SPIZER, Joyce 1941-

PERSONAL: Born July 25, 1941, in Dallas, TX; married January 1, 1982; husband's name Harold. Ethnicity: "American." Education: California Coast University, Ph.D. Hobbies and other interests: Teaching, knitting, travel.

ADDRESSES: Home—50855 Washington St., No. 208, La Quinta, CA 92253. Agent—Sam Fleishman, Literary Artists Representatives, 575 West End Ave., New York, NY 10024.

CAREER: I.I.I., Cypress, CA, private investigator for thirty-seven years. Teacher of "creative rewriting" classes at the college and university level; guest on media programs, including Hard Copy and Dateline NBC; public speaker. Also worked as a reporter for a newspaper in Huntington Beach, CA. Coachella Valley on Stage, vice president and secretary; member of Friends of the LaQuinta Library, La Quinta Arts Foundation, Animal Samaritans, and Desert Arts Alliance; community volunteer.

MEMBER: International Association of Crime Writers, National League of American Pen Women, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Police Writers Association, Police Writers League, Southern California Writer's Association, Palm Springs Women's Press Club, La Quinta Arts Association, Soroptimist International.

AWARDS, HONORS: Named woman of distinction, Soroptimist International, 2000; named woman of achievement, National League of American Pen Women, 2000; Irwin Award and named book publicist of the year, both Book Publicists of Southern California, 2000, for Power Marketing Your Novel.

WRITINGS:

The Cop Was White As Snow (mystery novel), Intercontinental (Fairfax Station, VA), 1998.

I'm Okay, You're Dead (mystery novel), Intercontinental (Fairfax Station, VA), 2000.

Power Marketing Your Novel: Marketing and Promoting Fiction and Nonfiction, Intercontinental (Fairfax Station, VA), 2000.

Cross Country Killer: The Glen Rogers Story (nonfiction), Top Publishing (Dallas, TX), 2001.

Rejections of the Written Famous (nonfiction), Joshua Tree Publishing (Las Vegas, NV), 2003.

Chopped Liver for the American Spirit (nonfiction), Casa (Las Vegas, NV), 2003.

Valley Confidential (musical play), first produced in 2003.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Howard Keel: Only Make Believe, a biography of the actor; The Man from Manawatu, a biography of artist Colin Webster-Watson; Mr. Manners, nonfiction, with Kristen Johnson; editing Hollywood's Child: Dancing through Oz, the autobiography of actress Caren Marsh-Doll; ghost-writing The Secrets of a Las Vegas Showgirl.

SIDELIGHTS: Joyce Spizer told CA: "I am blessed to live in the Coachella Valley, an area well known for its rich history and famous stars. There is a synergy here that won't let me stop writing. I teach creative rewriting at the college and university levels because I want to read every word ever written and that will ever be written. My book, Rejections of the Written Famous, is a collection of stories about famous people who didn't give up.

"I am a retired private investigator, so I'm naturally inquisitive. The first two books I wrote are fictionalized accounts of cases I've worked. I wrote the marketing book to share the process with others. I wrote the true crime biography Cross Country Killer: The Glen Rogers Story to show parents, teachers, law enforcers, and neighbors how to build a serial killer. I wanted to raise the awareness and change the future of what we're not doing for our kids. We're raising a new generation of criminals by our lack of parenting."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, January 1, 1998, John Rowen, review of TheCop Was White As Snow, p. 785.

Los Angeles Times, June 11, 2000, Ann Shields, "Private Eye and Mystery Writer Joyce Spizer Never Lacks for Material," p. B14.