Consider us your cheerleading squad for books, reading, and authors. Meet the Bookettes (and three book dudes!), our team of savvy and smart bloggers featured regularly on our site. Our goal is to rec books we’ve read, are reading, or are excited about reading to spread lit love. You won’t find a rating system or scathing reviews here. We’ll also be hosting Twitter parties, giveaways, and Five in the Hive guest author Q&As sponsored by Buzz Books. Please get to know our Book End Babes below and on Twitter, and let’s talk story.

 

Malena Lott, author, Dating da Vinci, The Stork Reality (coming soon as a re-released ebook), Fixer Upper, and her first novella, Life’s A Beach.
Founder, Book End Babes

Malena is on a mission. When she heard most folks only read one book a year, she knew she had to take to the interwebs and promote reading for fun and making it a part of our daily lives. Like most writers, she’s an avid reader, reading up to four books at once – all different, no plot confusion – and loves to share cool books and authors she thinks deserve extra buzz.

Malena is a published author, married mama of three, and owns a branding and creative firm Athena Institute, and the new imprint, Buzz Books USA indie multimedia.

www.malenalott.com
www.twitter.com/malenalott

 

Dani M. Stone – Editor

www.twitter.com/@danimichelle.

Dani is a freelance writer and social media juggler from the great flat state of Kansas. She’s also the Communications Manager for Athena Institute, including Buzz Books and Book End Babes. As a stand-up-comedian in her own mind, she is a simultaneous source of amusement and embarrassment to her husband of 14+ years and their two children.

Since 2006, Dani has been raising awareness for Vein Of Galen Malformation, a rare brain disorder her daughter has battled since birth. Dani recently founded VOGM Parents Alliance, a community where parents can find information, qualified surgeons, and support.

Dani’s first published short story, “No Place Like Home,” can be found in the winter anthology, Sleigh Ride. She’s currently working on her next short project, “NEXT LEFT,” available December 1, 2012.

 

Heather Dearly – Assistant Editor

Heather is published in short fiction with Nodin Press and Buzz Books USA, and has authored even shorter non-fiction with the Six-Word Memoir® series. She’s also the Assistant Editor here at Book End Babes. An actress by training, and a stay-at-home mom by choice, she writes at her residence in Oklahoma where she lives with her husband and three children.

Heather Dearly is a contributing author for the young adult anthology PROM DATES TO DIE FOR, Spring 2012,  and SOMETHING WICKED, Fall 2012. (Buzz Books)

For more information, you can visit Heather’s blog, or you can follow her on Twitter.

 

Mari Farthing

Mari is a military wife, mom of two, a technical writer, a magazine editor, and Senior Editor at Buzz Books. In her free time (all 15 minutes of it), she likes to cook, discover new music, read, watch movies, run and share drinks with friends … not necessarily in that order. Mari firmly believes that life is best lived with a wicked sense of humor, a willingness to listen, a stash of cute accessories, an open heart for others, and a very dirty martini. Follow her on Twitter @marifarthing.

 

Sonia Gensler, Author and YA Bookette

Sonia Gensler grew up in a small Tennessee town and spent her early adulthood collecting impractical degrees from various Midwestern universities. A former high school English teacher, she now writes full time in Oklahoma. So far, her husband and cat are putting up with this. Her YA novel, The Revenant, debuts from Knopf in 2011.

blog: http://soniag.livejournal.com webpage: http://www.soniagensler.com and Twitter.

 

 

Kathy Wheeler, Romance

Kathy was born in Presque Isle, Maine.  How she ended up in Texas, Colorado, and then Oklahoma is as much a mystery to her as anyone else.  She graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a BA in Management Information Systems, and a minor in Vocal Music.

In the big picture, she has not been writing near as long as some of her writing cohorts, but she’s already completed a number manuscripts, and has recently sold three.  2012 looks to be a very rewarding year.  An avid traveler, she’s been to Europe, Mexico, Canada, and roams from one RWA conference to another, nationwide.  She’s served several positions in the Oklahoma Outlaws RWA Chapter.

Kathy lives with her musically talented husband in Edmond, Oklahoma, has one grown daughter, and one bossy cat!

www.klwheeler.com  www.twitter.com/kathylwheeler

 

Jamie Livingston

Jamie Livingston-Dierks is a former magazine writer, now trying her hand at the craft of fiction. She’s written three novels, but her main focus is currently screenplays. She’s the owner of two businesses, an A&W Restaurant, and Jamie’s Studio Jewelry.

She is co-founder of Scriptchat on Twitter www.scriptchat.com & TWWriterChat www.tvwriterchat.com, and is the former president of RWA’s screenwriting chapter, Script Scene.

Connect some more with Jamie here and on Twitter.

