Cathy Pickens, a lawyer and college professor, is a writer of crime fact and crime fiction. Her first novel, Southern Fried, won the St. Martin’s/Minotaur Best New Traditional Mystery award. The series is now available as the Blue Ridge Mountain Mysteries from Joffe Books. She writes a series on Southern regional true crime for Arcadia Publishing/History Press and is the fact crime columnist for Mystery Readers Journal. She is professor emerita in the McColl School of Business and served as national president of Sisters in Crime and on the boards of Mystery Writers of America and the Mecklenburg Forensic Medicine Program (an evidence collection/preservation training collaborative). She is also the author of CREATE! (ICSC Press), offers coaching and workshops on developing the creative process and works with writers on telling their stories.