Carmelinda Blagg was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas. She earned her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Texas at Dallas, and fondly recalls those years as a time when she fell in love with literature and writing. After graduating, she spent several years traveling throughout Europe, living and studying in Florence and Perugia, Italy, and later in Paris, France, where she earned a certificate in paralegal studies from the American University in Paris, focusing on International Trade Law and European Union Law. After returning home, she resettled in the Washington, D.C., area where she went to work for the World Bank for fifteen years. In her free time, she began writing short stories and pursued her M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University.
Alan Cohen had his first poem published in the PTA Newsletter at the age of ten. He graduated from Farmingdale High School (where he was Poetry Editor of The Bard), Vassar College (with a BA in English), and UC at Davis Medical School. He was then a Primary Care physician, teacher, and Chief of Primary Care at the VA. He has over the years had letters to the editor in Poetry and The New Yorker and articles in the American and New England Journals of Medicine, and has had 178 poems published in ninety venues over the past three years. He’s been married to his wife, Anita, for forty-two years, and they’ve been living in Eugene, OR, these past twelve.
Mark Pickvet was born in Pinconning, Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He went on to obtain a PhD in History and has written many books, especially on the history of glassware and the State of Michigan, and several works of fiction.
What makes a person believe they understand a non-fiction problem to such a degree they decide to spend four years writing a book about it? First, there has to be a need for the story—to make people want to read it. I believe the first complete story of red tape: a condition that has existed in the administration of government at all levels and in all democracies for literally centuries, a very real problem that threatens democracy as a form of governance and a problem that impacts all people meets the need of a story to be told.
Albert Jaskula is the author of the novel The Fall. He never imagined he could write a book after living in London for nearly a decade. Working as an assistant manager and then as a driver gave him plenty of time to contemplate and write down ideas for something unique. The plot evolved over time until it came together as a cohesive whole. His writing career began in a very unusual way. When he became a co-author of a children's book (which has yet to be published), he realised what a joy it was to write.
Sally Stevens has worked in film, television, sound recordings and commercials music in Hollywood for many decades, as a singer/choral director/lyricist. She has written lyrics for Burt Bacharach, Dave Grusin, Dominic Frontiere, Don Ellis and others, and her short fiction, poems, and personal essays have appeared in Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journay, Mockingheart Review, RAven's Perch, Funny in Five Hundred, The Missouri Review, Los Angeles Press, The Voices Project, The OffBeat, and Between the Lines Anthology: Fairy Tales & Folklore Re-imagined. Her memoir, I SANG THAT – A Memoir from Hollywood was published in October of 2022.
Milda has produced, written, and directed short films, documentaries, as well as commercials for both television and radio, winning many awards for her achievements. Having the passion to write, Milda retired early, trading the whirlwind world of the Big Apple for a quiet, relaxed lifestyle in the resort city of Ostuni (also known as the White City).
Sarah Lutterodt was born and educated in England, gaining a BA degree in physics from the University of Oxford, an M.Phil. in nuclear physics from the University of London, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Birmingham. She has spent most of her adult life outside England, working for two years at the University of Lovanium in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and subsequently for ten years at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. Since 1980, she has lived in the United States, where she worked as a technical training consultant for General Physics Corporation before starting her own business, Quality Training Systems, in 1997.
I was born in Brooklyn, NYC. I received a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University and a master’s degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University. I had a forty-two-year career in healthcare at Kaiser Permanente and in the Sutter Health Care system. My positions included Director of Business Relation, writer/editor, director of marketing & community relations, and a lobbyist for Kaiser in Sacramento.
Rebecca Himmel Glassman is new to the publishing world even though she has been writing since childhood. After honing her legal writing skills while working as a paralegal for well over twenty years, she decided it was time to tap into her creative side.
