Robert Masello

Robert Masello is an award-winning journalist, television writer, and the bestselling author of many books, most recently the historical thriller entitled The Romanov Cross, published by Bantam/Random House (2013). The book has received starred reviews in both Kirkus, which praised its “delicious sense of creeping dread,” and in Publishers Weekly, which said: “Masello skillfully weaves together the story of the deaths of the Romanov family and the possibility of a new worldwide influenza pandemic . . . Toss in a pack of slavering wolves, the undead, and a chilling ending, and the result is a terrific, can’t-put-it-down read.” To date, foreign language rights have been sold in Germany, Italy and Poland. Previous novels include Vigil (a USA Today bestseller) and its sequel Bestiary, both of which revolve around paleontologist Carter Cox and his art historian wife, Beth. Using their unique blend of skills and expertise, the couple unravel ancient mysteries involving everything from illuminated manuscripts to fossils that inexplicably predate the earth itself. The Medusa Amulet, published in 2011, was based on the life of the Renaissance sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini. It has been described by the Associated Press as “an unpredictable and exhilarating journey that expertly blends contemporary thrills with a historical spin.” Library Journal called the book “engrossing and fun,” and the Chicago Tribune proclaimed, “It’s a wonderful treat, and you’ll only be embarrassed about enjoying it so much when you’re trying to explain the plot to an incredulous friend.” Blood and Ice, published in nine languages and in an audio version, has been declared by The Guardian (U.K.) to be “gripping . . . a big meaty supernatural thriller that spans centuries from Victorian England and the Crimean War to modern America and Antarctica.” Echoing that sentiment, The Times of London said, “Masello has written a winner, made for Hollywood.” As a journalist, Robert Masello has contributed countless articles, essays and profiles to such publications as New York Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, New York Newsday, The Washington Post, Town and Country, Travel & Leisure, TV Guide, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Elle, People, Parade, and The Wilson Quarterly. For six years, he wrote the immensely popular “His” column in Mademoiselle Magazine, and occasionally moonlighted as “Jake” in Glamour. As a putative authority on love and romance, he often appeared on TV and radio, including the “Today Show” on NBC, “Good Morning, America” on ABC, and many other nationally-syndicated programs. He often joked that the pieces were written “on Saturday nights, at the kitchen table in my railroad flat, with a carton of Chinese food at my elbow, while I was supposedly out having this wild time.” Nonetheless, the popularity of the columns led to the publication, by Ballantine Books, of a well-received collection of humorous essays called “What Do Men Want from Women?” He is also the author of two popular studies of black magic and the occult, Fallen Angels and Spirits of the Dark and its companion volume, Raising Hell: A Concise History of the Black Arts and Those Who Dared to Practice Them. “In the space of a few years, I went from being Dr. Love to Dr. Doom,” he says, “and I’m still not sure how that happened.” Both books were originally published by Penguin Putnam, and have now been reissued in e-book format by Premier Digital Publishing. In addition, PDP has reissued three of his earlier novels — The Spirit Wood (first published by Simon and Schuster), Private Demons and Black Horizon (both first published by Berkley/Jove.) His nonfiction book, Robert’s Rules of Writing: 101 Unconventional Lessons Every Writer Needs to Know, was selected as a Back-to-School Essential by Barnes and Noble, and it has since been adopted in many high school and college classrooms. Among his other nonfiction titles on the craft of writing are Writer Tells All: Insider Secrets to Getting Your Book Published (a Los Angeles Times bestseller, published by Holt), and A Friend in the Business: Honest Advice for Anyone Trying to Break into Television Writing (Penguin Putnam). His produced television credits have aired on networks ranging from CBS to Showtime, Fox to Syfy, and include such popular shows as “Charmed,” “Sliders,” “Poltergeist: the Legacy,” and “Early Edition.” A native of Evanston, Illinois, Masello studied writing at Princeton University under the noted authors Geoffrey Wolff and Robert Stone, and from 2002-2008 served as Visiting Lecturer in Literature at Claremont McKenna College. He has also lectured at Princeton, the University of California at Irvine, UCLA Extension, Pace University, Chapman University, Whittier College, the New York University Publishing Program and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. A longstanding member of the Authors Guild and the Writers Guild of America (west), Masello lives and works in Santa Monica, CA. When he isn’t reading, he says, he’s writing, and when he’s not doing either of those things, “I’m taking a long, sunset walk on the beach with my black lab Becky. Once a romantic, I guess, always a romantic.”