September 7 2015. Do you know, I was once handcuffed by a most attractive female FBI agent. It was at Quantico, Virginia. We authors get around.

I HAVE MIXED FEELING FEELINGS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA IN GENERAL

THOUGH ABSOLUTELY LOVE  BLOGGING—AND LINKED IN.  I’m not so keen on being handcuffed..

I seem to encounter some exceptional people on LinkedIn—and some carry guns.

Let me introduce you to DIANE RIDENOUR—FBI AGENT & AUTHOR

http://www.danaridenour.net/

No, she wasn’t the agent who handcuffed me—though is at least as attractive (not that I’m influenced by such things). But, she is a fellow author and I think will go places.

I don’t write enough about writers and resolve to remedy that. Only fellow writers really understand our strange existence—and how much work it takes to write a book (let alone a good book). Accordingly, I am strongly of the view that we should help each other as much as possible.

Go buy Diane’s books. This is a lady who seems to know what it is like at the pointy end of the spear.

Well, if you are going to be stabbed by somebody—it might as well be by a beautiful woman.

DIANE RIDENOUR—FBI AGENT & AUTHOR

Summary

Dana Ridenour is in her twentieth and final year as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. She recently finished her debut novel about an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates a radical underground movement of the Animal Liberation Front. Dana signed on with Wise Ink Creative Publishing on November 21, 2014, and if all goes well, Behind the Mask will launch September 2015. Dana has started the second in a series of FBI undercover novels and plans to write full time once she retires in April 2016.

Experience

Author of Behind the Mask

Undercover Author Inc.

Special Agent

FBI

Biography

Dana Ridenour is in her twentieth and last year as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  She recently finished her debut novel,Behind the Mask.  Ridenour's Behind the Mask follows Alexis Montgomery, an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates a radical underground movement of the Animal Liberation Front. 

Ridenour and her sister, Darla Ridenour-Hill were born in Louisville, Kentucky.  She is the daughter of David Ridenour and Joyce Faye Ridenour.  After graduating from Meade County High School in 1984, she attended the University of Kentucky.  After two years at the University of Kentucky, she changed her major to Police Administration and transferred to Eastern Kentucky University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1989.  After college, Ridenour attended Chase College of Law where she earned her Juris Doctor in 1992. 

Over the years, Ridenour has been employed in a wide variety of jobs including first mate on a tour boat (her favorite job), lawyer, and Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Ridenour entered on duty with the FBI in November of 1995 and will retire in April of 2016 with a little over 20 years on the job.  Ridenour was assigned to four different FBI Field Divisions and had the opportunity to work a wide variety of cases to include multi faceted narcotics investigations, domestic sex trafficking of minors, and violent crime.  Over the years, Ridenour was a proud member of the FBI's Evidence Response Team where she and her team traveled to New York City in response to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. 

The highlight of Ridenour's career came in 2003 when she attended and passed the FBI's prestigious undercover school, thus allowing her to work as an undercover FBI agent.  This undercover certification opened the door for Ridenour to work a series of long term, deep cover cases focusing on domestic terrorism. 

Ridenour had the rare experience of working a long term undercover investigation with her husband who is also an FBI agent. 
Ridenour attributes her law enforcement career to her father and her love of books to her mother. Her mother instilled a love of reading from a young age.  It was her mother who also encouraged her to keep a journal while working as a Special Agent with the thought that one day a novel would materialize from the experiences. 

Ridenour's writing is a reflection of her career and life experiences. 

Ridenour signed on with Wise Ink Creative Publishing in November 2014 and Behind the Mask is scheduled to launch in the spring of 2016.  Although she enjoys a wide variety of genres, her literary influences are her favorite southern writers such as Pat Conroy, Dorothea Benton Frank, and Anne Rivers Siddons.  Ridenour's favorite novel is Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides which she has read many times. 

Ridenour has lived in Kentucky, South Carolina, Alabama, California, and Florida.  A southern girl through and through, she anxiously awaits retirement, so she can move back to South Carolina and dedicate herself to writing on a full time basis.  In addition to writing, Ridenour is an avid photographer.  She loves taking photographs of nature (especially in her favorite state of South Carolina).

Ridenour currently lives in Orlando, Florida.  In April 2016, following her retirement from the FBI, she will join her amazing husband at their home in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.

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