Mark Combs Author

He’s a graduate of Notre Dame, an avid hockey player, and an amateur musician. As the former Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal, he shared in the Pulitzer Prize given to the Wall Street Journal in 2002 for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks.Over the course of his writing career, he has written both compelling fiction and award-winning non-fiction. His Starvation Lake Trilogy was an Edgar Award Finalist. Today he joins us to talk about his latest release, Bleak Harbor. Straight out of the heart of Chicago... Bryan Gruley is my guest…

She’s a NY Times Best-Selling author with four novels in print and many more stories to tell. Publisher’s Weekly calls her work, “Chillingly Satisfying” Hank Phillippi Ryan said her work is “frightening and insightful.”In real life, she lives in an eastern Pennsylvania town house, with her husband and two kids. And, as far as she knows, there are no ghosts. She longs to find a hidden, secret passageway, but has yet to reveal where it might lead… today, we visit the not-so-hidden passageway of her vivid imagination and talk about her recently released suspense-thriller, In Her Bones. Author, Kate Moretti is my guest today…

Christmas is the perfect excuse to touch base with friends and find out what they’ve been up to. So, we reached out to several authors who were guests on the show in 2018 and invited them to join us for the First Annual PDI Office Christmas Party. Thirteen responded and I had a blast finding out what’s they’ve got in store for the year ahead. Of course, we also took the time to open a present, check out the stockings, and get a little creative with our Christmas theme. This segment features short conversations with five of the thirteen authors. You’ll find links to the PDI Adventure they took us on earlier in the year. On the host page for this Adventure at: http://markcombsauthor.com/weekly-podcasts/public-display-of-imagination-podcast/pdi-christmas-party-part-3/

Christmas is the perfect excuse to touch base with friends and find out what they’ve been up to. So, we reached out to several authors who were guests on the show in 2018 and invited them to join us for the First Annual PDI Office Christmas Party. Thirteen responded and I had a blast finding out what’s they’ve got in store for the year ahead. Of course, we also took the time to open a present, check out the stockings, and get a little creative with our Christmas theme. This segment features short conversations with five of the thirteen authors. You’ll find links to the PDI Adventure they took us on earlier in the year. On the host page for this Adventure at: http://markcombsauthor.com/weekly-podcasts/public-display-of-imagination-podcast/pdi-christmas-party-part-2/

Christmas is the perfect excuse to touch base with friends and find out what they’ve been up to. So, we reached out to several authors who were guests on the show in 2018 and invited them to join us for the First Annual PDI Office Christmas Party. Twelve responded and I had a blast finding out what’s they’ve got in store for the year ahead. Of course, we also took the time to open a present, check out the stockings, and get a little creative with our Christmas theme. This segment features short conversations with four of the twelve authors. You’ll find links to the PDI Adventure they took us on earlier in the year. On the host page for this Adventure at: http://markcombsauthor.com/weekly-podcasts/public-display-of-imagination-podcast/pdi-christmas-party-part-1/

She’s an Agatha Award winning, best-selling author of several Cozy Mystery Series. Prior to her career as a novelist, she wrote screenplays and created the format for the popular TV sitcom Out of this World. She’s also been featured as an actress and her portfolio includes roles from Matlock, Hart to Hart, and Murder, She Wrote.She’s a graduate of Stanford University who loves to cook, read, golf, swim, garden, and has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Today’s adventure takes us to Crystal Cove, CA, where we’ll explore the Cookbook Nook Mystery series, with our guest, Daryl Wood Gerber...

Upon acquiring his degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law he launched his legal career with a Philadelphia based defense firm. His clients… corporate America. Over time, he began to want something different. Following his heart, he began representing individuals on a case by case basis, sometimes against the large corporations.His books are set in a backdrop that features the legal system and courtrooms of Philadelphia. His debut novel, A Criminal Defense, quickly became a best-seller which launched The Philadelphia Legal Series. Author, William L Myers, Jr. joins us on the show today.

He grew up in the woodland hills of Missouri and, after high school, migrated north to pursue his education. He acquired a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from the University of Minnesota, and a Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law. He honed his creative writing skills through the Master of Fine Arts program at Minnesota State University. In 2014, his debut novel, The Life We Bury, was named the Best Debut Novel of 2014 at the Left Coast Crime Conference. It went on to win the Rosebud Award; it was also a finalist for the Edgar Award, the Thriller Award, and the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. In 2015, it was optioned for film. Since that time, today's guest has published 3 additional books in the Detective Max Rupert Series and the 4th, The Shadows We Hide, is set to release in just a matter of days. Allen Eskens is my guest... Let's see if we can discover what he's been hiding in the shadows.

He hails from the state of Massachusetts, and spent most of his childhood obsessing over a children’s book mystery series called The Famous Five. He also read Agatha Christie and imagined visiting Narnia by way of C.S. Lewis’ magical wardrobe.His parents often took the family on adventurous camping trips across the U.S. and Canada and one of his fondest memories is reading The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie on a trip to visit Mount Rushmore. He also developed a love for suspense driven movies, a trait that seems to have been passed along to his protagonist, Hester Thursby. Today, Hester and the one who gives her voice, Edwin Hill, will take us on an adventure into a case of missing persons and a trail of murder.

She’s a native of New York, who grew up on a beach near the Long Island Sound. She cherishes her memories of open water, storms, and the smell of the sea.Now living in North Carolina with her husband, 2 trolls, and 3 cats, she embraces her love of coffee, good food, rescue animals, Pinterest and Black Jelly Beans. She’s also a prolific writer, who has over 30 novels in print and can’t imagine spending a day away from her keyboard. Ellery Adams is my guest today and her latest release is The Secret, Book, & Scone Society.

