Carol J. Amato

Carol J. Amato knew she wanted to be a writer when I was in the 4th grade. Born in Portland, Oregon, she moved to Europe for three years after college graduation and then spent a year traveling the world on an oil tanker, where she wrote her first novel. To date, she has published twenty-eight books and around 200 articles in national publications. She was a regular contributor to high-tech magazines, such as PC Novice and Smart Computing. Ms. Amato also has been an editor for major publishers and several magazines. Her recent titles include Maximize Your Competitive Edge: 17 Secrets to Make Your Small Business Look Like a Fortune 500 Company, The 5 Biggest Writing Mistakes Small Business Owners Make and How to Avoid Them, How to Start and Run a Writers' Critique Group, and The World's Easiest Guide to Using the APA, 6th Edition. One of her previous books, The Lost Treasure of the Golden Sun, which is the first book in her middle-grade paranormal mystery series, The Phantom Hunters, won an honorable mention in the 2007 Hollywood Book Festival. Carol is currently the editor of The Datagram, the newsletter for the IEEE - Orange County Section's Cyber Security Special Interest Group. She spent several years writing user-friendly software user manuals for small and large companies and corporations. She also consulted for major aerospace companies, working on the Space Station proposal and other proposals and the Milstar program. Carol has a B.A. in Spanish and French from the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon, and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from California State University, Fullerton, California. She is a member and past board member of the Writer's Club of Whittier and past president of the Professional Writers of Orange County.