You Have the Right to Six Words - the 12th Installment!

We've hit a dozen! A dozen six word memoir posts. Who'd a thunk we'd a made it this far? Are you sure you aren't getting bored with these? If you're not bored, I'll keep going. I still have some aces of up my sleeve! Hmm, let me see...which four shall I pull out this week? Let's start with our recap author.

Timothy Hallinan is the author of the Bangkok Thriller series about Poke Rafferty, a travel writer whose travel books are guides to the "non-touristy" areas. Going off the beaten path regularly leads Poke straight into trouble. Tim's newest book in the Bangkok Thriller series, BREATHING WATER, will be released next Tuesday - August 18th.

Tim is able to create an authentic Far East setting in the Bangkok Thriller novels thanks to his love of the area. He continues to split time between his home in California and apartments in Thailand and Cambodia.

Tim has been involved with all kinds of writing throughout his career. He's written songs, written for television, written non-fiction and of course written novels. He also teaches writing and the fine art of finishing one's novel. Tim's writing is obviously the enjoyable part of his life, as his memoir is:

Lived seriously but wrote for fun.

Next up this week we welcome another Northeast Ohio native. While Lisa Black doesn't live here physically anymore, her spirit remains in the character of Theresa MacLean. Lisa Black was CSI before CSI was cool. This talented woman tired of life behind a desk and returned to school - Cleveland State University, I must add - to earn a degree in biology. She followed that up with a job as a forensic scientist for the Cuyahoga County Coroner's office. Lisa worked very contentedly in the morgue analyzing finger prints, DNA, gunshot residue, blood, fibers, all that cool forensic stuff, until her husband "dragged" her away to Florida because he tired of the Cleveland snow - o.k., o.k., I can't blame him! Now Lisa works as a latent print examiner for the Cape Coral, Florida, police department when she isn't writing books about forensic science in Ohio.

Theresa MacLean is the star of Lisa's forensic science series that started with the book TAKEOVER. The follow-up to TAKEOVER releases September 8th and this thriller is called EVIDENCE OF MURDER. In her second caper, Theresa will investigate the supposed suicide of a Cleveland "escort."

So you would think that juggling a job in forensic science and a second career as a writer, Lisa would have her hours pretty well booked. However, in her free time she enjoys traveling. She even toured Europe with her 82 year old mother and 78 year old aunt. Lisa also makes time to sun in Barbados and gut house in New Orleans. With all of this under her belt, I'm stunned that her memoir would be:

Did a lot but not enough.

I don't know if I want to see her Bucket List!


Andrew Gross didn't start out as a thriller writer. As a matter of fact, he took a bit of a roundabout path to his solo stint on the Bestseller list. Andy started with an MBA from Columbia. Armed with the MBA, he headed off to work in a women's clothing firm. But clothing didn't turn out to be the right fit - ha. So, he earned an English degree and wrote a book that, through a good turn of fate, ended up in the hands of James Patterson. And thus, the writing team of Patterson and Gross was born. The team went on to write six #1 thrillers in seven years, including the second and third book in the Women's Murder Club mystery series. Not a shabby way to start off. And that would be a pretty exciting career, but it wasn't the end. No indeed. Instead, Andy earned himself a solo book deal and wrote a best seller on his own - THE BLUE ZONE. This past March, Andy released his third solo book, DON'T LOOK TWICE and will be releasing a fourth in 2010 that continues the story of Ty Hauck and murders that lead to a conspiracy behind the financial meltdown.

So, with all of his career experience to this point, what does Andy Gross think his six-word memoir should be?

Writing's easy. The rag trade, whew!

And we will wrap up Week 12 of "You Have the Right to Six Words" with a writer who this past week celebrated the release of book number four. On Thursday, Marcus Sakey released THE AMATEURS about a group of friends who find their 20s slipping away and they aren't where they had planned to end up. Instead they decide to take what they think they are owed. THE AMATEURS follows up his acclaimed novels THE BLADE ITSELF, AT THE CITY'S EDGE, and GOOD PEOPLE. All three of these novels are presently in development for film.

Marcus is simply a man who loves "telling stories for a living." Those stories extend beyond his novels to short stories in several anthologies and blog posts on THE OUTFIT COLLECTIVE. A native of Michigan, Marcus and his wife now call Chicago home. Marcus loves to travel, cook, and watch The Golden Gloves. In a previous life, he ran a design shop and won my devotion with the office policy: bring-your-dog-to-work. As you read Marcus's Twitter tweets, his blog posts, his website, you can't help but hear an absolute love of life, a love for what he does and where he is. So, it should just seem natural that his six-word memoir would be:

Fucking spectacular! Can I go again?

Anyone who has this much fun the first time around, certainly deserves another shot at it, don't you think? I'd say that's a pretty high energy memoir to leave off on this week. I hope it leaves you all with a smile. My sincerest thanks to our authors this week: Tim, Lisa, Andy and Marcus. Best wishes to them all.

So, unless I hear a bunch of votes that this post is getting boring, I'll meet you all back here same time next week for another crew of talented writers sharing their memoirs with us. Until then, happy reading!