Author Interviews

Dixie L. King has been writing since she was seven years old, when she taught herself to type on her father’s big metal Smith Corona typewriter. She wrote her first novel at eleven; however, despite the fact that it was about drug trafficking (about which she knew nothing), took place in New York City (which she had never visited), and involved a woman working at the United Nations, not only did Harper and Row refer it to the children’s lit editor (she was insulted), but they rejected the book. Dixie gave up writing novels and became a cultural anthropologist. She has since returned to her first love.

Cathy Schieffelin is an avid reader and writer. Years of adventure and travel contribute to her daily writing life. She is a regular attendee of writing workshops and participates in writing contests whenever possible. Her short stories and essays have been published in Adanna Literary Journal, Halfway Down the Stairs online literary journal, Renewed: A New Orleans Public Library Anthology, and the Frontier Nursing Service quarterly newsletter. Her first novel, The Call, came out in December 2024 and was awarded an International Impact Award for Mystery/Thriller genre. Snakeroot and Cohosh is her second novel, published with Atmosphere Press in March 2026.

Jenny is the eldest of six children, raised in a rural community in a western district town of Victoria, Australia. Her formative years in Catholic primary and secondary school shaped her values of compassion and service. From an early age, Jenny was exposed to the principles of social justice and self-actualisation with strong role models in parents who were deeply committed to the local community. As a speech therapist working in disability services, Jenny believes that communication is a fundamental human right, and every individual has the right to express themselves fully and participate meaningfully in their communities.

Sunil Mehrotra is a rocket scientist turned philosopher. This is his third book in a trilogy written at the intersection of science and spirituality.

Celina is a Brazilian writer who crossed the ocean to complete a master’s in social sciences and now lives in London with her cat Trufa. She works in marketing and spends her free time exploring London’s weird corners, the little bookshops, secret queer spaces, and drag events that make you rethink your entire existence.

Heather Jefferson graduated Phi Beta Kappa in English Literature from University of Illinois. She is a wife, mother, yoga teacher, and manager of a wellness center. Daughter Unbound is her first book. Heather lives in Columbia, Maryland, with her husband, Bob, and their two dogs and two cats.

I write dark fantasy romance with teeth – stories where monsters are messy, love is complicated, and the woods are always watching. My debut novel, Lupines Bloom Where Blood Falls, is the first instalment of The Florilegium Cycle, set in the strange town of Lorewood, where the line between human and other is thinner than it should be.

I am retired from the U.S. Air Force. Following retirement, I taught for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at their satellite campuses in Charleston SC, and Jacksonville FL. I also volunteered with literacy programs, teaching and tutoring adult reading and English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

I was born in 1956, and am Dad to two grown up children, and Granddad to two little grandsons.

I am a retired software architect living in Mexico. My passions include reading, writing, and composing music.

Rita Jo Norvoteny is a dark fiction author and creator of The Reformed Killers Universe, a series that blends psychological horror, dark humor, and morally complex characters. Her work explores themes of trauma, survival, and the uneasy line between redemption and destruction.

After years of writing for the worlds of science and tech, Helen has traded white papers for world-building to pursue her lifelong love of YA fantasy. A devotee of literary escapism since childhood, she writes with the hope of giving a voice to all those who need to see themselves on the page.

Bryan Sanders writes quiet, atmospheric fiction that treats emotion as a physical force. His work is rooted in restraint rather than spectacle, allowing mood, sensation, and implication to carry narrative weight. He favors intimate interiors, institutional settings, and moments of charged stillness where characters experience recognition before understanding.

Born and raised in the Magic Valley of Southern Idaho, Dakota Frandsen has been a published author since the age of sixteen and is a seasoned paranormal investigator, often dubbed the ‘Specialist of the Strange,’ whose work transcends traditional ghost hunting by delving deeply into the human psyche and the harsh truths of life few dare to admit.

Born into the mountains of Southwest Virginia and spending early childhood with a family of artists, Sandra Baldwin’s Appalachian childhood and travels have given her a unique American perspective. Though she resided in Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Kentucky, and finally Delaware, her notoriously ‘itchy feet’ have taken her through forty-seven states.

Skye Gent is a UK children’s author whose writing is rooted in one simple belief – that no child should feel alone while they’re growing up. Before becoming an author, she trained and worked as a nurse, where she saw first-hand how deeply emotional experiences shape the way we understand ourselves. That perspective stayed with her, but it was her own lived experiences – of confusion, change, and not always having the right words or support at the right time – that ultimately led her to writing.

I hold an MA in global studies, with a focus on peace and security in Africa, from the Institute for Peace and Security Studies and Leipzig University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in political science and international relations from the University of Roma Tre. For almost ten years, I have worked as a project manager and country representative for non-governmental organizations. Right now, I live in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

I’m a much-published scholar of translation, literature, rhetoric, and semiotics (forty books, one hundred and twenty articles) who has always wanted to be a published novelist – and now my fourth published novel is out!

Born in the back room of a Wisconsin tenant farm, went to a one-room grade school, and rode a bus fifty-two miles to high school. A peacetime army veteran who discovered theatre and my wife-to-be the same week my college football career ended. Began writing fiction only after my college teaching career ended with five awards, a Fulbright lectureship in Poland, and acting in seven foreign countries.

Whitney Healy specializes in poetry, creative nonfiction, memoir, and fantasy. In 2025, Whitney’s small poetry series, Blackberry Winter: Songs of the Appalachian Trails, received first place in Appalachian Literature with West Virginia Writers, Inc. A lover of hot tea, watching her son at first base, and Stranger Things, Evermyst: The Awakening will be Whitney’s debut novel.