I consider myself lucky because I was raised in a family that valued learning. By the time I entered kindergarten, I knew how to read, print, and write in cursive. Bedtime stories were a mainstay, and trips to the local library were as common as those to the grocery store. I couldn’t have known then, but they were instrumental in my becoming a writer.
Sandra McKay is the author of A Place For Me, An Orphan’s Journey Home, a historical novel based on her grandmother’s story, who rode the Orphan Train. Sandra spent two years conducting research in preparation to write A Place For Me, An Orphan’s Journey Home, which revealed a much bigger story than passed down in family lore.
I’m a proud New Orleans native and former dancer with Houston Ballet. Beyond my dance career, I’ve ventured into storytelling as a screenwriter and novelist. I’ve self-published three fiction novels, and my contributions extend to education with the Garage Ballet™ series, a collection of nonfiction instructional books where I share insights from my experiences as a dancer and teacher.
C.S. (Carol) Kjar is an award-winning, self-published author who lives out west where the antelope, deer, and bison play. Her humorous, wholesome books are about small-town people (mostly people past mid-life) who face big decisions they wish they didn’t have to make, but in the end, they are stronger for it. Her last name is pronounced “care” which she loves. It’s what we should all do: care for each other.
In addition to having been a teacher’s husband, Steven Earl Kladstrup is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Syracuse University, with Honors degrees in both Geography and Anthropology. He also holds a Master’s degree with Honors in International Management from Thunderbird (the former American Graduate School of International Management). After making a career out of writing and editing myriad proposals, contracts, marcom, and software documentation for other people, he has happily returned to his first love, the writing of fiction, with Jane Raggedfir Was a Dike, his debut novel.
Oliver Sheppard is a Texas writer and poet whose Thirteen Nocturnes collection of Gothic verse was a finalist for the 2020 Elgin Award for Best Full-Length Poetry Collection.
A born and bred Southern Belle, KAY ELAM took a circuitous route to writing novels but is almost there with her debut book, CALL OF THE CRICKETS, which was a finalist for the Claymore and Page Turner Awards in the summer of 2023. She won first place in the Open-Door Short Story Contest and has short stories published in four anthologies. She volunteered with Killer Nashville for several years as a panelist, facilitator, and reader for the prestigious awards.
Twice-shortlisted Poet of the Year, Perito Prize and Pushcart Prize shortlistee, and winner of the Best Creative Writing Portfolio Prize from Lancaster University, Elizabeth (she/they) is a chronic reader and writer of the Weird. Her debut poetry collection, salmacis: becoming not quite a woman (Renard Press, 2022), was hailed as “vital for society today” (Jennifer Hill, Ulverscroft Publishers). Their work has been published over fifty times worldwide, including by Rattle and Fly on the Wall Press.
Clare Braganza is a writer who spent three years teaching English in the mountains of Fukushima, Japan, before returning to the UK to follow her publishing dreams. By day, she works at Penguin Random House, where she helps sell her favourite children’s books around the world. By night (i.e., dawn and dusk) she taps away at her keyboard, dreaming up worlds of gods and spirits and angsty teens. She lives in London with long-suffering bookshelves and a pair of brilliant housemates.
Silja comes from a magical and mysterious land called Estonia. She has always been fascinated by stories and writing. As a child, she wrote ghost stories, poems, and Christmas plays to be performed with her sister. Later, she became an essay-writing machine, participated in all contests she could find, and eventually fulfilled her dream of studying abroad by doing an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, UK.
Charlene J. Centracchio is a native of Rhode Island with multiple degrees from Rhode Island College and Providence College in Social Science/Education (BA), Secondary Education/Gifted Education (M.Ed.), Counseling (M.A.) and Curriculum & Instruction (CAGS-Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies, which is similar to a Ph. D.).
My work includes original oil paintings that have been shown abroad and won multiple awards and recognition in artistic genre applications of watercolor, acrylic, and multimedia. After a successful early career in Engineering & Robotics, I found through the ashes of a divorce the inspiration and purpose to begin writing and painting. Since then, I have been honored to have studio and gallery locations across the US in Ohio, New Mexico, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida.
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.