Deannie Mills 158

Deanie Francis Mills is the author of 10 suspense thrillers, including ORDEAL and TIGHTROPE and one true-crime, FACES OF EVIL, (which she co-authored witrh Houston PD forensic sketch artist Lois Gibson.) Her work has appeared in numerous national magazines, and she is an experienced public speaker.

In 2004, when her son, Dustin, deployed to Iraq with the United States Marine Corps, Mills found she could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch a war she opposed, not when three close family members deployed, between them, six times to Iraq with the Marine Corps and army.

In 2006, when her son deployed to Iraq a second time, Deanie started a political blog, "Deanie's Blue Inkblots," (formerly "Blue Inkblots.")

She misses the "great wiseass broads like Ann Richards and Molly Ivins," and hopes that her blog, which she now does full-time, will serve their memories well.

Her daughter, Jessica, marched against the war in New York City during the Republican convention in 2004, wearing her brother's picture pinned to her shirt.

Mills lives in rural west Texas, "the buckle of the Bush Bible belt." She jokes that she's used to being 'a voice, crying out in the wilderness, like a lost coyote."