Author Interviews

Helen Summer is the author of three sports books: Running Crazy (true stories from people who have run over 100 marathons), Are You Tough Enough? (featuring the toughest sporting challenges in the world), and The Man Inside the Machine (approved biography of Steve Edwards, one of the World’s most successful multi-marathon runners). More recently turning to fiction, she has now completed a romcom entitled Semi-Detached—a light-hearted tale of two divorced couples whose pasts won’t let go of them—or is it them who can’t let go of their pasts?

I’ve tried my hand at poetry, short stories, and screenwriting. I’m currently working on my first novel while taking the Ultimate Novel Writing Course at Jericho Writers. I am a member of the London Writers’ Salon writing community and find it supportive and empowering. I plan to publish under the penname Tiana Dunbar.

Ingrid received a BFA in Creative Writing and BA in English Literature at the University of Evansville before going on to earn a BA and MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics) at the University of Cambridge. At the University of Evansville, she served as Non-fiction Editor, then Editor-in-Chief of the Evansville Review. Ingrid currently serves as Co-Director of the UK’s National Flash Fiction Day, Editor-in-Chief of FlashFlood, and a consultant for The Prose Poem.

Amanda Waters is a former journalist-turned-librarian, and author of the feel-good romance novels You Again and With You. She’s a midwestern girl currently living in Houston, Texas, with her husband and their two children. When she’s not writing or hiding from the humidity, you can find her reading, drinking way too much coffee, or playing endless games of UNO and Exploding Kittens.

Melissa Bourbon is the national bestselling author of more than thirty novels, including the Book Magic mysteries, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery series, and the Bread Shop Mysteries, written as Winnie Archer. A former secondary English/Language Arts teacher and Creative Writing teacher with Southern Methodist University’s CAPE program and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institution with North Carolina State University, she has applied her love of teaching to the creation of WriterSpark Academy, an online school for aspiring and new writers seeking to hone their craft.

Stephanie always intended to write a novel but it wasn’t until 2004 when she was shortlisted for the BBC End of Story Competition that she believed it might be possible. That was the motivation to develop The Memory of Wood, which she self-published in 2011.

Under her own name, Sue Eaton has had work broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as well as winning a Millennium Award for work with scriptwriting for people with ASD. In addition to stories in The Corona Book of Horror Stories series, her story The Tasc Band appears in The Corona Book of Science Fiction. Her debut novel The Woman Who Was Not His Wife was published in 2018 followed by a psychological horror novella The Boyfriend published in 2021 as an e-book. She has also edited The Corona Book of Ghost Stories.

Scott lives and writes in a small village an hour north of Inverness, where he is encouraged daily by his wife Rachel. He has self-published six novels, two collections (both containing both poems and short stories), a malt whisky companion, and a book on cocktails. He is currently writing three more novels (all in separate genres), alongside a book on literary criticism and an Ancient Greek Theogony in the creative form. He is also completing the final semester of his honour’s degree in Creative Writing; works full-time; and sleeps less than the average giraffe. He plans to work on his Masters in Comparative Literature come the fall.

Ryan Jo Summers is an author who writes across the genres. She pens romance novels, blending elements of sweet contemporary with inspirational, suspense, mystery, paranormal, and time travel in any combination, like blending a fruit and yogurt smoothie. Currently, she has about two dozen published novels and novellas, as well as contributions to anthologies. She covers non-fiction, fictional short stories, and poetry of these and many have appeared in trade journals and magazines. In her spare time, she likes to hang out with her pets, bake, paint, go to the nearby forest and river, or gather with friends.

Malcolm began writing magazine articles for cycling and triathlon magazines. Some years later he turned his hand to fiction. Initially he began the makings of a novel, but this proved a long haul. He then focussed on short stories and finally flash fiction. One win in a flash competition spurred him on. Recently he has returned to writing his novel.

I have an BA in English from Governors State University, where I was editor in chief for the school’s semi-annual literary and art journal. I have won second place in a recent Reedsy Weekly contest, and have slowly climbed the ladder among the other writers in several NYC Midnight contests for short stories and flash fiction. My WIP, a psychological thriller, is called Still Water.

After Nancy Werking Poling’s essay, “Leander’s Lies,” won the 2018 Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize, she wondered WHY did the man lie? That could only be answered through imagination and historical research, hence, a novel.

Born and raised in Scotland, I studied history at the University of London before training to be a teacher. On retiring, I became involved in local history in Northumberland, writing a book on our village workhouse, A Poor Little House, and editing and contributing to two volumes of local history essays, before becoming involved in researching the Pegasus.

Carol Selick is a performing singer and songwriter and a music educator with a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education.

Bill Lythgoe is a retired primary school teacher From Wigan, England, and has been writing poetry seriously for about ten years. He has won prizes awarded by Writing Magazine, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Fire River Poets, the Wakefield Red Shed, Creative Writing Ink and Nottingham Poetry Society, and been published by Earlyworks Press, Strong Verse, Southport Fringe Poetry and Gordon Square Review (Cleveland, Ohio).

UK author Fiona Linday supported literacy in schools for many years. Then the local author wrote for young adults—Get Over It, Adventures, 2009, Onwards & Upwards—before her prize-winning short story, Off the Beaten Track, was published. She won the Unique Writing Publications Story Award with prose non-fiction entitled Love, in Spiritual Awakenings.

Oluwatosin Ajayi is a prolific content writer with immense creativity. With 5+ years’ experience ghost writing, she has helped up to twenty clients craft converting blog content.

Riley Morgan is forty-something with an overactive imagination and a desire to create worlds to escape to. They run mostly on caffeine and a love for words. An agoraphobic with depression and severe anxiety, delving into fictional worlds is an oasis and lifeline for them. They also enjoy crocheting and supporting other authors.

Scots-born and raised, I became a US citizen in 1984. I am retired now after an exciting career that took me around the world, interacting with so many wonderful people and their cultures, and experiencing enough adventures to fill a lifetime.

Jackie is a freelance writer and journalist, writing articles for numerous magazine publications, both print and online, and has contributed work to Gibraltar’s national newspaper, The Gibraltar Chronicle, where she currently resides. Jackie takes an interest in women’s issues and the evolving story of women’s continuing struggle for equality, even in terms of how their stories are remembered and told.