Janet Nichols Lynch’s most recent novels are COMMIE PINKO, about the McCarthy era and teen life in Berkeley, CA, in the 1950s; WHEEL OF FIRE, about a teen trying to free another teen from a destructive cult; MY BEAUTIFUL HIPPIE, about growing up in San Francisco in the late 1960s, and RACING CALIFORNIA, about the Amgen Tour of California. She is the author of the novels ADDICTED TO HER, MESSED UP, CHEST PAINS, and PEACE IS A FOUR LETTER WORD. Janet is available for book readings and signings, writer workshops and conferences, and school visits. In COMMIE PINKO, it’s 1958, the era of the Cold War and McCarthyism. In Berkeley, California, fourteen-year-old Donna is happily organizing the Richie Valens Fan Club, when her father, a physics professor at the University of California, is subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. At the hearing, Donna is caught between angry demonstrators and militant police in a dangerous conflict that ignites a decade of protest. In her YA thriller, WHEEL OF FIRE, seventeen-year-old, aspiring detective Kori Lawton has been fascinated since girlhood by the Church of Wheel of Fire, whose raging bonfires light the night sky near her small town located in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Kori assumes that the cult’s members are burned-out aging hippies, until she meets Flicker, a desperate young woman near her own age, whom she is determined to free. Despite being repulsed by the enigmatic cult leader Promus, Kori falls under his hypnotic spell as he plots a deadly doomsday scheme. In the gripping climax, it may be up to Kori to save not only Flicker, but all the members of the cult. In RACING CALIFORNIA, Evan Boroughs is shocked when his idol Tour de France winner Dash Shipley asks him to join his team for the Amgen Tour of California. He accepts the offer and wins sudden fame as the youngest rider in the event. Racing 800 grueling miles, at top speed, in bitter weather over some of the toughest terrain in California, Evan experiences spectacular triumphs and bitter disappointments. He is further challenged by an aggressive media, allegations that Dash is using performance-enhancing drugs, and pressure from his family and girlfriend to quit the race and return to his college-prep classes. There’s thrilling sports action in this novel about a gifted athlete who realizes that it takes more than talent to succeed in his first pro event. Janet, born and raised in Sacramento, California, is the author of ten books. In 1984 her first published short story appeared in THE NEW YORKER, and since then her fiction has been included in SEVENTEEN, SAN JOAQUIN REVIEW, BALTIMORE REIVEW, CONFRONTATION, WRITER'S FORUM, and the anthology of California writers HIGHWAY 99: A LITERARY JOURNEY THROUGH CALIFORNIA'S GREAT CENTRAL VALLEY. For the past fifteen years, Janet has read her fiction on Valley Public Radio’s (KVPR, Fresno and KVPX Bakersfield FM 89.3)VALLEY WRITERS READ, hosted by Franz Weinschenk. Janet received a B.A. in Music from California State University, Sacramento, a Master of Music Degree in Piano from Arizona State University, and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno, where she won the 2003 Outstanding Thesis Award in the College of Arts and Humanities for her short story collection WHERE WORDS LEAVE OFF MUSIC BEGINS. She has taught music at De Anza College, Cupertino, and Skyline College, San Bruno, and music and English at College of the Sequoias, Visalia; and history and English at Divisadero Middle School and El Diamante High School. Currently, she teaches piano in her own studio. She competes in runs and triathlons, and once rode her bike from Phoenix, AZ to Washington, D.C. She lives in Visalia with her husband, composer Timothy Lynch, and they have two grown children, Caitlin and Sean.