Author Interviews

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.

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.