Author, teacher and public speaker Bonnie Hearn Hill has always been courageous about allowing her personal experiences to influence her work. Her 2003 novel, Intern, sprang from her interest in the older-man/younger woman attraction and was called, "a page-turner" by Publishers Weekly. KILLER BODY, published February 2004, is about our weight-obsessed culture and about how far some will go to attain a killer body. And, like Intern, it's a thriller.

Born in Yuba City, California, Hearn Hill worked as a newspaper editor for 22 years, and wrote a nonfiction book on legendary Muscle Beach, Santa Monica with Harold Zinkin, the first Mr. California and inventor of the Universal Gym Machine. She has long been interested in the fitness/weight-loss industry and the American myth that no one can ever be too rich or too thin. The characters in KILLER BODY find out otherwise - and some are willing to die for just that - a killer body.

In researching her book, she talked to personal trainers, doctors specializing in weight loss, prize-winning bodybuilders and members of her own Weight Watchers group, where she became a life member in 1999. "Weight Watchers isn't magic. That's why it works," she said. "The weight loss is slow but steady. It's a program you can live with forever. One of my characters is ultimately helped by the program, but most of them resort to more drastic measures."

A national writers' conference speaker, Hearn Hill teaches fiction writing for Writer's Digest Online Workshops and is a mentor to many writers. She leads a private writers' workshop in Fresno, California. In her workshops, as well as her novels, the theme is empowerment.