Maria Dirico is the pseudonym for Ellen Byron, author of the award winning, USA Today bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries.
She can be found online at EllenByron.com and ChicksOnTheCase.com..
A native New Yorker who attended Tulane University, Ellen lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and two rescue dogs.
She\'s a freelance journalist, with over 200 articles published in national magazines, and previously worked as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart, a credit she never tires of sharing.
Dirico has been a writer-producer for hit television series like Wings and Just Shoot Me, and her first play, Graceland, appears in the Best Short Plays collection.
She grew up visiting the Astoria Manor and Grand Bay Marina catering halls, which were run by her Italian mother\'s family in Queens and have become the inspiration for her Catering Hall Mystery Series.
Born in Queens, New York, she is first-generation Italian-American on her mother\'s side and the granddaughter of a low-level Jewish mobster on her father\'s side.
Maria Dirico is the pseudonym for Ellen Byron, author of the award winning, USA Today bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries