Lynn Ames

In 1982, she graduated cum laude from Middlebury College with a bachelor's degree in history and a minor in psychology. She received the Marci J. Stewart Award for “the student in history who has shown outstanding personal and academic qualities.”^[3]

Ames began her career as a broadcast journalist, news anchor, and news director for WQBK AM & FM, a radio station in Albany, New York. In 1987, she was named press secretary to New York State Senate Minority Leader Manfred Ohrenstein. In 1989, Governor Mario Cuomo tapped her to become spokesperson for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, then the third-largest prison system in the country.^[4]

In 2001, after a six-year stint as Vice President of the New York State Credit Union Association, Ames established her own public relations firm where she specialized in image, crisis communications planning, and crisis management.^[5]

In 2004, Ames published her first novel, The Price of Fame, with Intaglio Publications. Her next four novels also were published by Intaglio.^[6] In 2010, Ames took back the rights to all of her works and created Phoenix Rising Press.^[7] In addition to issuing second editions of her first five novels, Phoenix Rising Press became publisher of record for her eleven subsequent works of fiction.

Ames draws on her experience as a journalist and governmental spokesperson to create plots and characters. This is particularly notable in The Price of Fame, the first book in the Kate & Jay series. As described in The Lesbian Review, Jay “is in Albany to interview the Governor of New York when she turns on the TV in her hotel room and sees a face she’s been thinking about for five years.” Kate “is at the state capitol building, covering the wreckage after an explosion and helping as many survivors as she can.” The two women reconnect, resulting in a “page turner” that is “a lot of fun to read.”^[8]

In reviewing Chain Reactions, a Writer’s Digest honorable mention for genre fiction,^[9] Lambda Literary advised “readers who enjoy a blend of contemporary and historical fiction” to pick up the book, as it is “fascinating, compelling, and well-researched, giving a glimpse into what will be for many a little-known contribution women made to the war effort in WWII.”^[10]

Ames also has won a Goldie Award and other recognition for her humorous novel Great Bones, published in 2018, and for other comedic work.^[11]

Ames resides in Asheville, North Carolina, with her wife, Cheryl Pletcher.^[12]

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

(All works published by Phoenix Rising Press unless noted)

• Out at the Plate: The Dot Wilkinson Story (2023), Chicago Review Press, ISBN 9781641609999

• The Price of Fame (2003, 2nd edition 2010) ISBN 9780984052141
• The Cost of Commitment (2004, 2nd edition 2010) ISBN 9780984052158
• The Value of Valor (2005, 2nd edition 2010) ISBN 9780984052165
• Final Cut (2016) ISBN 9781936429127

• Beyond Instinct (2011) ISBN 9781936429028
• Above Reproach (2012) ISBN 9781936429042

• Eyes on the Stars (2010) ISBN 9781936429004
• Bright Lights of Summer (2014) ISBN 9781936429103
• Secrets Well Kept (2019) ISBN 9781936429189

• Heartsong (2007, 2nd edition 2010) ISBN 9780984052134
• One ~ Love (2010) ISBN 9780984052127
• All That Lies Within (2013) ISBN 9781936429066
• Chain Reactions (2019) ISBN 9781936429165
• 46 (2020) ISBN 9781936429202

• Great Bones (2018) ISBN 9781936429141

• “In a Flash” (included in Outsiders, a collection of five short stories, published by Brisk Press, 2009) ISBN 0-979-92545-2
• Selected love poems (included in "Roses Read", edited by Beth Mitchum, published by UltraVioletLove Publishing, 2013) ASIN: B00B2FA78W
• “It’s a Dog’s Life” (included in Lesbians on the Loose: Crime Writers on the Lam, edited by Lori L. Lake and Jessie Chandler, published by Launch Point Press, 2015) ISBN 9781633040311e

• Digging for Home (2014) ISBN 9781936429080
• A Christmas Tail (2015 – Kindle only) ASIN: B019MZNDJI