Author interviews

Leissa Shahrak experienced the Iranian Revolution firsthand when she taught English in Iran. Her writing credits include stories published in Del Sol Review, the Bellevue Literary Review, and a British anthology, The Final Chapter: Writings on the End of Life.

Lindsay Brown is the author of The Dolan Girls: As The Seasons Go By, a sweet, cozy, coming-of-age middle-grade novel. Aside from writing and storytelling, you'll find her gardening, baking bread, woodcarving, and playing games with her family. Her favorite spot is curled up in a cozy chair with a book and cup of tea, listening to the rain outside.

Gavin Thomas was born in Salisbury, MD, and raised in Ocean View, DE. Growing up, he was sometimes bullied because other students and teachers didn't understand him, due to him having autism. Despite this, he treated them with kindness and made friends with many of his classmates, mostly girls, as a result.

Dr. Zuzana Plesa is a Zurich-trained Jungian Analyst and a Marriage and Family Therapist. She provides counseling to active duty military and their families. She resides in Florida.

From living above her parents’ hardware store in Brooklyn to living down a gravel road in Central Texas, Eva Silverfine has meandered through urban to rural landscapes. A biologist by training, she works as a freelance copyeditor for academic presses. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of journals, and her novels, How to Bury Your Dog and Ephemeral Wings, were recently published by Black Rose Writing.

R.A. Howitt founded New2theScene in 2022 to help the discovery of new talent in fiction. He creates competitions, podcasts, articles, blogs, all with the aim of unearthing great people in fiction that book lovers may not have heard of.

I have always loved reading and writing was a natural extension. I remember choosing my first poem book from the library as a young child. I really enjoyed it. I wrote short stories and poems throughout my life. I wrote a great many poems when my children were small. That same Children's Literature class with Professor Brody was the catalyst for my renewed interest in poetry. Another assignment was to draft a poem. I submitted My Little Sunshine, a poem about my first son. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching a poetry unit and converting students who were extremely reluctant at first. I encouraged them to play with words and find joy in creating pictures with words.

Danielle Ariano was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs, but became a Baltimorean when she moved to the city for college. She was charmed by Baltimore’s quirky, artsy vibe. Ariano’s memoir, The Requirement of Grief, is a meditation on the complexities of the sister bond and the grief that comes when that bond is broken by a sibling’s suicide.

Native New Yorker and an Active Duty component of the United States Army stationed at Fairchild AFB, WA, the works of Ray Harryhausen, Robert Jordon, Robert Wise, Howard Hawks, and L. Sprague De Camp are just some of the influencers for J.L. Stewart.

The Days Are Long But The Years Are Shorter: It wasn't hard, or at least I don't think so. In the music business, the days are very long. You spend hours and days behind the glass cage, as I like to call the studio's control room. And before you know it, the years have passed you by. Hopefully, your spouse is supportive, but your children are grown, and you've missed a lot of quality time.