Julie Kramer is moving from journalist to novelist. She writes a mystery series set in the desperate world of television news—a world she knows well from her career working as a freelance news producer for NBC and CBS, as well as running the WCCO-TV I-Team in Minneapolis, where she won numerous national investigative awards. Her thrillers, STALKING SUSAN, MISSING MARK, SILENCING SAM, and KILLING KATE take readers inside how newsrooms make decisions amid chaos. She's won the Minnesota Book Award and the RT Book Review's Best First Mystery. She has also been a finalist for the Anthony, Barry, Shamus, Mary Higgins Clark, and Daphne du Maurier Awards. Julie grew up along the Minnesota-Iowa state line, fourth generation of a family who raised cattle and farmed corn for 130 years. Her favorite childhood days were spent waiting for the bookmobile to bring her another Phyllis A. Whitney novel. An avid reader, she tired of fictional TV reporters always being portrayed as obnoxious secondary characters who could be killed off whenever the plot started dragging, so her series features reporter Riley Spartz as heroine. Julie lives with her family in White Bear Lake, MN. Q & A On Writing and More From Journalist to Novelist: My Debut Story Author Faces Camera for the First Time My favorite crime reporter, Caroline Lowe, profiled me for their late news. Being on the other side of the interview was a freaky experience, but I must have done alright, because WCCO-TV won the ratings that night and even went up at the quarter hour. Caroline Lowe's Crime Scene Blog The Big Thrill: Author Q & A How Libraries Create Authors