Author Interviews

Ben Cooper is a husband, father, author, speaker, educator, and beekeeper. He grew up on a family farm in western Pennsylvania and went on to get an Agricultural Science degree from Penn State University. Ben retired after working as an Agricultural Specialist for the state of Maryland. He teaches Beekeeping courses at Allegany College of Maryland and mentors new beekeepers.

Katie Baron lives in rural New Jersey with her husband Joe and their two golden retrievers, Archer the Therapy Dog and Geordi the therapy-dog-in-training. Katie has three grown children and two grandchildren.

Brenda Spalding is a talented writer who has received several awards. Her expertise in publishing and marketing makes her a regular guest speaker at writers’ conferences and writers’ groups. Landing in Florida after her husband retired from the US Air Force, she lives with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. Her son joined the mix two years ago.

Writer/producer Laurie Kaye began her career in radio as an intern in the news department at RKO’s KFRC-AM in San Francisco, for years Billboard magazine’s number one Top 40 station, while still studying journalism in college at UC Berkeley. She eventually quit school to work at KFRC full-time as their news editor, followed by newscaster gigs at WOW-AM in Omaha and KING-AM in Seattle before eventually returning to KFRC in an on-air position.

Woodrow Wilkins is a native of Greenville, Mississippi. After serving in the U.S. Navy for nine years, he went to work as a reporter for his hometown newspaper. He spent several years as a copy editor, columnist, editorial writer, and page designer before transitioning to television. He’s been a reporter, anchor, assignment editor, producer, and, for a brief period, weather person. Woodrow enjoys writing, has one self-published novel that’s being updated, and several works in progress. He enjoys singing karaoke, dabbling in guitar (too much time writing to actually learn how to play), community theater, and making friends. Woodrow is married and has three adult children and one grandchild.

We’d like to introduce ourselves…we’re Miranda Storm. Yes, there are actually four of us. Wow! Right? Our names are Kai Knight, Evan V. Francis, Skyrah Archer, and Ira Kiourti. Some of us have chosen artist names, some are using our real names, and we all have our areas of expertise.

Daisy Loveless has been writing since she was 12. She started on an old Tandy 1000 HX system, sitting for HOURS in her room that summer, typing away at the built-in keyboard, keeping herself out of her mom’s hair.

Award-winning author Anita Dickason is a twenty-two-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department. She served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics detective, advanced accident investigator, SWAT tactical officer, and the first female sniper on the Dallas SWAT team.

Robert Burns has been writing serious short fiction since the dark days of August 2020. A writer in many genres, his stories have appeared in numerous online publications as well as several print anthologies, including a fantasy story focusing on novel characters, a piece of noir detective fiction, and the first chapter of an historic novel currently in the works.

Linda N. Masi’s debut novel, Fine Dreams, won the 2023 Juniper Prize for fiction. Some of her works have been anthologized and others have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Blackberry: A Magazine, and elsewhere. She has also authored a book of poems and a children’s book series. Originally from Nigeria, Masi holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Mississippi and is currently completing a PhD at Texas Tech University.

Emma Finlayson-Palmer is a working class, autistic writer and artist who lives in the West Midlands with her husband and a multitude of children, cats, and chickens. She is a writer of children’s fiction, represented by Veronique Baxter of the David Higham agency, and author of the Autumn Moonbeam chapter books series and various short stories and flash fiction for children. Emma runs #ukteenchat, a writing-themed chat on Twitter, and edits, mentors, and reads competition entries for #WriteMentor and flash fiction entries for Retreat West. She’s also one-half of Word Witches as a children’s fiction editor.

Author of Dark Cheshire, Lesley’s interest in folklore began during childhood in North Wales. Moving to Cheshire, her long, varied career has included being a professional photographer, makeup artist, vocational assessor, jewellery designer, and holistic therapist. Previously published in various specialist magazines, Lesley’s articles have also appeared in Evergreen and online for the Huffington Post.

Based in Rochdale in Northwest England, I have been writing for about twenty years with my main interest being poetry. In the last few years, I left my last job as a teacher in a school for young people with behavioural and social issues to concentrate on my creative work as a self-employed (and perhaps semi-retired) writer and artist. I still love working with young people and am the part-time art and writing specialist in a small charity in Rochdale supporting young people through creativity to build their resilience and skills.

Matthew is a life-long learner, has worked in construction, education, banking, hospitality, and is a yoga teacher. He is amazed at how much he can learn and fit into his brain. Matthew found yoga to be very rewarding. He attributes looking and feeling young to practicing yoga (unless it is all the food with preservatives he ate when he was younger). Teaching took Matthew on a learning journey to five different countries, and therefore he likes to write adventure novels based on his experiences. Matthew currently lives in Sài Gòn with his wife and cats. His children are in different parts of the world. Matthew likes to spend time with his wife and family, jog, ride, swim, travel, be adventurous, enter the occasional triathlon, and learn.

Kevin Kuhens is the author of the award-winning Amazon #1 Bestselling Terror’s Sword, the first of his thrillers involving elite counterterrorism operative Kyle McEwan. His book has garnered significant recognition, including the 2023 Winner of the Mystery/Thriller Gold Medal from the prestigious Military Writers Society of America, among others.

Julie Brown is an author, essayist, and playwright. A California girl from the San Fernando Valley, she’s spent most of her adult life in Palos Verdes (near the port of Los Angeles) where she and her husband raised two sons, rescued many dogs, hosted countless backyard BBQs, and chased away hundreds of wild peacocks. When not writing, she’s doing laundry, gardening, baking, caring for dogs, and giving her grown-up sons advice (some welcome, some not).

USA Today bestselling author and award-winning writer Samantha Cole is a retired policewoman and former paramedic. Using her life experiences and training, she strives to find the perfect mix of suspense and romance for her readers to enjoy.

David Ellrod is a writer of science fiction, horror, and history, previously published in Aurealis Magazine, The Alethea, and Philologia, in addition to research content released on U.S. National Park Service platforms and Listverse.com. As a lifelong aficionado of both history and fiction, he remains most interested in how the former informs the latter. He lives in Maryland with his wife, four children, and two very excitable dogs. He can be reached online at https://ourfamilycanvas.wordpress.com.

I have been a writer my whole life. Early in my life, it was academic and short story writing. These days, it varies. Sometimes my work is of the professional sort, other times political, sometimes well researched, other times opinion or experience, but always in a voice uniquely my own. My articles and letters have appeared in legal industry magazines and newspapers, publications local to St. Louis, and in blog posts going back to the beginnings of blogs. Most of it is nonfiction.

Kaitlin Harvey is an experienced writer who works with words on the clock and off. Her first finished manuscript, The HAWKE Archives, will be undergoing a professional critique in the coming months, after which she’ll dive into the querying trenches to find the right advocate for her work.