Les Edgerton has published eighteen books, the latest being "The Bitch" from New Pulp Press and the black comedy crime novel, "The Genuine, Imitation, Plastic Kidnapping" from Down & Out Press. One of his most popular books is the writer's text, "Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go." His own favorite is his collection, titled, "Monday's Meal," which received a glowing review from the NY Times in which he was compared favorably to Raymond Carver.He has a blog on writing at: http://lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/ he invites you to visit, as well as his website at www.lesedgerton.net. He lives with his wife Mary in Ft. Wayne, IN. He and Mary have a son, Mike, and Les has two daughters--Britney and Sienna--from a previous marriage. He teaches a private novel writing class online. In the past, he has taught creative writing for the UCLA Extension Writer's Program, Trine University, St. Francis University, a class via Skype for the New York Writer's Workshop, and was Writer-in-Residence for the University of Toledo for three years.Edgerton is an ex-con, having served two years of a 2-5 sentence at Pendleton Reformatory in the sixties for second-degree burglary. The sentence was the result of a plea bargain where it was reduced to a single charge from 182 burglaries, two strong-arm robberies, an armed robbery, and a count of possession with intent to deal. Today, he's completely reformed and you can invite him into your home and when he leaves you won't have to count the silverware... Prior to this little "trouble" Les served 4 years in the U.S. Navy as a cryptographer who had "up close and personal" experience with the Cuban Crisis and the beginning of the Vietnam War.After making parole from Pendleton, Edgerton obtained his B.A. from Indiana University (Honors of Distinction), where he was elected Student Body President, and then received his MFA in Writing (Fiction) from Vermont College. He teaches workshops nationwide on writing, specializing in classes and seminars on the writer's voice and story beginnings. He also coaches writers on their novels and the fee is $150 per hour.His fiction has been nominated for or won: the Pushcart Prize, O. Henry Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award (short story category), Derringer Award, the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse Jones Book Award, the Violet Crown Book Award, The Spinetingler Magazine Award for Best Thriller and others. Screenplays of his have placed as a Semifinalist in the Nicholl's Foundation Competition and as Finalists in the Writer's Guild and Best of Austin competitions.He was born in Odessa, TX on Feb. 13, 1943 and grew up in a variety of places, including Freeport, TX and South Bend, IN. He is the oldest of five and has one surviving sister and a brother. Although, they're really his "half" siblings as he discovered a couple of years ago the man his mother had always claimed was his birth father... wasn't. Growing up in Freeport, his family ate all their meals at his grandmother's bar and restaurant, and before the age of twelve, Les had worked every job in the bar, including serving alcohol and food (those were different times, before the government assumed the job of parenting and protecting us from ourselves). When he turned 12, his grandmother told him he was old enough to learn the taxi-cab business which she owned and he began his first day on the midnight shift. An hour after he began, one of the cab drivers shot and killed another driver who was tormenting him with a rattlesnake, and he made the call to the police. Later, he was called on to testify at the man's trial and the defendant was found innocent as he was acting in self-defense.These days, he's working on a memoir, a new writer's how-to, several novels, several nonfiction projects and appearing at various workshops. He invites readers of his work to contact him. His contact info is on his blog at www.lesedgertononwriting.blogspot.com/ and he has a website at www.lesedgerton.net.