Author Interviews

Dr. Mel Baker grew up in Sydney, Australia. From a young age her artistic flare came out in her writing, acting, and painting. At age nine, Mel finished her first book, Is it a Dream or Reality?, on a typewriter. At seventeen, she designed, edited, and published a newsletter to encourage and inspire youth. Mel’s writing continued throughout life in various genres.

Just a woman who turned passion into purpose and experiences into chapters. With a little romantic flare, of course. Thanks for coming along on this wild ride.

Aiyanna has just finished high school with a book under her wing, excited to write more material soon! She enjoys reading (and writing) romance as well as exploring the outdoors, cooking, baking, and spending time with her family, friends, and boyfriend.

Cynthia J. Bogard has reinvented herself as a novelist after a successful career as a Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Hofstra University in New York. Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, she’s lived in Kuwait, Greece, Mexico, New York, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

Maria A. Arana is a writer, poet, and editor from the Los Angeles area. She has published many poems and short stories in various publications. Formerly a teacher who encouraged a love of reading and writing, she now channels that passion to create magical stories for a wider audience. She lives with her family, four dogs, and one cat (who thinks she’s a queen herself).

Co-authors Pearl Wolfe and Evelyn Anderton each have over two decades of experience with issues related to violence against women. Both grew up in homes where domestic violence and child abuse were the norm, bringing an intimate perspective to their writing. In the 1990s, while working together in a Eugene shelter for those fleeing domestic violence, they witnessed daily the trauma and damage caused by violent relationships. They have co-authored a riveting new novel, Walk Out the Door, with Atmosphere Press that explores the process of leaving a relationship that confronts so many women facing such violence.

Author J.A. Adams, PhD, is currently retired in Northern Colorado after teaching English for sixteen years at Louisiana State University. She is the author of Pillars of Salt. Inspiration for her latest novel, Bomb Cyclone, came from Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and addresses the effect of the resulting unrest on a Ukrainian American émigré and the beautiful spy sent by the SVR to acquire the bomb coordinates in his possession.

Mona Semerau lives in Stoughton, Wisconsin. She has a few friends, too many books, and is insatiably curious about things she cannot claim to fully understand.

Tricia Johnson is a poet wishing to share her work with others, using the written word to embrace the essence of life. She is a retired teacher. She lives in the beautiful hills of Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons. Her published work includes the poem Living with Lupus which appeared in Still You Poems of Illness & Healing, Wolf Ridge Press, 2020, and her debut book of poems, Whirl Away Girl, published by Atmosphere Press in 2021.

A museum art school registrar, a technical writer and editor, and a professional calligrapher and lettering-arts instructor, I am now a writer and clinical psychologist in Phoenix, Arizona, my home for the past thirty-two years. I moved from New England to Arizona to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing at Arizona State University. I then went on to earn a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the Arizona School of Professional Psychology. I also have an MA from Goddard College, where I explored calligraphy and literature, culminating in a calligraphic exploration of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. Telling Stories, published in 2016, is my first novel-length book. Telling Shadows, my second novel, was published by Atmosphere Press in 2022. I am currently working on the third novel in the series, Telling Secrets, as well as a series of personal essays. When I am not writing or managing my private practice, I’m likely to be traveling to some distant land or enjoying the Phoenix Zoo and the Desert Botanical Gardens. Of course, my current BFF, Sam, a rescue cat, demands much attention.

Antoine F. Gnintedem is the assistant principal of Middle College High School and a professor of education at Christian Brothers University. As a linguistic consultant, he has worked for the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, he has served as an educational assessment expert for leading national and international testing companies, including College Board, Educational Testing Service, the International Baccalaureate, and Pearson Education.

