JEFF BUICK

The Team

Team biographies written by Jeff Buick

Bestselling author, Authentic, Bestselling books, Fiction, Canadian Author, author fiction, author novel series, author series, author novels, mystery, thriller, suspense, crime, Jeff Buick

Jeff Buick

Author

Micheal Hartley-Robinson

A true Renaissance Man is the only way to describe Michael. He is a graduate of the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London where he was a classmate with Albert Finney and Peter O’Toole. I’m the only one in my class who never became famous, he used to say.

Micheal wasn’t scared to try new things and excelled at everything he touched. He was a paramedic, parachutist, headmaster, actor, radio producer, writer, businessman and even the top dog at Neptune Theatre (a renowned Halifax landmark).

Michael and I spent countless (seriously, I mean countless) hours talking about my books and his insights were invaluable to helping my writing move to a new level.

Sadly, Michael passed away in 2019 from a heart attack. I miss him so much.

Laura Rushford

Laura has been a trendsetter for decades. There were few women in law school when she was a student, and even fewer accepted to the bar back in the day. She persevered, made it through the tough slog and spent a few years as a lawyer before becoming a prosecutor and eventually a judge. Laura is retired now, and in addition to spending her days being a wonderful person she has time to read and critique my books. She is one of the first to get a copy of the new manuscript, and is also the last person to comb through, looking for errors prior to publishing. They say nobody is irreplaceable. I’m not so sure about that.

Celia Buick

Celia is an architect, a fantastic story/copy/everything editor, and the love of my life.

Often, when I start down a certain path in my books I don’t capitalize on it. Celia has a talent for taking those half-baked ideas and turning them into something that’s engaging, enlightening and entertaining for the reader. She brings greater depth to the stories, which sometimes gets overlooked in the thriller/suspense genre.

Many a red pen was drained and tossed aside as she sharpened the stories and flushed out the characters.

Craig Kolkebeck voice of Bobby Greco

Craig Kolkebeck

Craig is the voice of Bobby Greco – and everyone else in the series. His voice is smooth, like well-aged bourbon, and he brings everything in the scene to life. That takes talent.

Over the past 32 years Craig has honed his voice as a professional actor, something that has given him a wide diversity in pitch, tone and cadence. He’s also been in the director’s seat for many productions, and understands the importance of every piece of a performance and how to fit them together seamlessly.

In addition to being a great narrator, Craig is an Acting Professor at Catawba College in North Carolina.

Derek Curtis Jeff Buick Team

Derek Curtis

Undercover & Surveillance

Derek is my over-coffee guy for how far I can stretch reality when I’m writing a crime thriller. He’s worked undercover (for a lot of years), then moved up through the ranks until he was a commissioned officer in a major Canadian police force. A recognized expert in undercover and surveillance techniques, Derek’s pretty much seen it all.

When I get an idea, the first thing I do is sit down with Derek and talk it out. He’s usually shaking his head so much that anyone walking by our table in Starbucks would likely think I’m trying to sell him something he doesn’t need. Fact is, I was never a cop, and if Derek didn’t keep me on track I’d end up in the (procedural) ditch more often than not.

Christina Curkovic

Christina is the glue in all this.

She sets up and monitors all the accounts and analytics, and puts the critical links in place so the books get to Amazon and onto your reading device. She works closely with Celia and I on keywords and metadata, on graphics and ads, and heavily factors into what the final book covers and descriptions look like. There is no way to adequately describe how important Christina is to me.

Before diving into this we worked together on One Child, and introduced the first interactive thriller to the market.

Christina was working in web-based applications before Mark Zuckerberg ever thought of Facebook. She’s a dynamic pubic speaker, web designer, social media guru, and teaches online business management and ecommerce.

And, most importantly, she’s an animal lover and a great mother to some great kids.

Lance Buckley

Cover Design

Since you’re here, you’ve likely seen examples of Lance’s work. He’s done a few of my covers, including the first in both the Bobby Greco and Curtis Westcott series. Lance is a talented designer who can make the book come to life through the cover and I’m indebted to him for his work early in my career as an Indie author.

Christina Curkovic has jumped in and taken over the challenging task of cover design for both the Bobby Greco and Curtis Westcott series, and my stand-alone titles as well.

First off, Christina reads the manuscript, then she and I talk at length before she digs in and brings her graphic design skills to the table. The end result is a cover that conveys not only the intensity of the book, but also gives the reader a clear idea of whether this is a story that they might enjoy. You’ve heard it a million times – never judge a book by its cover.

Well, with Christina at the drawing board, I’m okay with you doing just that.

Brian Ex Homicide

Brian Robertson

Ex-homicide

I can’t even begin to imagine what Brian has seen over the course of his 35 year career with the police.

He worked undercover, was a Major Crimes Detective for 20 years and spent 14 years in Homicide. In his time with Homicide, Brian worked over 175 investigations and was the Primary Investigator on more than 55 murders. On some of the tough ones, Brian used undercover and wiretap techniques in order to gather evidence and break open the case.

Three of my series involve homicide cops – retired or active – and Brian has taken the time to read the books and straighten me out. One time I had a retired murder cop drive the dead guy’s Ferrari to an interview. Brian’s reaction to that was actually pretty funny. I paraphrase, but it was like “No, bad dog. Very bad dog.” I changed it.

Authenticity is crucial in books that mirror real life, and Brian has brought that to my writing. I can’t thank him enough for his time and expertise.

J&J Films

J&J Films

J & J Films is Jessie and Jeremy, the uber-creative duo behind the cool shortie videos you can find on our YouTube channel. Two-time gold medal winners of a local video production competition, they are both immensely skilled behind the camera. Jeremy gravitates toward the creative side – photography, grip, lighting and post production sound. Jessie is the numbers person – budgets and schedules are her thing and she leans toward producer and assistant director roles.

Currently, they are wrapping up their second year in film school at SAIT, with six productions under their belt, including a 5 minute documentary and a 10 minute film.

They’re already in demand – making corporate advertising videos and working with artists on music videos (this is something they absolutely love doing). Wedding videography might also be on the horizon.

Check out more of their work here:
jandjfilms.ca
Instagram
Facebook

Jon Anderson

Jon Anderson

Jon started from scratch and built the framework for the website you’re on right now. He inserted the plugins, racheted up the site’s security and taught me a whole bunch about keywords and metadata. He tied in all the accounts we needed to host the site, which was no small feat.

Getting the structure ready for Christina to overlay the design was crucial, and Jon did a splendid job. That this is up and running and visible on the very-competitive Internet is Jon’s doing.