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Created: November 28 2011

Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's the humidity. Then again, maybe palm trees and tropical breezes stir the creative juices.

Whatever the reason, South Florida has been home – and in many cases still is -- for a host of bestselling writers.

Among the authors with links to the area:

Brad Meltzer: The creative force behind the History Channel series Brad Meltzer's Decoded and the bestsellers The Book of Lies, The Book of Fate and The Zero Game went to North Miami Beach High School, and still calls South Florida home.

Carl Hiaasen: Bestselling author, columnist, former investigative reporter for the Miami Herald, fisherman, and lifelong Floridian. Write what you know, they always say. And Hiaasen has, painting South Florida in all its ridiculousness and intrigue for more than 25 years. He still lives close to his beloved bonefishing flats.

Tami Hoag: With more than 35 million books in print, including 13 New York Times bestsellers in a row, Hoag is a welcome writing transplant. She fled the frigid winters of Minnesota in 1998 and now divides her time between Los Angeles and Wellington, Florida.

John Grogan: Before the bestselling book and the wildly popular movie Marley & Me, Grogan first shared his stories about his mischievous and mildly neurotic golden retriever with readers of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale. Marley was a pup; Grogan was a columnist. The rest, as they say ...

Michael Connelly: Another Sun Sentinel alumnus, Connelly helped get the Fort Lauderdale newspaper a Pulitzer nomination. Then the crime reporter headed west, joined the Los Angeles Times, and started writing his steady stream of bestsellers featuring Detective Harry Bosch and, later, the Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller.