ABOUT THE AUTHOR Larry Brooks is the author of six critically-acclaimed thrillers, and the guy behind www.storyfix.com, one of the fastest-growing and most respected writing sites on the internet. His latest novel is DEADLY FUAX, released by Turner Publishing, who will also be publishing his four prior novels as trade paperbacks within months following the DEADLY FAUX release, and will be releasing another new novel, THE SEVENTH THUNDER in April 2014.Larry Brooks is best known as the author of the bestselling writing books, - "Story Engineering: Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing" - "Story Physics: Harnessing the Underlying forces of Storytelling"... and his new release: - "Story Fix: Transforming Your Novel from Broken to Brilliant"All three titles are published by Writers Digest Books, and have been #1 bestsellers in one or more Amazon.com categories.Brooks is also known as the owner and primary contributor of Storyfix.com, chosen by Writers Digest Magazine to their "101 Best Websites for Writers" for the past six years running, among many other "best of" website rankings.Brooks is the author of six critically-acclaimed novels, all dark and sexy psychological thrillers, including the USA Today Bestseller "Darkness Bound" (Signet, 2000) and "Bait and Switch" (Signet 2004) named by Publishers Weekly (after a starred review) as one of the "Best Novels - Mass Market," and his novel "The Seventh Thunder" was named "Best Novel - Suspense/Thriller" Category in 2010 by the Next Generation Indie Awards.Brooks was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. He graduated with a degree in marketing communications from Portland State University, where he attended in the off-season during a five-year run as a professional baseball player in the Texas Rangers organization. He was a pitcher, and to this day is still undergoing medical and therapy procedures from years of trying to throw a ball through a wall.This led to his first published writing: a magazine article on the life of a minor league pitcher. Still not keen on a writing career - like most of the newly graduated, he had his eye on the money back then - his first stints in a business suit had more than a few more swings and misses. He says he was history's worst stockbroker for the world's largest brokerage firm, then the world's worst personnel manager in a now-defunct major department store (remember what Dirty Harry said about Personnel managers?), in addition to a couple of other humbling career fliers he chooses to forget. Each crashing career resulted in another published magazine piece lampooning the experience, and his interest in writing began to emerge as his best - and perhaps last - viable career option.In 1983 he answered an ad for a "script writer" at a small audio-visual production company - eight arteests and a slide projector. Cut to 1996, when the company was one of the largest marketing and training firms in the western U.S., and Brooks was the executive creative director and a partner, with over 100 employees. The business was sold in 1999, at which point Brooks ran toward the career he'd been quietly cultivating on the side for the prior two decades (he could finally afford it) - writing novels and screenplays. In late 2002, Brooks' script for the adaptation of DARKNESS BOUND was named a finalist in the prestigious Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks who bring you the Oscars. It was one of ten scripts selected out of 6044 submissions, which he hopes you find impressive, especially since he didn't end up winning one of the five Fellowships. He got the t-shirt anyway.Brooks teaches and speaks at writing conferences, workshops and at the behest of writing groups, appearing nationally and internationally.Brooks is very happily married to his wife of 20 years, Laura, an artist and interior designer, who wants you to know she "is not the Dark Lady" (the villainess from his first novel), though central casting might disagree. He also has a wonderful son, Nelson, who is 25 and an account manager for Oracle after a degree from USC; three supportive step-children, Tracy, Scott and Kelly; and seven step-grandchildren who have no clue what "Poppy" does for a living, only that he can still bench press the family car. Larry and Laura live Scottsdale, AZ, where the heat and the spectacularly bad drivers are challenging. Feel free to contact Larry at his website (www.storyfix.com), or email him at storyfixer@gmail.com.