BenBella Books | Our Authors

Thomas A. Easton

Tom Easton is professor of science at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. He holds a doctorate in theoretical biology from the University of Chicago. His work on scientific and futuristic issues has appeared in many magazines, from Astronomy to Consumer Reports and Robotics Age. His latest nonfiction books are Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Science, Technology, and Society (McGraw-Hill Dushkin, 6th ed., 2004) and Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Environmental Issues (11th ed., 2005). His latest novels are Firefight (Betancourt, 2003) and The Great Flying Saucer Conspiracy (Wildside, 2002).

Farscape Forever

Nicholas R. Eaton

Nicholas R. Eaton is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; he received his B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis (’03). He once won first prize in a trivia contest at a regional Star Trek convention—a fact he neglected to mention when applying to work with Dr. Krueger. A friend suggested he watch a series described as “Star Trek meets the Wild West,” which sounded horrible. His interest in disseminating psychological research to the public, as well as his subsequent love of that show, led to this chapter—a chapter that he sincerely hopes you have found to be informative and enjoyable.

The Psychology of Joss Whedon

Johanna Edwards

Johanna Edwards is an award-winning journalist and radio/TV producer. Her first novel, The Next Big Thing, debuted on the national bestseller list where it remained for nearly three months. Johanna’s second novel, Your Big Break, was also a bestseller. Johanna lives in Memphis, Tenn., where she is currently at work on her next book.

This is Chick-Lit

Leigh H. Edwards

Leigh H. Edwards is assistant professor of English at Florida State University. Her research on U.S. literature and popular culture has appeared in journals such as Narrative, The Journal of Popular Culture, Feminist Media Studies and Film and History. She is currently completing a book on Cash titled Johnny Cash and American Ambivalence. Other research in media studies includes a book manuscript, Reality TV’s Family Values: Narrative, Ideology, and New Domestic Forms. Recent publications include: “Dangerous Minds: The Woman Professor on Television,” in Geek Chic: Smart Women in Popular Culture (2007), edited by Sherrie A. Inness; “Chasing the Real: Reality Television and Documentary Forms,” in Docufictions: Essays on the Intersection of Documentary and Fictional Filmmaking (2006), edited by Gary D. Rhodes and John Parris Springer; and “‘What a Girl Wants’: Gender Norming on Reality Game Shows” (2004) in Feminist Media Studies. She has forthcoming articles on PBS’s “Frontier House” and frontier mythology, and on interracial romance narratives. A staff writer for PopMatters, an international magazine of cultural criticism published online at popmatters.com, she reviews television and film. She has also published a poem on Cash, “Johnny Cash Ode,” in Xconnect: Writers of the Information Age, Volume VII (Xconnect, print annual, 2005) and in the online journal issue, CrossConnect 23 (September 2005). An eighth-generation Floridian, she earned her B.A. from Duke University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania as a National Mellon Fellow.

Literary Cash

Lynne Edwards

Lynne Edwards, Ph.D., is associate professor of media and communication studies at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa. She is the author of several essays about popular culture including “Slaying in Black and White: Kendra as Tragic Mulatta in Buffy the Vampire Slayer” in Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002) and “Victims, Villains, and Vixens: Teen Girls and Internet Crime” in Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity (Peter Lang, 2005). Lynne currently is writing The Other Sunnydale: Representations of Blackness in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Lexington Books, exp. 2006).

Neptune Noir

Bob Eggleton

Bob Eggleton is a successful science fiction, fantasy and landscape artist. In his 20 years of putting brush to canvas or board, he has won nine Hugo Awards and 12 Chesley Awards, as well as various magazine awards, and his art can be seen on the covers of magazines, books, posters and prints, and of late, stationery, drink coasters, journals and jigsaw puzzles. He has also worked as a conceptual illustrator for movies and thrill rides (including the Academy Award nominated animated film “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”) and illustrated two books of experimental artwork about dragons, Dragonhenge and The Stardragons. Primal Darkness: The Gothic and Horror Artwork of Bob Eggleton is currently available from Cartouche Press, and work has already begun on Bob’s next collection of recent art works, Dragon Cosmica.

King Kong is Back!

Devon Ellington

Devon Ellington publishes under a half a dozen names in both fiction and nonfiction. Her work appears in publications including Wild Child, Rose and Thorn, Hampton Family Life, Emerging Women Writers, Femmefan and Toasted Cheese. Her plays are produced in New York, Los Angeles, London, Edinburgh and Australia. For two years, she wrote four serials in four genres—mystery, western, magical realism and action/adventure/pirate—for Keep It Coming. She writes the Literary Athlete column for The Scruffy Dog Review, her Web site is www.devonellingtonwork.com and her blog on the writing life is Ink in My Coffee (devonellington.wordpress.com).

Perfectly Plum

Harry Elliott

In his mind, Harry Elliott has always been a Bond Girl. So if you see him on the street, please refer to him only by his Bond Girl name, “Dude LooksLikeaLady.” Harry works in product development for a “major” dot com. While not making the Internet more user-friendly, Harry thinks of himself as a creative and freelance writer, and has the record for the most single-post blogs in history. Harry lives and breathes in the exhaust-scented city of Chicago, exactly a mile and a half due north of the left-field bleachers of Wrigley Field.

James Bond in the 21st Century

Pat N. Elrod

P. N. Elrod is the print-published author of over 20 novels and 20 short stories, and is best known for her ongoing hard-boiled noir series The Vampire Files. She has cowritten three novels with actor/writer Nigel Bennett. She’s edited three collections, including coediting Stepping Through the Stargate for BenBella Books, and is working on a fourth, and writing, writing, writing. Her Web site is www.vampwriter.com. She would love to buy Harvey a drink and talk about Crichton’s lesser-traveled subconscious paths, especially if it includes dish on where he got those leather pants.

