New York, and author of over 50 law-related magazine articles. The author has served as legal consultant to the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and New York Times, and has been interviewed on CNN, NBC Nightly News, and other programs. A member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Legion, the author teaches legal courses at the University of Southern California. The Raven Society is his first novel. It has received a 5-star rating in all categories from Readers’ Favorite.

ALLIANCE UNLEASHED (Thriller-series) - Attorney and former Air Force and CIA pilot Eric Ridge is back with his team embroiled in an international conspiracy linked to Alsaya, a well-known terrorist group that had previously kidnapped American missionaries for ransom and has ties to a no-trace assassin with L.A. gang connections who is forming the Raven Alliance—a cabal funded by lawyers stealing from clients and colluding with bureaucrats and politicians to influence judiciaries globally. Despite clandestine assistance from his ex-CIA colleagues, Ridge’s dogged pursuit unleashes violence that tears apart his family, friends, and law firm. Refusing to quit, Ridge confronts the leaders of the Alliance in a race against the clock and a final battle for survival.

CONSPIRACY IGNITED (Blank Slate Press, Jun. 2024) - When an attorney and former Air Force and CIA pilot becomes entangled in a web of murder and betrayal after exposing an international cabal that exerts whatever force necessary, including murder, to guarantee court decisions for the highest bidder, his battle for justice quickly spirals into a struggle for survival. A high-concept thriller in the vein of Michael Connelly’s The Fifth Witness in the voice along the lines of Lee Child’s The Sentinel.

Contact - Dean Krystek

KATHLEEN MARPLE KALB

Kathleen Marple Kalb is an award-winning weekend morning anchor at 1010 WINS radio, New York and author of the popular Ella Shane Mystery series. The author has also published mysteries under her pen name Nikki Knight. In addition to her novels, her short fiction has appeared in such publications as Black Cat Weekly, Mystery Magazine, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Her short story “Blame it on the Blizzard” was featured in Crime Spell Books’s Deadly Nightshade, a collection of New England’s best crime stories in 2022. To discover more about this talented author, visit her at kathleenmarplekalb.com.

LAST STAR, FIRST MURDER (Mystery) - Susan Sawyer is talking up her tell-all memoir when an aggressively perky entertainment reporter is thrown off the penthouse terrace. Surrounded by her salty best pal Dame Miranda Charles, brilliant (and biracial) granddaughter Mali, manager Derek Dunbar, and Yogi the giant dog, she tracks the killer and works in a little flirtation with retired NYPD Inspector Frank McCoy – finally unraveling everything in a wild on-camera confrontation. It’s a diverse, modern riff on Miss Marple…if Miss Marple were an EGOT with an eye for the fellas and a smart mouth.

WORKING VACATIONS WILL KILL YOU (Mystery) - The Roscoe Gang—former network news pros turned crisis communications experts—is taking a much-needed working vacation at the CliffEdge Resort in Maine when a celebrity chef ends up dead in his own clambake. Now, onetime anchor Rick (NEVER Ricki Lee) McIntyre, her rainbow of friends, and her tween son Seth are handling crisis communications for the resort and not incidentally helping the very hot local police chief, Ian Glass, solve the murder. Between fighting food stars, a skeevy former network exec, unethical interns, and their own client, they have plenty of suspects. Dodging falling rocks, running lobsters, and too-hot hot tubs, the Gang closes in on the killer, and divorced Rick starts a cautious new romance with Ian. Everything comes together at (what else?) a press conference that makes entirely the wrong kind of news.

MURDER ON THE SEA OTTER EXPRESS (Writing as Nikki Knight) Grace the “Hit Mom” series #3 (Coming Feb. 2026 from Turner Publishing) - Per usual, Grace Adair is juggling it all—being a full-time mom, part-time lawyer, freelance editor, divinely-contracted assassin—and now, school chaperone.

Her son’s field trip to the local aquarium takes a dive when Eric Egan, a district curriculum administrator, is unceremoniously thrown off the aquarium’s Sea Otter Express into the beluga whale tank. Nobody’s especially upset to see the creep’s body sleeping with the fishes, but Grace is in trouble because Egan was supposed to be her next hit—and she sure wouldn’t have killed him in front of a bunch of first graders. Now, Grace will have to solve the murder, settle decades-old grudges, and keep her own secrets—all while taking care of her family…and serving as flower girl at her handler Madge’s wedding. As the tasks pile up, Grace isn’t sure if she’ll live to see it all done..