I have always aspired to be a fiction writer, although my first career as an academic historian at the University of Maryland was a long detour. During those years, I published a number of books and articles on Twentieth Century American culture—a broad and engaging field focused on popular and elite culture, literature, films, ideas, social movements, and authors of every sort. As close as this came to fiction (a few critics have said of my work: too close), I always understood this discipline to be restricted by the limitations of documentation. Increasingly, I wanted to engage the emotional and psychological truths and the revealing potential of dialogue possible only through imaginative writing. And so for the last ten years or so, I have turned to creating novels and short stories. In this second career, I have published four novels (three in the Amanda Pennyworth Mystery Series), a book set in rural Illinois in the 1890s, and a collection of short stories. Another novel of mine about contemporary Chicago is forthcoming.

I write poetry and personal essays. I also create visual artwork—collages of paste paper with calligraphy of my poetry. I never planned on writing a novel until one day I wondered what life would be like if the world were a huge mall. I began to imagine a place somewhat similar to our reality but also radically different—a place where everyone is beautiful, and everyone is employed with enough income to consume and to experience pleasure, including drugs, gambling, theater, and holographic adventures. No poverty and little or no crime. A lot of sex. But what’s the catch…and what happens when a woman from our reality finds her way into this alien yet familiar world? Does she try to leave or does she stay? Who changes the most—the woman who befriends her or the outsider? Only by writing a novel did I discover the answers in enough detail to satisfy my curiosity. Mall is my first novel.

Ford spends most free time in the open air, usually barefooted and with readily available mango. An alumni of Taylor University and Central Florida University, Ford exists somewhere between a midwesterner and a beach bum, and currently resides alongside the mountains in Tennessee. With the steady company of a giant dog and something to write on, anywhere will do. Defined by faith, fueled by tribe, and driven by purpose, Ford writes for all—and, simultaneously, for just One. Learn more and join the tribe at authornford.com.

Different books have been written about young boys that enjoyed the company of dolphins, pelicans, and other aquatic animals that I can really relate to, as this was my childhood as well. My parents had a bar and small hotel made out of wood and corrugated iron that originally was the beach house of a successful gold miner with stables and servant quarters. Looked a bit like Winchester House in the States. People from the city used to visit on weekends and the family did quite well financially, allowing my two sisters and myself to go to privileged schools.

I am the author of two collections of poetry, What Moves the Sun and Among the Hierarchy of Angels. I worked in editing for many years, both in-office and freelance. I live in the Bronx, New York, in a house with a garden near a large park with a lake, similar to the setting of many stories in What Moves Through Time.

Quinn Jamison has lived in the same house in Pennsylvania since she was born. Her family is the most important thing in her life, and she is very close with her sisters and parents. Quinn has been dancing from the time she could walk and discovered her love for writing and books along her journey of being a dancer. She enjoys writing historical romance the most but sometimes explores other genres. She devotes her hours to the creation of her books and plans to write many of them. The Art of Time is her first novel, written in three months when she was sixteen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dre Hill is an artist, storyteller, and apple juice enthusiast from Fort Worth, TX. He graduated from Drury University in 2021 with a BA in Animation and Writing, where he reignited his childhood passion for the written word. He has many English professors to thank for that. He published his first two chapbooks, i love you means nothing through Alien Buddha Press and Melanin: Black through GutSlut Press in 2022. When not creating, Dre is often snuggling with his puppy Jet while watching Marvel movies. Find Dre at @drehillart on all platforms. His website is drehillart.com.

Eileen “Ike” West is an accomplished writer and educator with an M.A. in Communications from Michigan and a B.A. in Speech and Psychology from Minnesota. Ike’s writing career started when her first opinion page was published at age twelve. She continued writing throughout her life, with magazine and journal articles and two novels appearing across North America and Europe. Her writing is often inspired by special causes like holistic health, women’s justice, and other issues related to equality. When she’s not writing, Ike reads, lectures, and enjoys the out-of-doors and time spent with her family.

Umar Siddiqui is a voracious Disney fan and fashion aficionado. He earned his BA degree from the University of CA, Riverside, and his MA degree in Mass Communications from Cal State Northridge. He loves writing, reading, going to Disney and the beach, and dabbles in working out. He plans to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Work. His books include Weightless, Woven Words, a mental health-related poetry book, and Float Your Boat, a self-help book. His book Candid About Couture is currently in production.