Lynn Hesse won the 2015 First Place Winner, Oak Tree Press, Cop Tales, for her mystery, Well of Rage, a crime novel about a female rookie cop accused of mishandling evidence by her white-supremacist training officer, then tasked with solving the cold case murder of an African American teenager. Her second novel, Another Kind of Hero, was a finalist for the 2018 Silver Falchion Award and won the International Readers’ Chill Award in 2021. The mystery unfolds when a casket full of drugs and money found in the Pick’n Pay in Forsyth, Georgia, put two contentious sisters and an undercover DEA agent in jeopardy.
 
Hesse’s short stories have been widely published and well received. Most recently her short story “Bitter Love,” a humorous view of a bad day involving a murder, appeared in Crimeucopia, The I’s Have It in 2021 by Murderous Ink Press, United Kingdom. “Jewel’s Hell,” a story about domestic violence, was published in 2019 in Me Too Short Stories: An Anthology by Level Best Books and edited by Elizabeth Zelvin. Her short story about domestic homicide, “Murder: Food For Thought,” was published in the anthology Double Lives, Reinvention & Those We Leave Behind by Wising Up Press in 2009. Also, it was adapted into a play. 
 
Her 2022 suspense release, The Forty Knots Burn, is based on the turmoil created by a maintenance man coming into the women’s dressing room at the author’s local wellness center and is fueled by Hesse’s intense desire to help the underdog or the outcast as exemplified by her dandelion performance persona. Her recurring interest in flamenco dance sparked her intense research in Roma culture.
 
A retired police lieutenant, Hesse draws from her experiences on the force to create gripping plot twists and multi-dimensional characters. She enjoys a daily yoga practice, and as an accomplished dancer she performs with several dance and theatrical troupes in Atlanta, Georgia.

​Lucy Bella Donna grew up in New York, attending high school in Manhattan.  She studied Interior Design and taught night course at a local college.  Her desire to serve God in a different way beckoned, and she was accepted into a Nursing Program, graduating with her RN.  She worked in clinical, public and private settings until her retirement. Grateful for the opportunity to tell others about her Savior, she found another way, in retirement, to carry the message of salvation in her story. ​

Randi Ward is energetic. And interesting. And well-traveled. And lots of other good  things. The depth that comes from her experience shows up in conversation and her creative work. 
Randi touches on several of her interests in this interview, including her thoughts on imagination and the creative process, never standing still, and a pivotal trip to Cairo, Egypt.

Watch and listen to the full interview below.