I've Got an After Christmas Treat!

Even if the paper's crumbled and the gifts are no longer under the tree, Dellani's got a gift for you! Three excellent authors will join Christina and me on Wednesday, December 28th at 1:00 PM Eastern for a fun & informative chat. Be sure to tune in when I talk to J. Conrad Guest, MJ Goodnow and Stephanie Osborn.

J. Conrad Guest is the author of the January trilogy, composed of January’s Paradigm, One Hot January and January’s Thaw. One Hot January is available from Second Wind Publishing and the latter is forthcoming in early 2012. Current Entertainment Monthly in Ann Arbor, Michigan, wrote of January’s Paradigm, “(readers) will not be able to put it down.”

In 2008 he completed Backstop: A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings, which is also available from Second Wind Publishing, as well as from Amazon in both book and Kindle formats and Barnes and Noble (book and Nook).

In the novella Chaotic Theory (available from Amazon), J. Conrad explores the conjecture of how the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil might result in a tornado in Texas.

In April 2010, he completed his fifth novel, The Cobb Legacy, a murder mystery that spans two centuries written around baseball legend, Ty Cobb, and the shooting death of his father by his mother.

Death is considered a universal ideal in fiction writing, so you’ll want to check out his last project, A Retrospect in Death, which is now being considered for publication.

J. Conrad is nearing completion of his current project, 500 Miles to Go. Set during the golden era of motor racing (the 1960s), the story revolves around protagonist Alex Król and his efforts to find love while making his dream to win the Indy 500 come true.


MJ Goodnow was born in New London, Connecticut March 26, 1975 as Michael James Scaniffe. In 1978 he was adopted by his godmother Rose Christina Goodnow and her husband Wallace E. Goodnow. MJ grew up in a wonderful, fun and heart filled family who supported his dreams.

During his school aged years, MJ became a victim of bullying. He began writing to escape and help him overcome. Now as an adult MJ gives back to his community in Monticello and surrounding areas. Speaking to adolescents about the effects of bullying and how it can devastate a person.

MJ was inspired by the Spirit and led into ministry, studying to become a Jesuit Priest. He worked for a while as a security guard and expanded his writing skills as a singer and songwriter for the bands Dark Autumn and Monster Zero.

Music soothed the soul as he wrote the rock opera Knights and Sorcerers soon to be recorded and preformed by the band Fingerbone.

MJ was destined for authorship as he found healing in writing and penned his first book Evolution of the Fallen. Evolution of the Fallen is about four young patients in a mental care facility overcoming their stigma.

When asked about the inspiration of this tale MJ said, “As a young adult counselor at an agency in Connecticut, I saw the horrors of mental illness and trauma. I too suffer from PTSD, which in-fact, is the reason I write. To let go, get it out, and to find recovery through my writing and hopefully inspiring others.”

Finding inspiration and encouragement by teacher Wally Lamb, and other inspirations to name a few, George Lucas, Clive Barker, Stephen King, Ann Rice and Anna Crispin, MJ has taken the calling of author.

He co-authored the first book of the Red Storm Regime, book one of the Regime Guard series, with Maria Pacha. In this Young Adult novel eight pre-teen children hold the fate of the world in their hands.

With his faith as an ordained minister and the life experiences God gifted him MJ Goodnow hopes to inspire others to greater heights. When asked what he would like his readers to gleam from his prose MJ said, “There is always pain and suffering, but we always must rise against it, to defeat it.”

There is much more to come from this author’s heart and pen in the near future.


Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, a veteran of over twenty years of working in the civilian space program, as well as various military space defense programs. She has worked on numerous Space Shuttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts the training of astronauts on her resumé. Of those astronauts she trained, one was Kalpana Chawla, a member of the crew lost in the Columbia disaster.

She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences:
Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and she is “fluent” in several more, including Geology and Anatomy. She obtained her various degrees from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Stephanie is currently retired from space work. She now happily “passes it forward, ” teaching math and science via numerous media including radio, podcasting, and public speaking, as well as working with SIGMA, the science fiction think tank, while writing science fiction mysteries based on her knowledge, experience, and travels.