Author Interviews

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Novel Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone (Writer’s Digest “101 Best Websites for Writers”) and Writers Helping Writers. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-4), the Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series books 5-8 and continuing. Sue’s appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery.

Leslie Cieplechowicz is a photographer who developed her craft by working the streets of Detroit as a paramedic and shooting old, historical buildings she found on her runs. Her love of creating unique imagery lead her across the state, then the United States, then globally, where she currently finished shooting in the country of Cuba, documenting its lively culture, friendly people, and classic automobiles. She currently works as an instructor after leaving the road and spreads her love of photography to her students.

Karen Hill Anton wrote the popular column “Crossing Cultures” for the Japan Times, Japan’s oldest and largest English-language newspaper, for fifteen years. Also during that time her column “Another Look” appeared in the Japanese daily Chunichi Shimbun.

John M. McIlveen is the bestselling author of the paranormal suspense novel HANNAHWHERE, winner of the Drunken Druid Award, and nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, and GIRL GONE NORTH, which was shortlisted for the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation Award. He also authored three collections, A VARIABLE DARKNESS, INFLICTIONS, and JERKS and Other Tales from A Perfect Man.

Sherry Leclerc is an award-winning independent fiction author, a certified developmental editor, copyeditor, educator, and content creator. She likes to spend her free time getting lost in fantasy worlds, sometimes alone, and sometimes with her two sons.

David Doersch has worked for nearly 40 years in the performing arts as an Actor, Director, Fight Director, Stunt Coordinator, Theatre Educator, Audiobook Narrator, and Touring Musician. As a Fight Director and Sword Master, he has worked at regional theatres and Shakespeare festivals from coast to coast, including the Guthrie Theatre, the Dallas Repertory Theatre, American Players’ Theatre, the American Shakespeare Center, the Virginia Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Shakespearean Festival, the Crossroads Theatre, the Virginia Repertory Theatre, and many others.

Lauryne Wright lives in the Las Vegas area with her critter sidekicks hoping that one day soon, she’ll hit the jackpot and her novels will come true…or the truth will come to light.

I’m a British author addicted to writing contemporary and historical fiction. Love and heartbreak are constant themes throughout my novels (excluding my horror) but I believe in a HEA, even if it takes some of my gritty heroines a little longer to achieve.

How Long the Way is not quite “modern poetry,” in the sense of, “a faster way than short stories or journalism to dive into the narratives of others.” Though I have nothing against the narrative bent, poetry, for me, has been more of a mystical quest, as with Mary Oliver, William Stafford, Vachel Lindsay, e e cummings, Dylan Thomas, Yeats, Hopkins, Hesse, Rilke, Whitman, Dickinson, Shelley, Blake, Goethe, and many more; more about love and freedom and how they can work together.

Thomas D. Kersting travels often with his wife to her native Ireland, where he has published articles on local history and culture over the years. These include several pieces in the Leitrim Guardian annual and a feature in CARA, the former in-flight magazine of Aer Lingus, on the history of his wife’s village. This article was the inspiration for the setting in TOBAR IN THE GLOAMING, his historical novel of the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. Tom has also written some human interest pieces for local publications in NY. He is working on a memoir about growing up in The Bronx in the 1950s and ’60s, as well as some short fiction. A complete list of publications is on his blog, thomasdkersting.com, along with some blog posts he recorded as a commentator on Pawling Public Radio, formerly WPWLFM, in Pawling, NY.

I grew up in Pakistan. My time at Mount Holyoke College, USA, sparked a passion for development and I chose to return to Pakistan to work. I quickly learnt that girls and women in villages needed access to economic resources before they could voice their demands for social justice. I founded the Kaarvan Foundation (www.kaarvan.com), a pioneering economic development not-for-profit organization. During the time I spent in rural villages, my life interfaced closely with girls and women and my admiration and respect for their determination, strength, and humor in times of despair grew immensely—with so little they managed to achieve so much.

Kit Falbo is obsessed with storytelling. It’s one of their neurodiverse special interests. Folding in their non-binary, nerdy, life experiences with their degree in psychology to create compelling quirky stories. Best known for their book The Crafting of Chess, they continue to explore technology, pop-culture, magic systems, and family in their writing. Books on Amazon, on Facebook, Tiktok, and Twitter(not calling it x).

David E. Frost is an NFPT-certified Master Fitness Trainer, a rowing coach, a champion competitor, and an award-winning adjunct professor. After decorated careers in the US Navy and business world, he founded Well Past Forty LLC to promote wellness and longevity for folks in their “middle ages.”

Jet graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree. She started her first company as a very young entrepreneur in 1986. Each venture became more successful and demanding. Jet celebrated some exciting achievements throughout her corporate career: she edited and published the first full-color (print) newspaper for CEOs written by CEOs, became a national speaker, published her first book, ABCs for CEOs and closed her first multi-million-dollar deal. She currently operates two small companies while completing her first three novels.

I knew I wanted to write historical fiction and I knew it would follow a heroine in indentured servitude 17th or 18th century rural colony in Maryland. I began reading, researching, and speaking with local historians, one of whom told me a story about women in England’s overcrowded debtors’ prisons . As the story goes, These ladies were shipped across the Atlantic to become indentured servants in the New World. Once I heard that story, combining it with my original notion became much easier.

Former film studio copywriter Nancy Van Iderstine wrote Twentieth Century Fox: The First 75 Years as part of a film anthology. She’s a contributor to No Kidding: Women Writers On Bypassing Parenthood (Seal Press) and The Total Cat Manual: Meet, Love & Care For Your New Best Friend (Weldon-Owen). She self-published the cookbook Vegan and Gluten-free Recipes to Live For. (A second edition has just been completed.) Nancy has also penned a number of short stage plays that have been produced in Los Angeles. A selection of those will be available in a compendium sometime in 2024. Her solo piece 7 Years I Could Have Spent in Vermont was produced for the stage at the former HBO Workspace by the studio (now MAX), and more staged readings and fully produced works are to come.

Eman Rimawi-Doster is a Black and Palestinian woman, born and raised in NYC. For 26 years, she’s been organizing around diversity, equity, and inclusion in disenfranchised communities, while using art, writing, fashion, creativity, and organizing. She learned the ins and outs of taking action and having integrity from her parents. She has made it her life’s mission to change the things that need a push in a more inclusive direction. Her father wanted her to change the things she saw wrong and she does with everything she touches.

Melanie Chartoff’s been seen on and off Broadway, on series like Seinfeld, Newhart, Ally McBeal, Parker Lewis, Wise Guy, Weird Science, Wonder Woman, and heard as the animated mommy Didi on Rugrats, and the animated Aunt Nora on Jumanji. She’s been read in McSweeney’s, the NY Times, The Jewish Journal, Wry Times, Avalon Literary Review, Evening Street Press, and five editions of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Her first book, Odd Woman Out, is rated 5 stars on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Apple Books.

Prior to earning her MFA from Northwestern University, Joyce Becker Lee worked as a newspaper reporter, editor, theater columnist, textbook developer, and high school and college instructor of English, Writing and Theater. Her stories, features, and poetry have been published extensively in print and online, and she also writes novels, plays and screenplays, and has developed a television series based on the characters in a small-town community theater. A dedicated theater lover, she has spent a lifetime in educational, community and professional theater as a director and performer, and is the writer/composer of seven children’s musicals. She enjoys volunteer work for civic and animal-related causes and is a busy hands-on grandmother. Her collection of short stories, Casualties, is published by Tortoise Books.

Writer. Qualified Speech, Drama & Dance Teacher. Active member of West Coast Writers’ Circle, Cape Town.