Earl Merkel
AUTHOR

Earl Merkel

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
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Earl Merkel is the author of The Law Of Unintended Consequences (Elmtree Press, via Amazon Direct, June 1, 2015); Virgins And Martyrs (NEW EDITION released June 2015 by Elmtree Press; originally released in hardcover by Five Star, under the byline "E L Merkel"); Fire Of The Prophet (Diversion Books, April 7, 2013); Final Epidemic (Diversion Books - originally published by PenguinPutnam/NAL), a Barnes and Noble national bestseller; and Dirty Fire (Diversion Books - originally published by PenguinPutnam/NAL). His newest work is THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, the initial offering in a new series featuring Faulk Carpenter, an adventurer and paladin-for-hire set in the scorching sun and sparkling shorelines of Northwest Florida's Emerald Coast, where a tourist-playground façade scarcely conceals the ominous undercurrents of crime and violence both past and present. (Aria Quynn, a police lieutenant who is a major supporting character in this new book, stars in her own book in the set-in-Spanish Bay thriller VIRGINS AND MARTYRS, newly re-released by Amazon as an e-book original.) For Faulk Carpenter, the quest for closure in Spanish Bay becomes its own odyssey: an often dark voyage that forces him to face his own demons, all the while he becomes prey to the law of unintended consequences throughout the obstacles, entanglements and dangers he encounters--both from others, and from himself. The second installment in The Faulk Carpenter Thriller Series —working-titled THE WRONG KIND OF GIRL— is scheduled for publication in Autumn 2015. FALLOUT, the third installment in Earl's popular Beck Casey thriller series from Diversion Books, was released on April 7, 2015. Already well-received by readers and critics, it continues the story of Beck Casey launched in the B&N national bestselling FINAL EPIDEMIC and the Nook First National Selection FIRE OF THE PROPHET. Earl may be contacted through the "CONTACT EARL" link on his website, www.earlmerkel.com Earl spent more than a decade as a journalist, columnist and commentator; today, while he is a full-time novelist, he continues to contribute to a variety of newspapers and magazines-- usually after their editors have had time to extinguish the reader-reaction brushfires from his previous submissions. He is also a talk-radio host & producer, as well as an occasional guest of unwary shows on television, radio, and podcast. During his career, Earl has dodged gunfire, teargas canisters, and verbal brickbats as a journalist (and on occasion as a private citizen, having somehow annoyed armed or vocal strangers); spent years "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable," as an investigative reporter, newspaper columnist and satirist; and as a consultant has advised some of the largest corporations in the world on the merits of open and honest communications -- not always with success. As the "more" on the nationally broadcast talk-radio program Money & More, where he served for nine years through 2012 as co-host and executive producer, Earl left the money-talk to the experts. He admits that he's far more comfortable in other areas --talking with authors like Lawrence Block, Ken Burns, Robin Cook and Neil Gaiman about their books; arguing current events and politics with such guests as Steve Forbes, Jack Welch, Dick Morris, Oliver North and Newt Gingrich; and even cracking-wise with the likes of Mark Steyn, Neal Cavuto and Michael Medved-- than he is dealing with financial matters. "In my own finances, I'm anything but a good example," he laughs. "But I'm a great bad example." Earl is also the author of The Infamous Chicken Little Article, which is rumored to have gotten him temporarily banned from the op-ed page of a major American newspaper --but which subsequently has become an underground classic on the Internet among journalists, and which is regularly cited in journalism-school classeswhen a dose of cold (but --at least arguably-- hilarious) reality is required. (To read The Infamous Chicken Little Article, visit http://www.earlmerkel.com/EM%20infamous%20chicken%20little%20webpage.html) As a ghostwriter, Earl has had books published by such major houses as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins-- without, he hopes, these houses ever knowing it. Miscellany & Fun Facts: * Surprisingly, Earl "earned" a BA in Journalism from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), granted despite having only rarely been seen in a classroom after his sophomore year. Instead, Earl mailed tear-sheets of articles to sympathetic j-professors from such locales as Washington D.C. (covering the first Earth Day and the mammoth Moratorium Day protests-- the latter while lusting after a Klute-ish looking Jane Fonda); a day-after-the-day Kent State, Ohio dateline; and numerous other wanderings as a reporter and columnist for the DAILY ILLINI. * He was also granted the first (and, it is believed, the only) "student leave of absence" for a several-year hiatus spent earning money as a reporter for the Decatur, IL Herald & Review. The leave allowed him to keep an Illinois State Scholarship and subsequently return, willy-nilly, to complete his college experience (also without attending classes, as he was then working full-time for the Champaign-Urbana Courier). Based on his own academic experiences, Earl is a fervent believer that everybody should go to college for as long as humanly possible; he is frequently heard to mumble that academia is "a GREAT break from real life..." * Earl frequently devotes long hours to researching quotes of the famous, often to subsequently admit defeat and make up a "quote" instead. His favorite quote --possibly a "quote"-- is: Priest, to Voltaire as the French writer-philosopher lay upon his deathbed: "Ah, Voltaire-- will you now, at last, renounce the Devil?" Voltaire: "This is no time to be making new enemies." Sightings: Earl resides in Chicago. It's a big city, but you still may occasionally stumble over him (and we mean that literally). As a (frequently) threatened species, confirmed sightings of Earl are believed rare-- and as a result, observers find them always exciting. In his urban habitat, Earl is most active between the hours of sunset and dawn, when you can oft hear his distinctive, plaintive cry. To Meet Earl: To arrange a personal meeting with this author, please follow these directions: * Wherever there is injustice, you will find him. * Wherever there is suffering, he'll be there. * Wherever liberty is threatened, you will find him. (Or just head into the Loop. Stand at the intersection of State Street and Madison, and do a slow, 360-degree turn. He's around there, somewhere.) To Meet Earl On-Line: Earl posts semi-regularly on his website --www.earlmerkel.com-- as well as on his site at Redroom.com (http://www.redroom.com/author/earl-merkel), and on his Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/earl.merkel). Feel free to cut-and-paste those URLs into your browser. And c'mon by and visit.
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