Farscape Forever

Stepping Through the Stargate

Susan Engel

Susan Engel earned a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1980, and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from CUNY Graduate Center in 1985. She is currently a senior lecturer in psychology and director of the Program in Teaching at Williams College. Engel has taught students from age 3 to adults. In addition to journal articles and book chapters, Engel has written three books, The Stories Children Tell: Making Sense of the Narratives of Childhood (W. H. Freeman, 1985), Context Is Everything: The Nature of Memory (W. H. Freeman, 1997) and most recently, Real Kids: Creating Meaning in Everyday Life (Harvard University Press, 2005). She is also the co-founder and educational adviser to an experimental school in eastern Long Island, the Hayground School, and writes a regular column on teaching, “Lessons,” for the New York Times. Engel’s research interests include the development of autobiographical memory, narrative processes in childhood, imagination and play in childhood and the development of curiosity. She lives with her husband and three sons in New Marlborough, Mass.

House Unauthorized

The Psychology of Harry Potter

Renee Engeln-Maddox, Ph.D.

Renee Engeln-Maddox, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the department of psychology at Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). She earned an M.A. in clinical psychology from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), and a doctorate in social psychology from Loyola University, Chicago. Her research interests include portrayals of women in the media, body image disturbance and media literacy.

The Psychology of Survivor

Elizabeth Engstrom

Elizabeth Engstrom is the author of nine books and more than 250 short stories, articles and essays. She teaches the fine art of fiction at writers’ conferences and conventions around the world and is currently a regular contributor to Court TV’s Crime Library. You can visit her Web site at www.elizabethengstrom.com.

Grey’s Anatomy 101

Samuel S. Epstein

Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., D. Path., D.T.M&H, Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is an internationally recognized authority on the causes and prevention of cancer, the toxic and carcinogenic effects of environmental pollutants, and of ingredients and contaminants in consumer products—food, cosmetics and toiletries, and related public policy concerns. He has published some 270 peer-reviewed scientific articles and authored or co-authored 15 books.

Epstein has served as consultant to the U.S. Congress and as a member of the EPA. He has also presented to the United Nations. Epstein has been awarded numerous honors, including the 1998 Right Livelihood Award for International Contributions to Cancer Prevention, and the 2005 Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for Humanitarianism and for International Contributions to Cancer Prevention. Epstein has appeared on major national TV programs including “60 Minutes,” “Face the Nation,” “Meet the Press,” “Good Morning America,” the “Today” show and documentaries, including the 2004 prize-winning “The Corporation.”

Toxic Beauty

Roy Eskapa

Dr. Roy Eskapa was born in South Africa and received his B.A. at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He received both his M.A. and Ph.D. at the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles. He is a past member of the American Psychological Association and a past fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Dr. Eskapa now works as a psychotherapist, specializing in addiction and enuresis (bedwetting). He has successfully used the Sinclair Method with many of his patients.

Just after completing his Ph.D., Roy wrote Bizarre Sex (HarperCollins, 1988), which was based on his experiences as a doctoral student in clinical and forensic psychology in California. He contributed a chapter on multimodal therapy to Integrative and Eclectic Psychotherapy: A Handbook (Open University Press, 1992).

From 1991 until 2000, he ran the London Enuresis Clinic during which he designed and developed Dri-Guard, a home treatment program for enuresis. The program consisted of an electronic biofeedback device, manual, charts and instructional video which won an award from the British Medical Association.

In addition to his regular work, he is deeply involved with the causes of and treatments for addiction. In 1991, he heard about Dr. David Sinclair, the world-renowned American neuroscientist running the alcohol research program for the Finnish government. He visited Sinclair’s laboratory on several occasions and studied his scientific publications. He thought the world of addiction treatment might change overnight based on the results of the clinical trials. After noticing success with the Sinclair Method in his own patients, he was highly impressed with cure rates and continued to follow Dr. Sinclair’s research. He was particularly impressed with the results from the clinical trials from this powerful way of curing alcohol addiction.

Dr. Eskapa currently lives in London.

The Cure for Alcoholism

Jane Espenson

Jane Espenson grew up in Ames, Iowa, where she was introduced to the writings of Jane Austen at an early age by her English lit–major mother. She eventually found herself with a long career as a television writer/producer, but she never gave up the essential love of Austen. She wrote for a number of half-hour comedies, including “Ellen,” then moved on to drama writing, including stints on “The O.C.,” “Gilmore Girls” and a five-year run on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” While working at “Buffy,” she was able to write a vampire-themed comic book story in the style of Austen, rekindling her love for that kind of storytelling. She continues in television, working under a development deal with 20th Century Fox television, creating shows of her own and rereading Austen in her spare time. She’s delighted to be included in this collection.

Finding Serenity

Flirting with Pride & Prejudice

Bob Eubanks

Bob Eubanks began his broadcasting career as a disc jockey. Best known for his role as host of the popular “The Newlywed Game,” Eubanks can be seen hosting “The Hollywood Christmas Parade” with cohost Leeza Gibbons for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles. He lives in Santa Ynez, Calif.

It’s in the Book, Bob!

Rhonda Eudaly

Rhonda Eudaly lives in Fort Worth, Texas, where she’s worked in offices, banking, radio and education to support her writing and her cat, Dixon. She will soon be adding her fiancé Jimmy and his dog Diamond to her family. She likes to spend time with friends and family, swing dance and read. Her two passions are writing and music. Rhonda has over a dozen fiction and nonfiction stories published in various anthologies, magazines and Web sites. Check out her Web site—www.RhondaEudaly.com—for more information.