He's the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories, which have won him a coveted Edgar Award, A SPUR AWARD, TEN Bram Stoker Awards and a lifetime achievement award, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, and the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, including numerous foreign publications. Not only does he have a large volume of novels in print, he's also written for comics, television, and film. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine appear to be an unlikely couple, but they've kept today's guest busy for nearly 30 years. Welcome to the wide-open, full-throttle world of Joe R. Lansdale.

He’s the author of more than 30 novels, many of which climbed the best-seller rankings shortly after their release. He’s a master in the techno-thriller genre, and gifted with surprising versatility. His writing career launched in the mid-80’s, during the final years of the Cold War. He found a home writing chilling portrayals of threats to the United States, and of the men and women who operated undercover, and sometimes outside the law, to maintain U.S. security.He’s currently 10 books deep into a series featuring Caitlin Strong, a 5th generation Texas Ranger, who finds out that the west can still be a pretty wild place at times. The multi-talented and ridiculously imaginative, Jon Land is my guest for this PDI Adventure.

She’s a Michigan girl who worked at General Motors and toured with a band before life took her to the heart of New York City, where she immersed herself into the arts and launched her writing career. A motivational speaker in high demand, she fell head over heels for a city that met The Great Depression head on in the 1930’s and thrived. It was indeed “the best of times” during “the worst of times” and it fuels the storyline of the Art Deco Mystery series. L.A. Chandlar joins me to talk about her love of the arts, her appreciation of New York’s history, and the bigger than life personalities that you’ll find in her books, The Silver Gun and The Gold Pawn…

He's a national best-selling novelist whose award-winning, pulse-pounding thrillers have attracted a rapidly growing fan base that continues to swell. His work has drawn high praise from every corner of the publishing industry.Suspense Magazine named his book, THE BISHOP, their Book of the Year and claimed that today's guest was "setting the new standard in suspense writing." Publishers Weekly called him a "master storyteller at the peak of his game."Equipped with a unique Master's Degree in Storytelling, he has taught writing and storytelling on four continents over the past two decades, speaking at headline events around the world. He's one of my wife's favorite authors and I think he's going to become one of yours. Steven James joins us on the show today...

He studied journalism at The University of Texas and played football for the Longhorns. Coming to the conclusion that hitting the books was to be preferred over going nose to nose with a 6’5″ All-American Safety, he chased his degree and went on to work for some of the most powerful law firms in the country. In his spare time, he invented baby products that are now sold all over the world.He wanted to write full time since he took his first hit on the college football practice field, but the journey from college freshman to published author turned out to be a long uphill climb that tested his perseverance as much as any challenge he ever faced. We’ll be talking about those experiences and more with the extremely popular author of the Sam Callahan series. Chad Zunker is my guest today; join us as we Hunt The Lion.

She has a Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA, with a background in archaeology, cultural neuroscience, ancient religion, colonialism, and human rights. She conducted her field work primarily in Central America where she lived in a tent in the jungles of Belize for nine years while searching for lost Maya ruins, but she’s also conducted field work in various locations around the world, including Africa and Western EuropeShe was born just outside of Washington DC where she grew up among senators and supreme court justices. Before graduate school, she briefly attended Georgetown Law School and worked as a murder investigator for the Washington DC Public Defenders Service where she gained an insiders view of the criminal justice system. Her latest release is setting Amazon on fire. Ellison Cooper is my guest today.

He found success early-on as a screen writer; his first feature film, the award-winning, To End All Wars, was based on a true story about allied soldiers who were prisoners of the Japanese during WW2 and starred the charismatic Kiefer Sutherland in 2001. He has also authored over 20 books and frequently speaks on the art of making movies, as well as understanding their intended messages. His book, Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom & Discernment has been picked up and used as a textbook in schools around the country.He’s also authored a tightly-woven fictional series based on threads pulled from biblical texts. You won’t hear these stories in Sunday School, boys & girls, but you’ll find familiar backdrops soaked in rich imagery that breathe fresh life into the ancient text. Today, we probe the creative mind of Brian Godawa and explore the Biblical Apocalypse recorded in the book of Revelation.

He’s a NY Times Best-Selling author who has seen his work translated into 40 different languages that have produced more than 23 million copies of his thrillers, sold in 51 countries around the world. He invested 30 years of his life as a trial lawyer; was a founding member of the International Thriller Writers and served as a publicly elected official for 14 years.History, mystery, and suspense drip from every page of his novels. Today, we follow the life and times of Cotton Malone with the creative mind that gave him voice. Best-Selling Thriller author Steve Berry joins me to talk about The Bishop’s Pawn and the origins of Cotton Malone.

She's a journalist and contemporary novelist from Karachi, Pakistan. She's authored four English novels and two collections of short stories. As regular contributor to the International New York Times, she is a provocative and bold commentator for the international press on Pakistan’s society, culture, and women’s rights. Her critically acclaimed 2014 novel, A Season for Martyrs, was built around the return of Benazir Bhutto to Karachi to run for the highest political office in Pakistan, after 8 yrs of exile. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and an alumna of the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa. Bina Shah joins us today to talk about her soon-to-be released (Aug. 7th) Dystopian Novel, Before She Sleeps.

He's a professor of Chemical & Bio-molecular Engineering at the University of Connecticut. He's also the founder and director of his own company, Control Station, Incorporated. Somewhere between those two realms of daily reality, you can find the flickering light from a Science-Fiction realm that is home to a sentient artificial intelligence, known as Criss. Today, Best-Selling Sci-Fi author, Doug J Cooper, invites us to a world of high-tech companionship & high-stakes mystery. Buckle up, Sparky, we're going on a fast-paced journey through the Crystal Series.