Online Thriller School

Instructor Bios

1. 

   Sara DiVello

   https://www.saradivello.com/

   Sara is passionate about all things books (especially mysteries and thrillers), the craft of writing, and connecting readers to their favorite authors, as well as introducing them to their new discoveries. She is the author of, Broadway Butterfly: A Thriller, which was a CBS NY Book Club Pick, and earned starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. She is also the host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author interview series, and the co-chair of the Nantucket Book Festival. While creative and active on her own social media platforms, DiVello also serves as the director of social media strategy for the International Thriller Writers association. Sara has appeared on CBS, ABC, and CNBC, as well as in the New York Times, Forbes, the San Francisco Chronicle, and more. Her articles have been published in Marie Claire, Elle, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Woman’s Day, among others.

   Back to schedule

2. 

   KJ Howe

   http://www.kjhowe.com/

   Born in Toronto, Canada, KJ Howe enjoyed a nomadic lifestyle during her early years, living in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Caribbean, which gave her an insider’s view into many different cultures. While abroad, she read every book she could find, which triggered in her a desire to create her own stories.

   She attended Salzburg International Preparatory School, Neuchâtel Junior College, and Albert College before earning a Specialists Degree in Business from the University of Toronto. KJ found success in the corporate world, but her passion for travel, adventure, and stories drew her back to school where she earned a Masters in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She is a Thriller and Barry Award nominee, and she has won several writing awards, including three Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellent in Mystery and Suspense.

   While honing her fiction skills, KJ worked as a medical, health, and fitness writer. She then became involved with the International Thriller Writers as the Executive Director of ThrillerFest, the organization’s annual conference held every July in New York City.

   In preparation for writing THE FREEDOM BROKER series, which focuses on elite kidnap negotiator Thea Paris, KJ spent extensive time researching the dark world of kidnapping. She has interviewed former hostages, negotiators, hostage reintegration experts, special forces operatives, and K&R insurance executives.

   KJ is an avid tennis player, cyclist, and swimmer. Travel and adventure still rank high on her priority list. She has had the pleasure of riding racing camels in Jordan, surfing in Hawaii, ziplining in the Costa Rican jungle, diving alongside Great White Sharks in South Africa, studying modern combat in the Arizona desert, and working with elephants in Botswana. Home is in Toronto, Canada, but she is often missing in action.

   Back to schedule

3. 

   Steven James

   https://www.StevenJames.net/

   Steven James is the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of eighteen novels that have won or been shortlisted for more than a dozen national and international awards. His thrillers have been praised by Suspense Magazine, Booklist, and the New York Journal of Books and received starred reviews from both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, who called his work “thought-provoking” and “riveting.” When he’s not writing, he teaches storytelling at events around the globe and hosts the weekly podcast, The Story Blender.

   Back to schedule

4. 

   Andrea J. Johnson

   https://ajthenovelist.com/

   Andrea J. Johnson is a former court reporter turned freelance entertainment writer for the women’s lifestyle website Popsugar. This love for insider gossip has inspired her to take real-life headlines and turn them into mind-bending mysteries. Poetic Justice is a perfect example of this dynamic because it uses Andrea’s legal background to explore what would happen if a trial stenographer took the law into her own hands. Set on the Delmarva Peninsula near the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, fans of shows like Murder, She Wrote and films like The Pelican Brief will love the cozy mystery and legal thriller mashup.

   Andrea holds a certified shorthand reporter certification in the State of California and is a member of the National Court Reporters Association, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Mystery Writers of America. Moreover, she’s earned a copyediting certification from UC San Diego and an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.

   Andrea is also the author of a set of genre-based guidebooks for fiction authors known as the Writer Productivity series–the first of which, How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery is on sale now. In addition, she’s written several articles on the craft of writing for websites such as LitReactor, Submittable, Funds for Writers, and DIY MFA. When she isn’t developing her stories, Andrea enjoys cuddling up with a piping hot mug of ginger tea and poring over the latest supermarket tabloids.

   Back to schedule

5. 