 

Michelle Langston, Books to Screen

Michelle Langston is a film publicist at Moroch Advertising, where she works for major and independent motion picture studios, handling marketing and publicity campaigns for upcoming theatrical films. She is also a wife, mom, photographer, writer, bookworm, beer lover, firefly catcher and part-time zombie. She has had short fiction and poetry work published, and provides technical writing services in both the legal and medical fields. Michelle has had a life-long love of movies, and believes that everyone should be required to watch a subtitled film once a year. She would love to eventually be able to combine her dream of being a published fiction author, travel photographer and urban farmer (with lots of fancy chickens and big vegetable gardens), with all the other things in life she loves, like: humans, aliens, Universal monsters, philosophy, art, the atomic age, the human condition and Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate. Connect with Michelle on Twitter: @WhenToyzattack

 

Vivian Savares

Vivian was born and raised on the beautiful island of Guam, and chooses to live life to it’s fullest in Oklahoma. She currently lives in the dreamhouse of her childhood, a treehouse surrounded by woods in Edmond, Oklahoma. An adventurous eater, avid reader, and notorious cookbook collector, Vivian is passionate about all things food and loves writing about it.

You can follow her on Twitter @islandgirlOK

 

Stacy Jeziorowski

As a reader from a young age and a former youth volunteer at the the Chicago Public Library, Stacy’s love for words led her to pursue a career as a Person of Letters. Currently, she is a freelance writer and blogger in Chicago navigating her way through the alphabet on a journey to find her place in the writing world.

Read can visit her blog or you can follow her on Twitter

 

Jodi Lustig

Jodi Lustig had already forsaken Nancy Drew for a ramble at liberty with Cathy and Heathcliff when she started reading The Making of a Woman Surgeon and decided she had at long last found her calling. Happily, she realized she liked reading about being a woman surgeon more than she’d like being a woman surgeon before she picked up her first scalpel. She did grow up to be a doctor, though—only the kind that cuts lines and paragraphs with a red pencil.

Jodi has had work published in both the academic and popular realms and has been working on a number of screenplays along the way as well. A devoted Yankees’ fan in a Subway Series marriage with an otherwise lovely Mets’ maniac, Jodi lives in New York with him and their dog Carter.

You can follow her on Twitter @ The_Jodi.

 

Andrea Anglin

Mama, wife, PR freelancer, Kansan and volunteer extraordinaire are a few of the titles Andrea Anglin currently holds. Adding Book End Babes contributor to that list is the kind of thing that makes this bibliophile weak in the knees and swoony, but in a good way. To say that Andrea loves to read is like saying ducks like to swim. Fiction, non-fiction, chick-lit, romance, mystery, thrillers, young adult and yes, even sci-fi, are all favorite genres for this eclectic mother-of-two and Kindle cuddler. Even more than reading, Andrea loves to talk, and sharing her opinions about books, authors and all things literary frequently make her book club comrades shake their heads and wonder, “who let her in here?” Andrea lives in Wichita, Kansas with her husband of 13 years, their two children, two Betta fish and three e-readers.

You can follow her on Twitter @ AndreaAnglin.

 

Judy Larsen

Judy Merrill Larsen grew up moving across the country every four years or so. She was born in Whittier, California, then traveled to Northbrook, IL (explains her baseball allegiance), Upper Saddle River, NJ (explains her passion for Springsteen), back to Northbrook, then to Dunwoody, GA (where she learned to appreciate the cadence of her favorite writers). Finally, she landed in Madison, WI for college and discovered home.

Over the years she worked as a waitress, grocery checker, copy center clerk, deli clerk, sales clerk, substitute teacher, and English teacher before finally findign the perfect job:  novelist.  She’s alwasy working on her next book, loves to visit with book clubs, and is always ready to recommend her current favorite book. She now lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband, their five kids, and a really sweet (but very dumb) golden retriever.

You can follow her on Twitter @ judylarsen.

 

Leslie Langtry

Leslie Langtry is, in fact, a mom and a Girl Scout leader, but she has never assassinated anyone, either professionally or for recreation. Okay, she knits, but she almost never garrotes anyone with the circular needles.

Instead, she lives with her husband, Tom, and two children, Margaret and Jack, in the Quad Cities – with no immediate plans to train either child as an assassin. She wants to make that perfectly clear.

Sure, Tom is a professional bodyguard, but he is not from Australia – nor has he ever been there. Seriously, he can’t even do the accent properly. And yes, she has a Pug (named Lucy) who has never, ever tried to seduce anything other than the sofa. She also has a basset hound and two cats – none of which possess any killer instincts whatsoever.

You can follow her on Twitter @ LeslieLangtry.

 

Tiffani Hill-Patterson

For Tiffani Hill-Patterson, her name is not the only thing hyphenated. So is her life: writer-mama-secretary-athlete. She loves live music, college football (Roll Tide), a good cocktail, dancing, and, yes, books.

