To Our Treasured Sponsors
The Writers Police Academy, and the writing community, wish to extend a deep and heartfelt “Thank You” to each of our generous supporters. Without you, dear friends, this celebrated event would not be possible.
Dell Magazines
Corporate Sponsor
Dell Magazines is known for its many puzzle magazines and astrology magazines, as well as fiction magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. It is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, under the same ownership as Penny Publications, LLC, which publishes PennyPress puzzle magazines.
Lisa Regan
Silver Star
Lisa Regan is the USA Today & Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series as well as several other crime fiction titles. She has a Bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Education degree from Bloomsburg University. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, Crime Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, daughter and Boston Terrier named Mr. Phillip.
The Drowning Girls
A knock on the door late in the evening can only mean trouble for Detective Josie Quinn, but fear chokes her at the news that the one of her own team is missing. No one has seen Denton PD’s beautiful Press Liaison Amber for days. Sweet-natured and totally dedicated to the job, she’d never let her colleagues down. A message scrawled on the frosted windscreen of Amber’s car leads Josie to a nearby dam. But the body they pull from the water is not Amber…
Tami Hoag
Medal of Valor
Tami Hoag is the #1 International bestselling author of more than thirty books published in more than thirty languages worldwide, with more than forty million books in print. Renown for combining thrilling plots with character-driven suspense, crackling dialogue and well-research police procedure, Hoag first hit the New York Times bestseller list in 1996 with NIGHT SINS, and each of her books since has been a bestseller, including her latest, THE BOY. She lives in the greater Los Angeles area.
The Boy
An unfathomable loss or an unthinkable crime? #1 New York Times bestselling author Tami Hoag keeps you guessing in her most harrowing thriller yet.
A panic-stricken woman runs in the dead of night, battered and bloodied, desperate to find help...
Denise Grover Swank
Medal of Valor
Denise Grover Swank is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestselling author. She indie published her first book, a romance mystery, Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes, in 2011. She has since published over seventy novels, novellas, and short stories as an indie and with five publishers. She is published in eight languages. She has sold nearly three million books to date.
A Cry in the Dark
A woman on the run with no one to trust.
With the ink barely dry on her new identity, Carly Moore just wants to disappear…but fate has other plans. Broken down car, next to nothing in her bank account, Carly is stuck in a Smoky Mountain town that time has forgotten. Drum is riddled with secrets and outsiders are eyed with distrust. Still, it isn’t until she witnesses a cold-blooded murder in a darkened parking lot, that she realizes she’s escaped one nightmare, only to land in another.
Kendra Elliot
Medal of Valor
Kendra Elliot has sold ten million books, hit the Wall Street Journal top ten bestseller list over a dozen times, and is a three time winner of the Daphne du Maurier award.
She is an International Thriller Writers' finalist and a Romantic Times finalist. She grew up in the lush Pacific Northwest but recently spends most of her time on a warm beach, always wearing flip flops.
Dr. Katherine Ramsland
Medal of Valor
Dr. Katherine Ramsland teaches forensic psychology at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, where she is the Assistant Provost. She has appeared on more than 200 crime documentaries and magazine shows, is an executive producer of Murder House Flip, and has consulted for CSI, Bones, and The Alienist. The author of more than 1,500 articles and 70 books, including The Forensic Science of CSI, The Forensic Psychology of Criminal Minds, How to Catch a Killer, The Psychology of Death Investigations, and Confession of a Serial Killer: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, The BTK Killer, she was co-executive producer for the Wolf Entertainment/A&E documentary based on the years she spent talking with Rader. Dr. Ramsland consults on death investigations, pens a blog for Psychology Today, and she's currently writing a fiction series based on a female forensic psychologist. The first book in the series is "I Scream Man."
Bookouture
Medal of Valor
The Best in Digital Publishing
We are a dynamic digital publisher of bestselling commercial fiction and a division of Hachette UK. We also publish commercial non-fiction under our Thread imprint.
Our unique publishing model and transformative campaigns have created unrivalled international author brands. We connect stories, authors and readers globally, publishing books that reflect the diversity of the societies we live in.
Our submissions are always open as we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to share their story. Over 60 million copies sold worldwide.
Melinda Leigh
Commissioner
Patti Phillips
Commissioner
Patti Phillips is the person behind Detective Charlie Kerrian at www.kerriansnotebook.com. Her second ebook, “Kerrian’s Notebook, Volume 2: Fun, Facts, and a Few Dead Bodies,” covers a wide range of law enforcement procedures and techniques. Ms. Phillips has experienced seven of the Writers’ Police Academies. Many of her stories and non-fiction articles are based on the interviews she conducted at WPA as well as the intensive WPA sessions and weeklong classes at SIRCHIE she attended over the years. Hundreds of Phillips’ photographs seen on her blog and around the internet attest to the fun and knowledge gained by all at WPA.
Her book reviews can be read at www.nightstandbookreviews.com
A Very Special Thank You
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Oak Ridge Boys have spawned dozens of Country hits, including Country-Pop chart-topper "Elvira," as well as "Bobbie Sue," and "Dream On." In 1977, Paul Simon tapped the Oaks to sing backup for his hit "Slip Slidin’ Away." In 2021, Mike Rowe ("Dirty Jobs"), John Rich of Big and Rich, and the Oaks teamed up to release the hit song "Santa's Gotta Dirty Job," which quickly reached the number one spot on the iTunes chart.
