AUTHOR SIGNING Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, from 9 am - 11 am with authors Christopher Valen and Jenifer LeClair. They will hold an open discussion with fans and sign books afterwards. Christopher will be signing his new book Bad Weeds Never Die and Jennifer will be signing both of her Windjammer series books.
Christopher Valen is a graduate of the Citizen's Academy at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department. He has worked with juvenile delinquents and as a teacher, administrator and college professor. His first novel featuring St. Paul Homicide Detective John Santana won the 2008 Reader Views Choice Award for Best Mystery and the 2008 Garcia Award for Best Fiction. His second book in the series, The Black Minute, was released in September 2009. It won the 2009 Reader Views Choice Award for Best Mystery and the Lynda Goldman Award for Best Novel. The Black Minute was also one of three finalists for the 2009 Midwest Book Award. John Santana will return in Bad Weeds Never Die, scheduled for release September 1, 2011. Christopher lives with his wife, Martha, near St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information please visit www.christophervalen.com.
Jenifer LeClair is the author of the award winning "Rigged for Murder," the debut novel in her Winjammer Mystery Series which is set on the coast of Maine. Her second book in the series, "Danger Sector," is coming this summer. Ms. LeClair has sailed aboard the Maine windjammers since 1995, and brings a remarkable authenticity to the Maine coast setting of her novels. "Rigged for Murder" won a 2009 Independent Publisher Award for Best Regional Fiction for the U.S. Northeast. "Rigged for Murder" also won the 2009 RebeccasReads Written Art Award for Best Mystery/Thriller. While Jenifer lives in Minnesota, she has adopted Maine as her second home and spends time there every year researching, travelling the highways and byways, doing photography, and of course sailing to various destinations in the Gulf of Maine and beyond.
