Alafair Burke
Alafair Burke is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of over twenty novels.
In addition to the standalone novels that have earned her a reputation as “a genius for plot” (Oprah Magazine) and “a virtuoso” of domestic suspense (Minneapolis Star Tribune), she authors “two power house series” (Sun-Sentinel) featuring NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher and Portland Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid. Alafair is also the co-author of the “Under Suspicion” series with Queen of Suspense Mary Higgins Clark.
Her 2025 release “The Note”, is a new thriller about a prank played by three women on vacation in the Hamptons causes them to get caught up in a police investigation over a missing person.
Ridley Pearson
Ridley Pearson
Edgar-nominee, Ridley Pearson is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of (more than 50) award-winning suspense and young adult adventure novels. His novels have been published in two-dozen languages and have been adapted for network television and the Broadway stage. Ridley’s crime novels have earned a reputation for writing fiction that “grips the imagination.”
Ridley’s middle-grade-reader series include, The Kingdom Keepers, Steel Trapp and Lock & Key. The Peter and the Starcatchers series,co-written with Pulitzer Prize winner (and bandmate), Dave Barry, (adapted to the stage by Rick Elice) was awarded 5 Tony Awards.
Ridley’s research has spanned the globe and has included, a prison for the criminally insane in the U.K., exploring the engine room of a cruise liner, and multiple after-hour tours of Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
Ridley plays bass guitar in an all-author rock band comprised of other bestselling writers (Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Mitch Album, Scott Turow, Greg Iles, and occasionally, Stephen King). The Rockbottom Remainders, has raised over 2.5 million dollars for various non-profits. He lives–and writes–in the Northern Rockies along with his wife, Marcelle.
StarVista Live – Sandy Beaches Cruise/Big Easy Cruise
Delbert McClinton and an amazing lineup every year. Big time fun on the water.
Delbert, Marcia Ball, The Mavericks, Teresa James, Big Joe Maher, Shinyribs, Band of Heathens, Lee Roy Parnell, and more for the January 2024
The Big Easy Cruise features sailing to New Orleans from Ft. Lauderdale, FL with a Mexico stop on the way back.
2023 Artists include Little Feat, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Tab Benoit, Samantha Fish, and many many more.
For the full cruise lineup at StarVista.
James W. Hall
Location: (Thorn series) Florida Keys
James W. Hall
Always excited about a new Thorn story…
Sixteen of his novels feature a hardcore loner named Thorn, who makes a meager living tying bonefish flies. Thorn, and his private eye pal, Sugarman, have teamed up to thwart animal smugglers, cruise ship hijackers, rogue medical experimenters, and other assorted villains. For a man who simply wants to be left alone to contemplate the island light and sweet sea breezes of Key Largo, Thorn has been drawn into a long string of adventures to right wrongs and avenge the deaths of his friends, relatives and lovers and has taken innumerable gashes and wounds and scars in the process.
Hall’s non-fiction work includes Hot Damn! a collection of personal essays he wrote for the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel’s Sunshine Magazine, as well as some he wrote for the Washington Post and The Miami Herald.
His second non-fiction effort is Hit Lit (Random House) an analysis of twelve of the most commercially successful novels of the last century and the dozen features those books have in common.
Aaron Stander
Location – Northern Michigan
Aaron Stander
Aaron Stander is an American novelist of mystery/thriller novels. He is the author of the Ray Elkins series. Before becoming a published author, Stander worked as an English teacher and training writing teachers in the Detroit area.
Alice Merton
Alice Merton
Growing up around the world, singer/songwriter Alice Merton was as influenced by other cultures as much as transience itself. Born in Germany and raised in Canada and England, Alice Merton’s absorption of different styles and sounds helped craft the worldly progressive pop leanings on her debut, which came out in 2016. As a child, she learned classical piano and singing while in Canada. When Merton was a teenager, her family moved to Germany, where she would pick up the guitar and write her first song. While in Germany, she also studied at the Mannheim conservatory of music. Later, the family would relocate again, this time to England. These frequent international shifts would play a key role in the songwriting process for her first output, 2016’s No Roots EP (Paper Plane Records International / Mom+Pop Music). The four-track effort included the groove-heavy title track and “Hit the Ground Running”. Merton won the EBBA award 2018. ~ Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi
