More About the Author
Earl Merkel
Biography
Earl Merkel is the author of Virgins And Martyrs (Five Star 2008, under the name "E L Merkel"; Final Epidemic (PenguinPutnam/NAL), a Barnes and Noble national bestseller re-released in hardcover by Elmtree Press/Tifda Publishing in January 2008; and Dirty Fire (PenguinPutnam/NAL).
Earl spent more than a decade as a journalist, columnist and commentator; today, he contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, usually after their editors have had time to extinguish the reader-reaction brushfires from his previous submissions.
During his career, Earl has dodged gunfire, teargas canisters, and verbal brickbats as a journalist; spent years "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable," as an investigative reporter, newspaper columnist and satirist; and has advised some of the largest corporations in the world on the merits of open and honest communications -- not always with success.
As the "more" on the nationally broadcast talk-radio program Money & More, where he serves as co-host and executive producer, Earl leaves the money-talk to the experts. He admits that he's far more comfortable in other areas --talking with authors like Lawrence Block, Ken Burns, Robin Cook and Neil Gaiman about their books; arguing current events and politics with such guests as Steve Forbes, Jack Welch, Dick Morris, Oliver North and Newt Gingrich; and even cracking-wise with the likes of Mark Steyn, Neal Cavuto and Michael Medved-- than he is dealing with financial matters.
"In my own finances, I'm anything but a good example -- but I'm a great bad example," he laughs.
Earl is also the author of The Infamous Chicken Little Article, which is rumored to have gotten him temporarily banned from the op-ed page of a major American newspaper --but which subsequently has become an underground classic on the Internet among journalists, and which is regularly cited in journalism-school classes when a dose of cold (but hilarious) reality is required. It's posted at: http://www.absolutewrite.com/fun/chicken_little.htm
As a ghostwriter, Earl has had books published by such major houses as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins-- without, he hopes, these houses ever knowing it.
Latest Work:
Virgins And Martyrs (As "E.L. Merkel" April 2008 release)
University Affiliation:
Surprisingly, a BA in Journalism from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), granted despite having only rarely been seen in a classroom after his sophomore year. Instead, Earl mailed tear-sheets of articles to sympathetic j-professors from such locales as Washington D.C. (covering the first Earth Day and the mammoth Moratorium Day protests-- the latter while lusting after a Klute-ish looking Jane Fonda), a day-after-the-day Kent State, Ohio dateline, and numerous other wanderings for the DAILY ILLINI. He was also granted the first (and, it is believed, the only) "student leave of absence" for a several-year hiatus spent earning money as a reporter for the Decatur, IL Herald & Review; the leave allowed him to keep an Illinois State Scholarship and subsequently return, willy-nilly, to complete his college experience (also without attending classes, as he was then working full-time for the Champaign-Urbana Courier). Based on his own academic experiences, Earl is a fervent believer that everybody should go to college for as long as humanly possible; it's a GREAT break from real life...
Agent
Kimberley Cameron, Reece Halsey North Literary Agency
Publishers
Five Star, as "E.L. Merkel"; PenguinPutnam as "Earl Merkel"; Elmtree Press/Tifda Publishing as "Earl Merkel"
