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Bill and Susan Albert have a special talent for getting into trouble—together. But while they make a living out of criminal activities, they do it legally. Their co-authored books (and those Susan has written alone) now number around 90 or so, including the 60-something young adult novels they wrote from 1986-1991. They like what they do and have no plans to quit any time soon.
Susan and Bill live on 32 acres in the Texas hill country, 60 miles northwest of Austin, with two black Labradors named Zach and Lady, a matching black cat named Shadow, and an ever-changing assortment of ducks and geese who flock together under the watchful eye of Major Gander, a Toulouse goose of outstanding merit.
Susan Wittig Albert: Susan became a full-time writer after abandoning her second career in teaching. (Her first career was in mothering, during which she produced three great kids, sons Bob and Michael and daughter Robin.) After undergraduate work, she went on to earn a Ph.D. in English from the University of California at Berkeley. For 15 years, she taught and held administrative positions at the University of Texas at Austin, Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans, and Southwest Texas State in San Marcos, Texas. Thoroughly fed up with academic politics, she quit (yes, just like that) and began writing books for young adults. In 1986, she and Bill Albert were married, and the rest is...murderously good fiction.
Bill Albert: A New York native and Texas transplant, Bill graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Industrial Management. After a two-year stint in the Army and various travels around the globe pursuing his passions (photography, archaeology, scuba diving), he took up with computers and spent the next 15 years as a programmer and systems analyst. After Susan discovered his talent for constructing wickedly intricate plots that are a cross between a knot garden and a flow chart, she recruited him into the writing business. Among his pseudonyms are Franklin W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Nicholas Adams, and Robin Paige. In addition to writing mysteries, he maintains the family stable of computers, printers, fax machines, copiers, and telephones. Life in the rural electronic cottage is not as easy as it looks in the ads.
Last updated: 05/10/2007