She’s written for Parenting, Game On, Volta Voices, and Preserve Your Memory. In addition to her work here at Book End Babes, she also writes a monthly column for Birmingham Parent, covers travel for VisitSouth.com, and is a contributor to The Music Mamas.

Tiffani enjoys Just Dance battles and trips to the bookstore with her tween daughter, Riley. She is also an advocate for early diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss – Riley was born deaf but now hears (and talks and dances and swims) with cochlear implants.

You can find Tiffani on Twitter, at her blog Sound Check Mama, and at her professional writing site.

 

Kim Randall Cox

Kim is a native Oklahoman but has lived as far afield as Aiken, South Carolina, and Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She grew up in Green Country, in a little town called Nowata, where she successfully misspent her youth.

For the last five years, she’s been in Edmond, Oklahoma. The dirt is red in Edmond, and this is very wrong. Otherwise, it’s a nice place.

Kim is the mother of three and for the last seven years, a stay-at-home mom. She’s been writing book reviews for the past couple of years for Bookslut and Story Circle Book Reviews. She reads constantly and, as she has run out of bookshelf space, has taken to hiding books in her night stand.

You can follow her on Twitter @ KimRandallCox.

 

Aniko Eva Nagy

Aniko Eva Nagy can easily identify with punch-drunk book lovers because she’s one herself. Otherwise, how else could she explain why she took a saw and hammer to an old wood wine rack and converted it to makeshift shelving? Those 17 mass market paperbacks from the library book sale weren’t just going to shelve themselves. She lives in and loves Boston – a great book town – where she’s setting her (hopefully) first novel, a time travel Jane Austen fantasy.

Aniko teaches the gorgeous English language for a living and studies other equally gorgeous languages to fulfill her dream of reading her way through international popular culture. Sound a bit scattered? Well, life’s more fun that way.

Aniko’s blog.

You can follow her on Twitter @julianaeleanore

 

Mark Peterson

Creator of  “Amish in the A.M.”, the world’s first Amish Morning Talk Show. Mark was planning syndication when sadly the show was canceled midway though it’s first episode.

The next few years were rough, and spent wandering the streets drinking blueberry smoothies, and singing songs by The Little River Band

Then one day while soul searching at a local taqueria back in Texas, he had an epiphany. Right there on his tortilla was the image of Don Knotts. Mark decided right then to live his dream of being a writer. Mostly because he could’t draw. Or sing. Or do anything else. And while he considers himself an innovative dancer, due to a settlement with the state of Utah, Mark can no longer dance publicly (or privately).

When readying for his next challenge, Mark naturally thought of Book End Babes.

Raised in San Antonio, he now lives in Austin with his imaginary purple ferret named Maugham. He has an unnatural love of New England, and has been rumored to send flowers to L.L. Bean every Valentines Day.

You can follow Mark on Twitter @wordsinpurple

 

Bailey Blair

After correcting her mother’s reading of “Cat in the Hat” at age 3, Bailey continued to read everything she could get her hands on and aggravate teachers until her graduation day. Because karma is real, she then taught high school English and Literature. Now a professional Collector of College Degrees and social science researcher, Bailey spends her time advocating for those with mental illnesses and transition age youth, reading mostly social work journals, and sneaking her Kindle into meetings.

Bailey will publicly admit to a fascination with Tom Petty, a chemical dependence on caffeine, and a special place in her heart for young adult literature and Alice Hoffman. Her happiest moments are spent chasing her three-year-old daughter, Katie, who is slowly paying her back for a childhood of recklessness and sleepless nights. However, Katie has yet to correct her impeccable reading of Dora Goes to the Doctor.

You can follow Bailey on Twitter @BaileyBlair

 

Matt Rathbun

Matt Rathbun is a husband, father, IT geek and hockey fanatic. During the off-season, he can usually be found in his garden, or enjoying running and bicycling. Matt also loves to save a buck, and has been appropriately named “kilowatt cop” by his family for obsessively turning off lights throughout the house. He usually has a line on some good deals, and loves to share his finds!

When it comes to reading, Matt enjoys classic novels and contemporary literary fiction. He has recently been working through the Man Booker prize winners. He enjoys the odd science fiction book as well.

Matt can be followed on Twitter @mrathbun8339

Aaron Smith

Aaron Smith is the author of more than 25 published stories in genres including mystery (with three Sherlock Holmes stories among them), science fiction, horror, young adult paranormal, and westerns. His novels include Gods and Galaxies and Season of Madness. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines, and comic books. His latest novel, the vampire story 100,000 Midnights, was released in 2012 by Musa Publishing. Information about his work can be found on his blog at www.godsandgalaxies.blogspot.com

 

You can find Aaron on Facebook