Contact - Mira Perrizo

ROBERT KERBECK

Robert Kerbeck is the creator/host of the Soho House Literary Salon series with over 300,000 global members. Past Soho Salon series guests and likely blurbers for Mr. Malibu include Laura Dave (The Last Thing He Told Me) , Dennis Lehane (Small Mercies), John Copenhaver (Hall of Mirrors), and Elise Hart Kipness (Lights Out). He founded the Malibu Writers Circle, and is also an award-winning author, having been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize, with one of his short stories being adapted into the award-winning film, Reconnected. His first book Malibu Burning: The Real Story Behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire, won a 2021 SoCal Journalism Award, the 2020 IPPY Award, the 2020 Readers Favorite Award, and the 2020 Best of LA Award.

MISTER MALIBU (Crime) - Malibu Sheriff Armie Daniels grew up riding horses, dirt bikes, and big waves in what used to be a blue-collar town. Now, he has to deal with two murders that have shaken the town, including that of writer/director Guy Deegan. Since Deegan’s books and films have documented his three adult children’s lifelong failures, suspicion falls on them. And while Daniels isn’t a detective, he isn’t going to let the lack of a job title stop him from investigating Deegan’s murder to protect his hometown. But the only help he’s getting comes from Sara Sarme, whose specialty is snapping pictures of out-of-shape celebs at the beach or stepping out on their marriages. Daniels wants nothing to do with a paparazzi, but his attraction to her, along with her oddly prescient tips, causes them to team up romantically and professionally. Sara’s leads reveal that the body found months earlier on a Malibu beach isn’t the product of a drug cartel murder but is a porn star linked to one of Deegan’s troubled children.

RU$E: Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street (Memoir) - (Steelforth Press/Penguin Random House Feb.2022) - is An intimate narrative account – a tale that gives us a glimpse into the world of intrigue and deception where billions of dollars are at stake and The Ruse is the driving force of covert operations rivaling any clandestine endeavor the CIA might contrive. Kerbeck’s prose could best be described as in the vein of The Wolf of Wall Street or The Big Short with all the trappings of a sensational Hollywood tell-all.

Contact - Dean Krystek

ZEENATH KHAN

Zeenath Khan is a writer who divides her time between New York City and Hyderabad, India. She has written about history, travel, and current affairs for Scroll, Mint Lounge, Siasat, and Literary Traveler. The Sirens of September is her debut novel.

THE SIRENS OF SEPTEMBER (Penguin India, 2025) - Farishteh AliKhan, an aristocratic teenager living a gilded existence who, in all innocence, stumbles into a web of international espionage, political intrigue, and dark family secrets. A few chance meetings with Air Force pilot Saleem El Edroos spark a long-distance courtship, but when Hyderabad falls, the new regime forces both the AliKhans and the Edroos family to answer for their old loyalties. With shifting narratives between the palaces of princely Hyderabad, the refugee camps of post-partition Bombay, army command rooms, rogue plane landings, and the seedy lanes of London’s Piccadilly, it soon becomes clear that the only person capable of saving Farishteh may also be the one who can tear her family apart.

Contact - Zeynep Sen

ROSS KLAVAN

Ross Klavan is a critically acclaimed screenwriter, author, and performer. The movie of his screenplay, Tigerland, starred Colin Farrell, directed by Joel Schumacher and won the Independent Spirit Award. To date, Ross has written screenplays for Intermedia, Miramax, Walden Media and TNT TV. For Paramount, he helped develop Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse. His comic novel Schmuck (Greenpoint Press) was called “exuberant” by NPR. Since then, he has published a series of darkly comic crime novellas with Down and Out Books. As a performer, his voice has been heard in dozens of feature films including Alpha House, Sometimes in April, Casino, In and Out, and You Can Count On Me and in numerous TV and radio commercials. Earlier, Ross was a reporter in New York City and London, England for WINS Radio, the RKO Network, NBC (London), LBC (London), and the Gannett Newspapers. He teaches screenwriting and performance in the graduate creative writing program at Wilkes University and is a member of the Actors’ Studio Playwright/Directors Unit.

