AUTHOR Betsy Thornton

Betsy Thornton writes the Chloe Newcombe series, set in Dudley (Bisbee), Arizona. Chloe is a Victim Advocate, which means that she works for Cochise County to help notify next-of-kin, to be a liaison between crime victims and the courts, to help victims in any way she can. The Cochise County setting (primarily the Bisbee area, with jaunts to Sierra Vista, Tombstone, St. David, and Tucson) is almost like a character in the stories. I love local settings…especially in mysteries….and as soon as I begin one of these I just gobble it up. And it seems that Thornton writes with first-hand knowledge...since the jacket flaps of her books say that she, too, is a Victim Advocate for the Cochise Country Attorney Victim's Witness program.

1. The Cowboy Rides Away (1996)
2. High Lonesome Road (2001)
3. Ghost Towns (2002)
4. Dead for the Winter (2004)
5. A Song for You
6. Dream Queen (just published in August, 2010, a prequel to the first five!)

It also appears that she’s written one stand-alone mystery: A Whole New Life.

She's done some local author signings, but they seem few and far between....once or twice at Clues Unlimited, here in Tucson, once in Scottsdale's Poisoned Pen Bookstore, and a couple at Atalanta, an interesting, incense-filled, used bookstore/art supply store on the main street in Bisbee.

Her website is http://betsythornton.com/

Chris Gall IN PERSON

LOVE OF READING was this week, and our school librarian always brings a wonderful author or illustrator (or both, as in this case) to speak to the kids.

Chris Gall lives in the Tucson area, and gave our kids a wonderful presentation, beginning with a Powerpoint that showed some of his early interests and drawings. He ended with having the kids call out different ideas and he drew a picture before our very eyes. He did three presentations, and all three pictures are now sitting proudly in the library. He took us through the creation of Dinotrux, his most recent picture book, which is being made into a movie by Dreamworks! How exciting that must be for an illustrator.

Dinotrux is his fourth published book. Previous to that he had There's Nothing to Do on Mars, Dear Fish, and America the Beautiful. He said he got the job to illustrate America the Beautiful because he's related to Katharine Lee Bates, the song's author. That's how he got his "foot in the door."

If you ever have a chance to hear Chris Gall speak, don't pass it up!

He, of course, has his own website.