They’ve scored 12 gold, three platinum, and one double platinum album—plus one double platinum single—and had more than a dozen national Number One singles. During their career, the group has earned top honors such as Grammy, Dove, CMA, and ACM awards, to name only a few.
*The Oaks’ organization is a longtime supporter of the Writers’ Police Academy. In 2019, Joe Bonsall (on the left in the photo above), the lead voice on the hit songs "Elvira", "It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometime," and "Love Song," joined several authors in writing a collection of short stories for the Writers’ Police Academy's anthology, After Midnight: Tales form the Graveyard Shift.
Joe Bonsall
In addition to singing with the Oak Ridge Boys, Joe Bonsall is an avid writer. He published his first children’s books in 1997, The Molly Books, a four-book series. In 2003, Joe published G. I. Joe and Lillie: Remembering a Life of Love and Loyalty, an inspirational biography about his parents. His song by the same name was included on the Oaks’ Colors album and a music video of the song became a YouTube phenomenon with more than five million views.
Joe authored the text for the Oaks’ coffee table book, An American Journey and a Christmas story titled An Inconvenient Christmas, On the Road with The Oak Ridge Boys (2015), and From My Perspective (2010), a collection of commentaries, stories and other writings. He also wrote Sunshine Berkman, a short story in the Writers' Police Academy 2019 anthology, After Midnight: Tales from the Graveyard Shift.
*Bio source and images - oakridgeboys.com
Kathy Harris
Kathy Harris is an author by way of a “divine detour” into the Nashville entertainment business. After graduating with a Communications degree from Southern Illinois University, she moved to Tennessee to work in the Christian music industry, a position that soon transitioned into what would become a long-tenured country music marketing career with The Oak Ridge Boys.
For several years, Kathy freelanced entertainer biographies and wrote, as well as ghost wrote, news stories and columns for various music publications. In 2007, she sold her first Christian non-fiction story, “Walk on Water,” which was included in Thomas Nelson’s All My Bad Habits I Learned from Grandpa. That same year one of her devotions was published in The One Year Life Verse Devotional from Tyndale House. She also contributed “Blooms of Wisdom” to the Chicken Soup for the Soul 2010 release Thanks, Mom and “He Who Laughs Last Is the Weiner” to the Chicken Soup for the Soul 2019 release Life Lessons from the Dog.
Abingdon Press, an imprint of the United Methodist Publishing House, released Kathy’s debut novel, The Road to Mercy, in September 2012. In October 2019, Iron Stream Media released Deadly Commitment, the first book in The Deadly Secrets romantic suspense series. Deadly Connection, the second book in the series, was released in October 2021.
An American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis finalist in 2007 and category winner in the RWA/Faith Hope & Love Touched by Love in 2011, Kathy was included in Family Fiction magazine’s list of ‘five new voices encouraging and challenging the modern woman.’ She was also a featured panelist at the 2012 Southern Festival of Books.
Kathy is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), the Christian Authors Network (CAN), the Country Music Association (CMA), the Gospel Music Association (GMA), the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and the Americana Music Association (AMA), and a former member of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS). She is also a former board member of the Tennessee Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse and the Nashville Entertainment Association, and a former volunteer board member of The Book Club Network.
Like Joe Bonsall, Kathy Harris has supported the Writers’ Police Academy since its first year of operation. It is she who travels the streets and roads around Nashville each year to meet with country superstars to have them sign the guitars and other merchandise offered each year in the raffle and auction.
One year the guitar was slow to arrive, and it was because country music legend Kenny Rogers had taken it home with him to sign and Kathy had to wait for him to return it. Then she tracked down Dolly Parton, who added her name to the guitar.
International bestselling author Lee Child was high-bidder for a guitar signed by Keith Urban, the Oak Ridge Boys, Lady Antebellum, Brad Paisley and more. Who knew that Lee Child was a fan of country music!
Kathy Harris bio source and image - kathyharrisbooks.com
Friends of the WPA
Level Best Books
Well-regarded by readers and reviewers, stories published by Level Best have won the Agatha, Anthony, Macavity, Derringer and Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story presented at the Edgar® banquet. Level Best short stories have also been recognized as Best and Distinguished Mystery Stories by the editors of the Best American Mystery Stories series.
In addition to the Best New England Crime Stories, Level Best is the publisher of crime fiction anthologies from The Writers’ Police Academy and the New York/Tri-State Chapter of Sisters in Crime. Level Best has also published themed anthologies on the subjects of Law Enforcement, Culinary Noir, Me Too short stories and, in addition to crime fiction anthologies, Level Best Books also publishes quality mystery, thriller, and crime fiction novels.
New Arc Books
New Arc Books, an imprint of Level Best Books, seeks wonderfully fresh voices and stories that beg to be told by someone with a passion for telling them. Our dragnet is also out for nonfiction that reads like a top-shelf novel. We want to open your books and feel and see the settings pour from the pages. We want to hear your characters speaking to us, and to sense their emotions as they encounter and overcome each of the hurdles that stand between them and the final chapter. What we don’t want is something as overwritten as this paragraph.
