President Neil Plakcy is the author of three police procedural mysteries set in Hawaii -- Mahu, Mahu Surfer, and Mahu Fire (2008), as well as the co-editor of Paws and Reflect, an anthology of dog-owner essays.

He is an assistant professor of English at Broward Community College's South Campus in Pembroke Pines.

Vice President Sharon Potts is a former business executive, entrepreneur, and CPA. She grew up in New York City and didn't learn to ride a bike or drive a car until she was twenty-one, though she did master the art of reading a newspaper on a jolting subway car.

Her award-winning debut novel, IN THEIR BLOOD, is a psychological thriller set in Miami about an ordinary family torn apart by a violent crime. Publishers Weekly gave IN THEIR BLOOD a starred review and called it a "red-hot suspense novel," and New York Times best-selling author Michael Connelly said of the debut novel, "This is thriller writing the way it is supposed to be."

Sharon has two grown children and lives in Miami Beach with her husband, Joe.

Secretary Joan Cochran is a native Floridian and freelance writer whose food columns, essays and healthcare articles appear in South Florida and national magazines. She recently crossed over to fiction with The Yiddish Gangster’s Daughter, a novel dealing with Miami and New York Jewish mobsters of the 1940s and 1950s. Joan’s short stories and essays have won several literary awards.

Treasurer Sandra Balzo: Sandra Balzo turned to mystery writing after twenty years in corporate public relations, event management and publicity. She currently has eight books out in two different regional mystery series--one set in the High Country of North Carolina and the other just outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her mysteries have garnered starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, and have been nominated for both the Anthony and the Macavity. Balzo also writes short stories, two of which have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, winning the Macavity, Derringer and Robert L. Fish awards. She is a former national board member of Mystery Writers of America.
www.SandraBalzo.com

At Large Board Members:

Miriam Auerbach: Miriam Auerbach is the author of a satirical mystery series set in Boca Raton, Florida and featuring Harley-riding, wisecracking female private eye Harriet Horowitz. Her debut novel, Dirty Harriet (Harlequin, 2006) won the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best First Series Romance. Miriam can only assume that this is because the heroine kills her husband on page one. This was followed by the sequel, Dirty Harriet Rides Again (Harlequin, 2007). Both books will be reissued by Belle Books in 2013. Later that year, the third in the series, Dirty Harriet’s Darkest Hour, will strike.

In a parallel universe, Miriam is known as Miriam Potocky, Ph.D., professor of social work at Florida International University in Miami. She lives in West Palm Beach with her husband and their multicultural canines, a Welsh Corgi and a Brussels Griffon.
Visit Miriam at www.miriamauerbach.com.

Steven M. Forman: I was born and raised in the Boston area, graduated the University of Massachusetts in 1963 and spent over 40 years expanding the international food company I founded in 1970. The business world was a great adventure for me but, in the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a writer. When I turned 64 in 2006 , and had been wintering in Florida for several years, I realized that the future was now and it was now or never. I began writing my first novel that year and finished it in 2008. I found a great agent who sold a two book deal for me to a great publisher and Boca Knights was released February of 2009 in The book is about Boston’s most promoted, demoted, irrepressible policeman named Eddie Perlmutter who retires to Boca Raton at fifty nine years old, only to become involved in crime fighting all over again.

Boca Mournings, the sequel, was released a year later and Boca Daze, the third book in the trilogy, in January of 2012. I also wrote a novella entitled Eddie the Kid, published November 22, 2011. I am presently writing my fifth novel.

I started writing late but now I can’t stop and feel extremely fortunate to have a second career I love as much as the first.
www.stevenmforman.com

Michael Haskins: Michael Haskins, a native Bostonian, has lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Los Angles and spent more than twenty summers in Tijuana, Mexico, before moving to Key West. He was the Key West Citizen’s business editor/writer and spent five years as the city’s public information officer. He has published six books in his Mick Murphy Mystery series, three set in Key West.
www.michaelhaskins.net

Deborah Sharp: Deborah Sharp is the author of the funny, southern-fried ''Mace Bauer Mysteries,'' which debuted in 2008 with ''Mama Does Time.'' The fourth book in the series is ''Mama Sees Stars.'' A Florida native and former long-time reporter for USA Today, her humorous commentaries have been heard on National Public Radio. Her award-winning essays and short stories have appeared nationally, and she recently made a return visit to NBC's TODAY show to talk about ''Mama.''
www.deborahsharp.com

Diane A.S. Stuckart: Diane A.S. Stuckart is the national bestselling author (writing as Ali Brandon) of DOUBLE BOOKED FOR DEATH, the first in her new Black Cat Bookshop mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime. She’s also the author of the popular Leonardo da Vinci mysteries, which have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, as well as a Florida Book Award Silver medal. Writing as Alexa Smart and Anna Gerard, she published several critically-acclaimed historical romances from Pinnacle Books. A native Texan with a degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma, Diane now lives in South Florida.
Visit her at www.dianestuckart.com or www.alibrandon.com