Author Interviews

As an eighty-year-old, first-time published author, it is difficult to know what to tell you about my life. I thought I would do something meaningful when I was eighteen, then spent thirty years thinking I would never do something meaningful, and then learned when I was forty-nine that I had ADHD. Diagnosis and treatment for my ADHD made such a huge difference, that I got back to thinking I would and have done some meaningful things.

Maria Leonard Olsen practices law as a commercial litigator in Bethesda, MD, and Washington, D.C. She is an author (50 After 50: Reframing the Next Chapter of Your Life), podcaster (“Becoming Your Best Version”), journalist, TEDx speaker (“Turning Life’s Challenges into a Force for Good”), book marketing coach for female authors, and mentor to women in recovery.

Award-winning author Beth A. Freely was born and raised in upstate New York, with a brief and very influential stint living in Great Britain that can be seen in her writing. Today she calls New Mexico home. When asked how long she has been writing, she’ll tell you, “All my life.”

Born and raised in the Adirondack Mountains in New York, Craig has lived in Idaho, Oregon, Tokyo, and today he calls Charlotte, North Carolina, his home. All of these places have greatly influenced his work. He is the author of the short story collection Brutal Beasts and the novel Fish Cough.

Ken Conklin is a member of the Author's Guild, the Virginia Writers Club, and the Poetry Society of Virginia. A native of Los Angeles, he has resided in Botetourt County for nearly twenty years. Conklin was presented a 2022 Kegley Award from the Roanoke Valley Preservation Society for his book NORVEL: An American Hero, about Botetourt County native Norvel Lee, Virginia’s first Black Olympic gold medalist. He is also the author of the poetry collection The Zen of Ken. His essays have appeared in the Roanoke Times, Victoria Advocate, Easy Reader, and Microwave Journal.

Michael Ruocco grew up in Howell, New Jersey, during the roaring 1980s. A decade with much to be influenced by, its colors and sounds were hypnotic. Moving to northeast Pennsylvania by age twelve, Michael only dove deeper into the music, art, skate, and snowboard culture that he’d grown to love. These passions inspired his career in tattooing and led to the success of his studio, Funhouse Tattooing. Along with technical art, his love for finding words to capture a moment has always fueled his desire to write—an art form he feels most alive while creating.

A.P. Thayer is a queer Mexican-American living in Los Angeles. He writes cross-genre speculative fiction and is represented by Helen Lane at the Booker Albert Literary Agency. He has words in places like Dark Matter Magazine, Uncharted, and Neon Hemlock anthologies and is currently on submission with three books. He publishes short fiction and blogs in his Substack newsletter, Strange Speculations.

Natalie Jacobsen began writing fiction in high school, and after publishing her first newspaper article at age thirteen, she was invited to hone her craft in creative writing programs locally and overseas; in college she turned her interest in storytelling into journalistic endeavors. After graduating, she wrote and photographed for magazines, television, and music studios in Japan for years, fostering her love of untold stories.

Marlis Manley Broadhead, a former college instructor of all forms of written communication except Braille, has award-winning short stories and poems in literary magazines—including Kansas Quarterly, Mikrokosmos, Crosscurrents, and Kansas Women Writers. Her debut novel, Trophy Girl, published by Black Rose Writing, was awarded the William Faulkner second prize in 2018. Her second book, Is That Your Mother Calling? Advice That Echoes Down Through the Ages, was based on research of hundreds of people sharing stories of advice they remembered and its effects on their lives.

Basically a huge nerd, Jack Shannon's love of history and the macabre have combined in Brigandine, his first full-length dark fantasy novel. When not writing, he enjoys historical reenactment, TTRPGs, wargaming, spoon carving, brewing mead, and soap making. Time permitting, he is also a husband and father to two small children. He lives in Surrey.

Kelli Kassoff is a writer of prose and poetry. Diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, her writing is based on moments in her life and firsthand experiences. She pushes the parameters of mediocrity, aiming to bend the rules of writing. She creates visceral images that readers can feel. Kelli lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband JK, three children + three bonus children, and Fred the Dachshund. When she is not writing or reading, she is spending her time outside in the sunshine (or the rain) with Fred.

A true student of the pop culture sphere, B. D. Greer has been absorbing just about every form of media from a young age. Whether it's legendary novels like Blood Meridian or Fight Club, Edgar Allen Poe’s oeuvre, movies, anime, folklore, or even video games, he’s not afraid to harvest and curate favored elements from the unlikeliest sources.