"It's especially important since September 11 for people to be trained for the unexpected. We want to try to make sure people are safe." -- Michael Malone
Michael Malone is an Emmy Award-winning American author and television writer, born in Durham, North Carolina. He is best known for his work on the ABC Daytime drama One Life to Live, his best-selling works of fiction Handling Sin (1983) and Foolscap (1991), as well as the murder mystery First Lady (2001).
Malone is well-known for his successful stint writing the soap opera One Life to Live. He was the serial's head writer from 1991 to 1996 and garnered critical acclaim for his storylines, which included a tale involving the tight bond between an ostracized homosexual teenager and a preacher, the creation of villain/rapist Todd Manning and the character's gang rape of Marty Saybrooke, as well as the subsequent rape trial. One Life to Live was averaging 5 million viewers when Malone left in 1996. His next soap opera writing job was with Another World in 1997. He returned to write One Life to Live from 2003 to 2004.
While writing One Life to Live, Malone wrote a novel called The Killing Club, which was tied into the show. For months, viewers watched character Marcie Walsh (Kathy Brier) write the book. The book was published in February 2005 with the authors listed as Marcie Walsh and Michael Malone. To explain this, Marcie said she took the book to "Professor Malone" at Llanview University, who helped her re-write it. After Malone's departure from the show, Dena Higley continued this storyline, as a copycat killer murdered characters on the show exactly as had occurred in the book. In its first week of publication The Killing Club went to #16 on the New York Times bestseller list for Hardback Fiction. It later rose to #11.
Malone currently lives in Hillsborough, N.C. with his wife, Maureen Quilligan, a professor of English at Duke University. He is a former board member and a supporter of the Burwell School Historic Site. Malone sets many of his stories in Piedmont, including First Lady and the other Justin & Cuddy novels, in his region of North Carolina.
(1976) The Delectable Mountains: Or, Entertaining Strangers. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-4022-0006-4.
(1980) Dingley Falls. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-4022-0007-2.
(1983) Handling Sin. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-57071-756-7.
(1983) Uncivil Seasons. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-57071-755-9.
(1989) Time's Witness. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-57071-754-0.
(1991) Foolscap: Or, the Stages of Love. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-57071-757-5.
(2001) First Lady. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-57071-971-3.
(2002) Red Clay, Blue Cadillac: Stories of Twelve Southern Women. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-57071-824-5.
(2003) The Last Noel. Sourcebooks Landmark, ISBN 1-4022-0147-8.
(2005) The Killing Club. Hyperion, ISBN 1-4013-0156-8. (co-credited with Marcie Walsh, based on a story by Josh Griffith)
(2009) "The Four Corners Of The Sky" Sourcebooks Landmark
Short stories
"Red Clay" (can be found in Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, published by Houghton Mifflin) (Recipient of the 1997 Edgar Award for Best Short Story)