Pasadena authors launch first book

Two Pasadena authors launched their first novel with a book signing Saturday, June 9.

The title of the novel by Johnell Kelley and Robbyn Hill, writing as Joan Rylen, is "Getaway Girlz." The pair or writers, friends since kindergarten, recount their vacation escapades with artistic license and flair, according to the press release. In the first book of the series, four friends travel to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, where one of them becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation. The friends then have to work to uncover the real villain to keep their friend out of a foreign jail.

Kelley and Hill grew up in Pasadena and graduated from Sam Rayburn High School in 1992. They were in Rayburn's Mighty Texan Band and credit the band glue for helping them stick together all this time.

Kelley is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and has lived in Fort Worth for 15 years. She works at Cook Children's Medical Center. Hill graduated from the University of Houston and has lived in Fort Worth for five years.