Author Interviews

Melody is a free spirit born and raised in Vancouver, BC. She is a recognized painter and a poet. Her art has been showcased in local galleries and she published a book of poetry, Life Lyrics, in 2011. She now lives outside Vancouver with her husband Arric, where their backyard, affectionately known as the “Fowler Vineyard,” continues to produce amazing wines and jellies.

Laurie Alberswerth is a writer, photographer, senior community edu-tainer, and mechanical engineer who enjoys confusing both her left- and right-brain hemispheres. A native of St. Louis and an in-law to farm life, she brings Missouri settings to her readers through the Jude and Audie West Mystery series. Where the Wests tackle clients’ genealogy roadblocks (and avoid digging their own graves), Laurie has camped with her hubby in their little blue tent. Her own family tree proves that life is lived in the dash between dates on the tombstone.

Coming from a working-class background, writing is definitely not something that runs in the blood. I didn’t know any published authors growing up, it didn’t even seem like an option for me. However, I English was always my best subject at school, and I was a prolific reader, with strange taste (I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was nine). I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I realized this, but at a certain point it dawned on me that fiction allows truth to be expressed in ways that are not possible in the ordinary world. I was learning much more from the stories I was reading than the teachers at my school.

Kyo Lee is a queer, Korean-Canadian high-school student, writer, and dreamer. Her literature has been recognized or published by the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, CBC Literary Prizes, PRISM International, Nimrod International, University of Toronto, Ringling College, New York Times, and more. She loves peaches, sunsets, and the idea of summer but not summer itself. She is trying to love more.

L. E. Brooks is an indie author, RN, musician, bad feminist, worse LGTBQ+ fringe member, and reader of all genres. She has been writing songs, poetry, short stories, and fan fiction for more than two decades, and recently finished her first full-length original novel, Avelina, due to be released May 4th, 2024. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, two kids, and a ferocious pack of hell hounds.

Kay Smith-Blum, named Western WA Woman Business Owner of 2013 and a former Seattle School Board President, is an avid gardener and lover of nature. Smith-Blum founded Environmental Endeavors, the first greenhouse program in Seattle Public Schools. Intrigued by the tropes of mid-20th-century history, Smith-Blum has penned two novel-length tales set in Texas, but the recent upheaval over leaking waste tanks at the Hanford site drew her in. A meticulous researcher, Smith-Blum felt compelled to write the Hanford story in a way that would entertain as well as educate readers about this important story.

One of my poems was published by International Poetry Press Books in From the Heart: the most heartfelt and meaningful poems of the year in 2018 in the UK. I also was awarded Elite Writers Status in 2018 for the best original poetry of the year.

Regina is a non-fiction writer currently based in South Wales. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she lived in the Midwest for 30 years including 8 years eating and drinking her way through the food mecca that is Chicago.

Ex-CIA intelligence officer Carmen Amato writes award-winning crime fiction loaded with danger and deception. Beginning with Cliff Diver, her Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series pits the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico’s cartels, corruption, and social inequality. Optioned for television, it’s a two-time winner of the Outstanding Series award from CrimeMasters of America. First in her new Prohibition-era thriller series, Murder at the Galliano Club won the 2023 Silver Falchion award for Best Historical. Carmen is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal. After globe-trotting careers, she and her husband reside in Tennessee. Find out more at carmenamato.net.

My first short story was published in 1994 when I was 40, and it took 20 years before my first short fiction collection, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories, was published in 2014, followed six years later by my second short story collection, Peripheral Visions and Other Stories. And it wasn’t until 2023 that I released my first novel: Reinventing Rita, along with my third collection, Mistletoe Magic and Other Holiday Tales.

Bekah Fly is a poet, artist and musician originally from NYC. She has performed at Nuyorican poet’s cafe, the Brooklyn Museum, Museo Del Barrio and has been published in Spoon River as well as Saul Williams’ “A Mixtape.” Fly has been battling auto immune illness (chronic Lyme disease and environmental sensitivity) for the past decade, resulting in her living outside for long stretches of time. Her work is informed by the surrealist graffiti of her childhood as well as the wilderness songs of the Mohave desert where she lived outside and the Texas forest.

Michaela’s writing hones in on anxiety, loss and distress, and plays with nonlinear timelines. Originally from NYC, she currently works as a civil servant in the UK, and is an active member of the Oxford Writing Circle. Her writing has recently been featured in The Oxford Review of Books, Pink Disco Magazine (forthcoming), The Talon Review (forthcoming) and Cassandra Voices—to which she is a regular contributor. Following this novel, she has begun posting chapters of a speculative fiction project on her Substack, 11 Billion Words.

Jeanette Andersen lives in Idaho where she loves to hike, sew, crafts, photography, and of course writing.

PENNY ON THE TRACKS was selected for the 2023 WFWA Mentorship Program and is a 2023 First Pages Prize finalist. A prior unpublished novel won Top 100 in the 2023 Launch Pad Prose Competition. Nola holds a BA in French & English Literature and Creative Writing from Vassar College and an MSc in Psychoanalytic Psychology from University College London. She began her career in subsidiary rights at Simon & Schuster and as an editorial assistant at The Stonesong Press literary agency before pivoting to her current career in advertising. She’s a member of WFWA, Paragraph NY, and a mentor at Girls Write Now.

I don’t know where to begin. I’ve written all of my life. Stories, poems, essays, outfit descriptions, eulogies, biographies, but the only thing that’s ever been published (or officially released) are my songs. The author journey is very new to me. Currently I have written over fifteen short stories that I have made into my three-part book: As Told By Us. I have big dreams for these books, and I was full steam ahead when I became a mom and my parents migrated to the United States, and I lost my brother who was also my editor and critique, and so life had a huge shift for me, thus delaying my published writer’s journey. I guess all I can say is that words have always been my key to all the things that I’ve enjoyed in life.

Cassandra Kass is a writer of many things, but mostly YA Fantasy. When not writing or reading, she likes to get dirty while gardening, make a mess in the kitchen while baking, and always lets her tea get cold before drinking.

I am currently professor emeritus at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where I spent twenty years teaching African American literature. Since my retirement in 2009, I’ve transitioned to full-time writer working on projects that interest me. As such, I’ve completed a novel, INTO AFRICA, a nonfiction study, BLACK WRITERS ABROAD, a screenplay, ODE TO FREEDOM, a full-length play, PAUL ROBESON IN BERLIN, and dozens of poems published in various periodicals and journals. Some of these projects were written in collaboration with other writers.

Markus McDowell is a multigenre author, editor, and ghostwriter of both fiction and nonfiction. He enjoys exploring the chaos that life often throws at us, and all the ways humans respond. Markus holds a PhD and a law degree, in addition to three master’s degrees, and has lectured and taught courses at universities in the US and Europe. He lives on a boat and travels extensively, having a serious case of wanderlust.

Self-honesty is paramount. When you begin to be honest with yourself about your participation in your own conflicts, everything around you gets a lot easier. I want my story to inspire you to begin your own journey into self-honesty and becoming your own best friend. I want this book to motivate you to choose to change your life. I want you to be inspired to save your own life and align your thoughts, words, and actions to cultivate peace.

Rebecca is a Canadian author who currently lives in Prague, Czech Republic. She works in not-for-profit and writes in her spare time. She began writing at the tender age of 7, when she wrote and “published” her first short story.