Earl Merkel is the author of Virgins And Martyrs (Five Star 2008, under the name "E L Merkel"; Final Epidemic (PenguinPutnam/NAL), a Barnes and Noble national bestseller re-released in hardcover by Elmtree Press/Tifda Publishing in January 2008; and Dirty Fire (PenguinPutnam/NAL).

Earl spent more than a decade as a journalist, columnist and commentator; today, he contributes to a variety of newspapers and magazines, usually after their editors have had time to extinguish the reader-reaction brushfires from his previous submissions.

During his career, Earl has dodged gunfire, teargas canisters, and verbal brickbats as a journalist; spent years "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable," as an investigative reporter, newspaper columnist and satirist; and has advised some of the largest corporations in the world on the merits of open and honest communications -- not always with success.

As the "more" on the nationally broadcast talk-radio program Money & More, where he served as co-host and executive producer, Earl left the money-talk to the experts. He admits that he's far more comfortable in other areas --talking with authors like Lawrence Block, Ken Burns, Robin Cook and Neil Gaiman about their books; arguing current events and politics with such guests as Steve Forbes, Jack Welch, Dick Morris, Oliver North and Newt Gingrich; and even cracking-wise with the likes of Mark Steyn, Neal Cavuto and Michael Medved-- than he is dealing with financial matters.

"In my own finances, I'm anything but a good example -- but I'm a great bad example," he laughs.

Earl is also the author of The Infamous Chicken Little Article, which is rumored to have gotten him temporarily banned from the op-ed page of a major American newspaper --but which subsequently has become an underground classic on the Internet among journalists, and which is regularly cited in journalism-school classes when a dose of cold (but hilarious) reality is required.

As a ghostwriter, Earl has had books published by such major houses as Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins-- without, he hopes, these houses ever knowing it.