Author Interviews

I have been creating little stories in my head for about as long as I can remember! When I was about twelve, I remember having this vivid dream of this unique medieval story happening and I woke up the next morning and wrote it all down. That night, I wrote the first three chapters, totaling around thirty pages. I remember my dad came into my room to say good night and I said to him, "Dad! I'm writing a book!" His response was, of course, "Sure you are, sweetie." Little did he know that four and a half years later, I would go to self-publish that book.

Karol Ruth Silverstein (she/her/disabled) is an award-winning children’s book author, public speaker, and disability advocate.

William Grant holds a BA in Fiction Writing and Photography from Columbia College Chicago. He’s had work published in Hypertext Magazine and The Lab Review. He currently lives in the Chicagoland area with his partner and their cat. With Your Friends is his first novel.

Bruce Robert Coffin is an internationally bestselling novelist and short story writer. A retired detective sergeant, Bruce is the author of the Detective Byron Mysteries, co-author of the Turner and Mosley Files (with LynDee Walker), and author of the forthcoming Detective Justice Mysteries.

Jane Foster (aka GiJane) is a professional speaker, trainer and writer, specializing in communication, presentation skills, living life to its fullest, and motivating her audience to take action. Jane draws from real-life experiences in the U.S. Navy as a Morse Code intercept operator of Russian ships and planes during the Vietnam War, and on the battlefields of corporate America.

Jamie Clarke grew up in a rural town in south wales and fell in love with books and reading in her teenage years, she would even write her own fan fiction and post them to various fanfic websites. This year she and her friends started a book club that reignited that spark of reading! She even found some of her old work, which inspired her to start writing her debut novel. She is aiming for her debut novel to be released in early 2025!

Carrie Lehtonen is an entrepreneur, passionate animal advocate, and storyteller. Her work has been featured in Elephant Journal, YOGA+ Life, and Well magazine. She earned a Master's degree in Organizational Leadership and spent over eighteen years working in Human Resources. After surviving a heart attack at thirty-one years old, Carrie chose to pursue an education in health and wellness. Carrie attended the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to become a Holistic Health Practitioner. She also trained to become a Registered Yoga Teacher and Educator. Carrie eventually left her career in Human Resources to start her own business, Firefly Community LLC. Pawsitive Perspectives is Carrie's first book.

My journey into writing goes way back—back before I graduated high school in a small town in northwestern Oregon in 2004. I don't remember exactly when my passion for creating began, but as it blossomed somewhere around middle school, it started in the form of writing. Words were something I had a way with, and so they became my tool for creating the worlds I dreamt of in my mind.

Zachariah was raised on horror. From Friday Fright Night movies, his love of the scary and macabre was born. Today, he lives in the Kansas City area, a twelve-year veteran of firefighting and EMS. He has seen the best and some of the worst human beings are capable of. Zachariah uses his own personal trauma experiences and recovery to enrich his characters and scenes.

Thomas A. Thomas was born in Illinois to a medical-doctor mother and a ballet-dancer father, and spent a lot of time off by himself in the woods, prairies, and fields, day and night, in all seasons. Thomas found his way to the University of Michigan (U.M.), where he studied with Donald Hall and Gregory Orr, and workshopped some poems with Robert Bly. He won Minor and Major Hopwood Awards in Poetry, and his poem “Approaching Here” was choreographed and performed at U.M.