|
Rochelle Staab
Portrait photos of Rochelle by jeffreybloomphotography.com
Rochelle Staab is a Los Angeles mystery writer who can be
found most afternoons at her computer, plotting fictional
murders and breaking fictional curses.
Rochelle displayed a flair for the dramatic early in life.
As a child in Milwaukee, she performed pop music by
microphone (a hairbrush) and built a personal library filled
with a diverse selection of titles (comic books and Nancy
Drew mysteries.) She appreciated the nuance and influence of
small screen cinema (television.) She also loved school. Her
front row desk was her stage; her textbooks served as her
script. She recited each line to perfection, but repeating
the words of others was not enough. She dreamed of becoming
a novelist and informed everyone who would listen that one
day she would write books.
But, as all creative types know, Rochelle had other things
to do first.
Rochelle loves pop music.
One of Rochelle’s first jobs out of school was as
Programming Department secretary for a Top 40 radio station
in Milwaukee—her dream job and first taste of the
entertainment business. Hard work and experience led to a
promotion and a move to the station’s chain
headquarters in New York. Within four years Rochelle was
named National Music Director and then became Vice-President
of Programming for the group of Top 40 radio stations, the
first woman and youngest person to earn the title. Still in
her twenties, she moved to Los Angeles to program KIIS-FM,
eventually segueing into a marketing position at Warner
Bros. Records, the most successful music label on the West
Coast. Throughout her career at the label, she had the honor
of working with a multitude of talented WB artists and
accumulated gold and platinum album awards as part of the
marketing department. When she was named Vice-President of
Advertising at the label, the campaigns Rochelle and her
team produced for artists earned awards for both creative
excellence and innovation.
Rochelle is fascinated by the supernatural.
Rochelle’s interest in the mystical was sparked as a
child when she overheard her Mother and Aunts whisper behind
closed doors about trips to a fortuneteller—a
scandalous taboo in their devout Catholic family. As a teen,
she and her friends dabbled in the occult until a rainy
afternoon at the Ouija board scared them straight. After
Hurricane Katrina, a tour of the New Orleans French Quarter
with a voodoo priestess inspired Rochelle to weave elements
of the supernatural into her writing.
Rochelle loves mystery.
Rochelle’s dream to become a novelist came true in the
UCLA Writers’
Program—a “do it or quit talking about
it” challenge she gave herself. While in the
Writers’ Program, she started Who Do, Voodoo?, her
first mystery novel. After completion, Who Do, Voodoo? won a
Conference Choice Award at the San Diego State University
2010 Writer’s Conference, was a 2010 RWA Golden Heart
finalist in the Contemporary
Series—Mystery/Adventure/Suspense category, and sold
to Berkley Prime Crime. Who Do, Voodoo? is coming this November.
Rochelle is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters In Crime, International Thriller Writers,
NARAS, and Mensa.
(Note: The juicy, sexy parts were omitted to protect the
guilty and the innocent. Rochelle writes mystery, not
romance. Seriously.)
Books:
 Hex on the Ex, May 2013
Bruja Brouhaha, August 2012
Who Do, Voodoo?, November 2011
|