   Angie Angie Kim

   https://angiekimbooks.com/

   Angie Kim moved as a preteen from Seoul, South Korea, to the suburbs of Baltimore. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, she studied philosophy at Stanford University and attended Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Her debut novel, Miracle Creek, won the Edgar Award and the ITW Thriller Award, and was named one of the 100 best mysteries and thrillers of all time by Time, and one of the best books of the year by Time, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the Today show. Happiness Falls, her second novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller and a book club pick for Good Morning America, Barnes & Noble, Belletrist, and Book of the Month Club.

   Back to schedule

6. 

   Mary Kubica

   https://marykubica.com/

   Mary Kubica is a New York Times bestselling author of suspense thrillers including The Good Girl, The Other Mrs., and Local Woman Missing. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. She’s been described as “a helluva storyteller” (Kirkus) and “a writer of vice-like control” (Chicago Tribune), and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “illuminating” (L.A. Times). She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and children.

   Back to schedule

7. 

   Jean Kwok

   https://www.jeankwok.com/

   Jean Kwok is the award-winning, New York Times and international bestselling author of The Leftover Woman (coming Oct 10, 2023), Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in twenty countries and taught in universities, colleges and high schools across the world.

   An instant New York Times bestseller, Searching for Sylvie Lee was selected for the Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club and featured in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, CNN, The New York Post, The Washington Post, O Magazine, People, Entertainment Weekly and more. Jean has been chosen for numerous honors including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award, an Orange New Writers title and the Sunday Times Short Story Award international shortlist. She was one of twelve authors asked by the Agatha Christie estate to write an original, authorized Miss Marple story for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries.

   She has appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America, and spoken at many schools and venues including Harvard University, Columbia University, Talks at Google and the Tucson Festival of Books.  A television documentary was filmed about Jean and her work.

   Jean immigrated from Hong Kong to Brooklyn when she was five and worked in a Chinatown clothing factory for much of her childhood while living in an unheated, roach-infested apartment. In between her undergraduate degree at Harvard and MFA in fiction at Columbia, she worked for three years as a professional ballroom dancer. Jean is trilingual, fluent in Dutch, Chinese and English, and studied Latin for seven years. She divides her time between the Netherlands and New York City.

   Back to schedule

8. 

   Tosca Lee

   https://ToscaLee.com/

   Tosca Lee is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels including A Single Light, The Line Between, The Progeny, The Legend of Sheba, Iscariot, and the Books of Mortals series with New York Times bestseller Ted Dekker. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages and been optioned for TV and film. She is the recipient of two International Book Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion (beating another of her books in the same category for the win), and ECPA Fiction Book of the Year—among others. A notorious night-owl, she loves movies, playing football with her kids, and sending cheesy texts to her husband. You can find Tosca on social media or hanging around the snack table.

   Back to schedule

9. 

   Nina Sadowsky

   https://ninasadowsky.com/

   Nina Sadowsky’s thrillers JUST FALL, THE BURIAL SOCIETY, THE EMPTY BED, CONVINCE ME, and PRIVACY have all been published by Penguin Random House. Her books have been translated into German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French, Turkish and Serbian. THE BURIAL SOCIETY and THE EMPTY BED are in development for television.

   Nina Sadowsky serves as the founding Director for NYU Los Angeles, a study away program for advanced students interested in pursuing careers in the film, television, broadcast, music and tech industries. In her time at NYULA she’s overseen the creation of multiple professional development initiatives designed to support the students’ academic experience. Sadowsky is particularly proud of NYULA’s role in launching the now annual Hollywood Climate Summit, designed to increase sustainability across all facets of the entertainment industry.

   Sadowsky joined NYU after more than a decade at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where she taught producing and writing on both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Student films created under her guidance have enjoyed numerous accolades including winning the Student Emmy, the Student Oscar, and being featured in the Shorts Corner at Cannes.

   Sadowsky served as President of Production for Signpost Films, a film financier and foreign distributor, where she worked on such projects as the Academy Award nominated “The House of Sand and Fog,” starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley.

   Back to schedule