Author Interviews

Sher Davidson was born in California, where she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. She wrote her first book, Europe with Two Kids and a Van, at age 30, published in 1973 by now-defunct 101 Productions and distributed by Charles Scribner’s Sons in NY. The book follows her family’s six-month journey in nine European countries camping in a VW Van in 1972-73. This was a turning point in the family’s lives when they decided to move from urban California to a more rural environment. It was a time of national upheaval over the Vietnam War and a time when Sher wanted to share with her family what she had experienced and loved after her college graduation working in France getting to know some of the many world cultures.

Liz Leiby is an emerging romance author. She holds a bachelor’s degree in theater from Birmingham-Southern College and lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia, with her sweet cat, Opal.

Tara Marshall graduated with her B.A. from Winthrop University. She started writing community news stories over a decade ago for the greater Charlotte, North Carolina, area but she now spends as much time as she can writing creative non-fiction amidst a career in property management. When Tara isn’t writing, she’s taking care of her family and can often be seen around her town strolling with her young daughter, husband, and very peculiar pug.

Lizzie Fry is better known as Lucy V. Hay, a script editor, author, and blogger who helps writers. She’s been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for 20 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers.

Judy Bebelaar taught in San Francisco public schools for 37 years. Her poetry has been published widely in magazines; in nine anthologies, including The Widows’ Handbook, Kent State University Press, foreword by Ruth Bader Ginsburg; a chapbook, Walking Across the Pacific, and a poetry book, Sky Holding Fall. And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown, written with Ron Cabral, non-fiction, has won ten honors and awards.

Michael’s debut novel, The Price of Safety, was published in 2020. Though released during a global pandemic, The Price of Safety reached #7 in Amazon’s rankings for dystopian novels and won awards for both science fiction and thriller (by Indie Book Awards) as well as New Fiction (by National Indie Excellence Awards). The second novel in the trilogy, The Price of Rebellion, was released in May 2023. It won Best Science Fiction Novel of 2022 by Indies Today and was awarded a Bronze Medal for Science Fiction by Readers’ Favorite.

I have been writing and creating since I was a small child. Since I first discovered my passion for storytelling I have cracked out countless unpublished short stories and half-finished novels as well as many, many poems. I have previously won awards in high school for my writing and had a poem published by Eber & Wein Publishing.

The writing team of Noelle Vella is two talented authors making their mark on the literary scene. Both authors began writing at an early age, and they continue to write novels, short stories, and poetry. The authors of Noelle Vella are hard at work on their next novel. During their downtime, they enjoy spending time with their families.

I am a retired Hollywood Film Editor and winner of three Emmy Awards. I am now writing novels. This is my sixth novel.

Rasana Atreya weaves tales of resilience, self-discovery, and cultural exploration. With a passion for celebrating the diversity of Indian culture, she takes readers on transformative journeys through her upmarket women’s fiction. Her debut novel, Tell A Thousand Lies, was shortlisted for the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize (UK, 2012).

Dean Schabner grew up on the Great South Bay of Long Island. He’s dug clams, framed houses, worked in bookstores, and has been a reporter, sports writer, and editor. In addition to no better place than here, he has a chapbook of poems, surf-body, out from Ghost City Press, and has had poems and stories appear in The Pushcart Prize, The Trouvaille Review, Juniper, River Heron Review, Witness, Northwest Review, and others. He lives on the shore of Jamaica Bay in the Rockaways of New York City, and is a body surfer who doesn’t particularly mind if a wave takes him and tumbles him once in a while—and he’s glad his daughter is that way, too.

I am the author of three books, Falling in Love at the End of the World, a collection of stories, Searching for Mozart, a collection of poems, and most recently The Burden of Memory, a literary crime novel. I was a professor of English for twenty-five years in Des Moines, Iowa, and now I am retired to the South Carolina Low Country.

I grew up as child #5 of 10. I was the oldest boy. We were lower middle class, but we had a very close-knit family, maintaining about a 1/5-acre garden, raising chickens and rabbits for food. I was always an avid reader, discovering the local library and its children’s section during first grade. I went on to graduate from high school with a good grade average and was accepted by a university, but did not have the funds to enroll, so I joined the Navy during the summer of 1965. I was trained in electronics and served twenty years. I married my high school sweetheart, and we have been married almost fifty-eight years. We have four children and six grandchildren. Of my nine other siblings, I have four older sisters still living and three younger brothers. We lost our two younger sisters when they were thirty-five and sixty, respectively. My wife has always been a homemaker and I have been fortunate to be able to raise my family on my income alone.

Lucie Chou is an ecopoet and natural history aficionado. She writes poetry that endeavors to draw from the Romantic tradition to envision the voices and worldings of nonhuman living beings. She has published in the Entropy magazine, the Black Earth Institute Blog, and the Tiny Seed Journal. Her poem, Holy Green, Sweet-Smelling, is included in the Plant Your Words Anthology published by Tiny Seed Press. She also has work forthcoming in Tofu Ink Arts, both in print and online. Residing in mainland China with her beloved houseplants and wildflowers plus their insect and avian paramours, she studies Emily Dickinson, philosophies and artworks about plant-being, contemporary poetry, and Richard Powers’ eco-novels when not taking walks among feral creatures or drafting poems on foot.

James Marquart resides in Frisco, Texas, with his treasured wife, Kimberly. They enjoy traveling, spending time with their beautiful grandchildren, and relishing each other’s company, along with their sassy pup Abbey. James graduated with a BA in Law Enforcement from Western Illinois University, an MA in Sociology from Kansas State University, and Ph.D. in Sociology from Texas A&M University while working as a prison guard. He has served in such positions as Program Chair, Dean, and Provost. He was President of The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and has published many papers and authored several books, three with the University of Texas Press.

Besides launching breakfast sandwiches, Mr. Peecow writes songs, sings stories, and has a large appetite for sensory-deprived swimming lessons. It’s been two years since he succumbed to his frightening habit of climbing slippery slopes, but all in all, the wind blows where it does. Eat chips successfully!

Susan McLeod resides with her husband, John, in Alplaus, New York. She is originally from Southold, Long Island, New York. In the fall of 1975 she moved to Troy, New York, attending Hudson Valley Community College Nursing Program where she received her A.A.S. In 2007 she obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Russell Sage College in Troy, New York. Susan made a career change from nursing to work in a Nursing Home Activities/Recreation Department. Her favorite group activities were reading and writing poems with the residents. She volunteers in her community and enjoys outdoor activities, traveling, and pet-sitting for friends. She is an avid reader of historical/cowboy romance novels as well as poetry. She started writing her poems at age fifty-one and continues to write today.

Steven Barron is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but spent many formative years in Southern California. He currently resides in Leawood, Kansas, with his wife, Renee, and their two kittens, Hazel and Henry. Steven enjoys (in no particular order) books, espresso, anytime rain or snow, cycling, and staying in touch with family and friends—he also adores cats and still loves rock ’n’ roll. Madame Curie’s Piano Tuner is his first published work.

Carlota Josefina Bérard has a Ph.D. in Drama & Performance from the University of Exeter, England, a Diploma in Art Therapy from L’Atelier, Geneva, Switzerland, an MLitt in Art History from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico.

Marian Vallotton has been practicing yoga and mindfulness since 2004. She is a certified yoga teacher through the Yoga Alliance and a Y4C Yoga Certified Instructor specializing in supporting cancer patients. She has been a Corporate Coach and Leadership Speaker/Trainer/Facilitator for more than twenty years. Marian has combined her business background, yoga, and her spiritual training to de-mystify mindfulness, introducing it to the workplace and making it more accessible to employees in the corporate setting.