HERE WE GO DOWN (AND THERE IS NO BOTTOM) (Humor) - The novel tells the story of a man who wants to murder his elderly, albeit insane mother. Contemplating the implications of the murder, he falls in love with nun, wreaks chaos across town with his girlfriend, and tries to cope with being hated by his wife. Narrated from the point of view of his drinking buddy, a man who is slowly revealed to be the definition of shady, Here We Go Down is a tale of plausible absurdities in a world and city where anything can happen. Hilarious, at its core, the novel is about history’s utter lack of manners, unknowability of things, the temptation that obviously bad ideas can inherently present us with, and a lesson in the importance of never uttering the phrase, “Well, it can’t get any worse than this.”

Contact - Zeynep Sen

CHERI KRUEGER

After retiring from a career in journalism and copywriting, Cheri Krueger returned to her childhood passion of fiction writing. She has self-published four novels since 2021–The Abduction of Adrienne Berg was a finalist in Screencraft’s Cinematic Book Competition, and she has adapted it to a screenplay. An active member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, she learns and shares the craft as a critique partner and mentor to other novelists. Cheri can usually be found reading, writing, or rescuing dogs (who end up in her stories). Planning frugal vacations is her superpower. 

BORN A GHOST (Women’s Fiction) - Thirty-eight-year-old Sara Snow lives her dream life, traveling the world as a freelance writer and trusted house sitter. When her estranged mother dies, Sara and her younger sister inherit the infamous Delta Queen Hotel—with stipulations. One: Sara must attend the formal reading of the will inside the hotel, a place she left at age eighteen and swore to never step foot inside again. Two: Lance Walsh, lawyer and executor, must live with Sara to ensure she remains in her hated hometown until the estate is settled. Even though it’s worth millions, Sara loathes the hotel where she grew up—haunted by ghosts and memories of a grim childhood—and would gladly walk away, but her sister would lose everything.

With only days to satisfy the conditions of the will, Sara is plagued by recurring nightmares and bizarre incidents that leave her wondering if she’s losing her mind, or if her malevolent mother is still tormenting her from beyond the grave. Adding to her distress, Sara is drawn to Lance in a way that threatens her vagabond lifestyle. To protect her sister’s inheritance and her own sanity, Sara must confront the restless spirits and find the courage to fight for what she fears most.

Contact - Mira Perrizo

LIZ LARSON

Liz Larson is a novelist, physicist, and educator with Pennsylvania roots—and she’s not at all surprised if it's the first time you've heard that combination! Liz is the author of Fireflies and Zeroes, a music-infused mystery set in her current home of Charlottesville, Virginia. Liz holds a PhD in physics from the University of Virginia. When not writing, she can be found listening to music, playing bass guitar, and investing far too much emotional energy into Penn State football.

FRANKIE BURNS IS DEAD (NA Fiction) - College senior Mia is rocked by a devastating phone call: Frankie Burns is dead. The iconic Disarmed and Dangerous frontman, whose music saved her life and forged her identity, was found alone in his home. Gone at 33. Or is he? After breaking down in her best friend’s arms, Mia wakes up next to Frankie Burns in what seems to be the first track of Battle Scars, his band’s final album. What Mia thinks is a dream soon feels all too real as track one fades into track two...three...four. And the girl who thought she knew everything about Frankie Burns is suddenly face to face with the private and vulnerable man behind the mayhem.

Frankie and Mia—whom he dubs Sunshine—have only twelve songs to navigate the crash course in life, love, and destruction that is Battle Scars. They find common ground in the shared pain of their own lives, their hearts healing and breaking in equal measure as feelings for one another grow stronger. What happens after track twelve remains a mystery, but dead or alive, Frankie and Mia will never be the same for finding each other.

Contact - Chip Rice

CAIT LEVIN

Cait earned a BA in Creative Writing at Barnard College and an MA in English Literature at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English. She speaks regularly at conferences for publishers and librarians, drawing upon her variety of experiences in education, as well as her leadership roles in the technology and education industries.

IMPOSTER (Charlesbridge Publishing) - A tech-savvy girl experiencing gender discrimination in her coding elective finds redemption on the school’s RoboSub team, where competing requires collaboration with boys who don’t want her there.

Contact - Chip Rice