Author Interviews

Esther’s Diary was the first book I ever wrote and published thanks to Atmosphere Press! I work part-time for my dad’s business selling skin care products, I also have a one-year-old son, so life gets pretty busy and hectic! I am writing blogs and poems for my next book, Esther’s Diary 2. I enjoy walking, exercising, writing poems, journaling, and listening to music.

I am currently retired, but I worked about forty-three years, approximately half of which was for companies where I worked my way up into middle management positions and the other half spent consulting for primarily Fortune 100 companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Pfizer, Bloomberg Financial, AT&T, and NBC at 30 Rock. I was fortunate to work for these companies at an executive level providing management consulting services as well as technology solutions as I had a strong background in Information Technology. I traveled all over the country meeting some of the most prominent business leaders of that time. My career ended when I was on a consulting assignment with the State of NJ in Trenton and at the age of sixty-two, when I was wrapping up my consulting assignment, they asked me to work for them permanently and I said to them “Do you know how old I am?” and they said “Yes, but we have no one that does what you do.” I worked in Senior Management for them for four years. Unfortunately, I would have worked longer but I had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and the symptoms were becoming more apparent, so I retired at sixty-six years old.

Born and raised south of the river from the Twin Cities in Minnesota, R. M. Forte took an interest in stories by listening to others reminisce on life and their choices. He holds that every moment compounds into more significant outcomes—be it advantageous or detrimental nothing in life is truly static. Having begun as a lyricist and composer, Forte’s interest and fascination with life and the many stories within propelled him toward refining his voice as an author. Whether crafting fiction, poetry, commentary, biography, or memoir, he seeks these moments, the linchpin of events that leave humanity in wonderment or horror—all the while drawn by the balance of temporal things and the hereafter. In the end, what is writing but a portion of reality isolated onto the page that we may all share in pondering life and values through another’s lens?

Mhlengi Skeelo ‘Melchizedek’ Khumalo has a lot of creative alter egos. He is a proud South African, the soon-to-be husband of his beloved Morgan, the dad of Destiny and Luzel, and the husband of Thandi Julia.

Deniz is an Iranian-American theatre artist based in New York. Her works experiment with form and they focus on memory, grief, immigration and the concept of home. Her plays have been performed in several national and international festivals. She has written and directed experimental music-theatre projects that challenge the status quo and current vernacular of the theatre and modern opera scene. Her opera Salt has been acclaimed as “remarkable on every level” (Ewing Reviewing).

Anne Pinkerton is an essayist, memoirist, and poet. Her work often circles around grief and loss, as well as coping with these painful realities in our lives. Her writing has appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, Ars Medica, Modern Loss, “Beautiful Things” at River Teeth Journal, Sunlight Press, The Keepthings, and the anthologies The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink and Nothing Divine Dies: A Poetry Anthology About Nature, among other publications.

CK Van Dam is a daughter of the Dakota prairies. With degrees in History and Journalism from South Dakota State University, she has embarked on a second career to create stories about the strong women who have built our nation and our world.

Writing was a magic wand to make my life better. I loved mysteries, so Perry Mason, Sherlock Holmes, and Edgar Allen Poe, with a dash of Mark Twain’s humor, inspired my writing. I enjoy keeping readers turning the page, eager for the next surprise or clue. You never know what is going to happen next in Monstrovia.

I have always loved words, not just their meanings but also their sounds and rhythms. Now retired, I have time to play with all those dear friends, the little ones, the long ones, the monosyllabic and the poly. I use them to build short stories, novels, essays, plays, and especially poems. Oh yes, my poetry is especially dear to me. I hope it will be to others.

I’m an anthropologist by training and a fiction writer for fun. I’ve been reading fantasy since I was way too young for it. I live in Quintana Roo, Mexico, with my wife and daughter. I’m a cat person; we’ve got one extremely long cat and we feed any strays brave enough to handle petsies from my daughter.

Eva Halus is an author of 17 published books and has 3 other books in manuscripts. She is also a painter, photographer, and illustrator of her own books. Eva debuted with poetry in 2009, publishing 6 other poetry books afterwards. As a journalist for 14 years, permanent collaborator at Accent Montreal and various other newspapers on paper and online, she published together with a well-known Romanian TV and Radio Journalist from Timisoara, Romania, (Veronica Balaj) 3 books of interviews with Romanian-born personalities from Montreal (2016, 2018 and 2019).

Melody is a free spirit born and raised in Vancouver, BC. She is a recognized painter and a poet. Her art has been showcased in local galleries and she published a book of poetry, Life Lyrics, in 2011. She now lives outside Vancouver with her husband Arric, where their backyard, affectionately known as the “Fowler Vineyard,” continues to produce amazing wines and jellies.

Laurie Alberswerth is a writer, photographer, senior community edu-tainer, and mechanical engineer who enjoys confusing both her left- and right-brain hemispheres. A native of St. Louis and an in-law to farm life, she brings Missouri settings to her readers through the Jude and Audie West Mystery series. Where the Wests tackle clients’ genealogy roadblocks (and avoid digging their own graves), Laurie has camped with her hubby in their little blue tent. Her own family tree proves that life is lived in the dash between dates on the tombstone.

Coming from a working-class background, writing is definitely not something that runs in the blood. I didn’t know any published authors growing up, it didn’t even seem like an option for me. However, I English was always my best subject at school, and I was a prolific reader, with strange taste (I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula when I was nine). I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I realized this, but at a certain point it dawned on me that fiction allows truth to be expressed in ways that are not possible in the ordinary world. I was learning much more from the stories I was reading than the teachers at my school.

Kyo Lee is a queer, Korean-Canadian high-school student, writer, and dreamer. Her literature has been recognized or published by the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award, CBC Literary Prizes, PRISM International, Nimrod International, University of Toronto, Ringling College, New York Times, and more. She loves peaches, sunsets, and the idea of summer but not summer itself. She is trying to love more.

L. E. Brooks is an indie author, RN, musician, bad feminist, worse LGTBQ+ fringe member, and reader of all genres. She has been writing songs, poetry, short stories, and fan fiction for more than two decades, and recently finished her first full-length original novel, Avelina, due to be released May 4th, 2024. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, two kids, and a ferocious pack of hell hounds.

Kay Smith-Blum, named Western WA Woman Business Owner of 2013 and a former Seattle School Board President, is an avid gardener and lover of nature. Smith-Blum founded Environmental Endeavors, the first greenhouse program in Seattle Public Schools. Intrigued by the tropes of mid-20th-century history, Smith-Blum has penned two novel-length tales set in Texas, but the recent upheaval over leaking waste tanks at the Hanford site drew her in. A meticulous researcher, Smith-Blum felt compelled to write the Hanford story in a way that would entertain as well as educate readers about this important story.

One of my poems was published by International Poetry Press Books in From the Heart: the most heartfelt and meaningful poems of the year in 2018 in the UK. I also was awarded Elite Writers Status in 2018 for the best original poetry of the year.

Regina is a non-fiction writer currently based in South Wales. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she lived in the Midwest for 30 years including 8 years eating and drinking her way through the food mecca that is Chicago.

Ex-CIA intelligence officer Carmen Amato writes award-winning crime fiction loaded with danger and deception. Beginning with Cliff Diver, her Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series pits the first female police detective in Acapulco against Mexico’s cartels, corruption, and social inequality. Optioned for television, it’s a two-time winner of the Outstanding Series award from CrimeMasters of America. First in her new Prohibition-era thriller series, Murder at the Galliano Club won the 2023 Silver Falchion award for Best Historical. Carmen is a recipient of both the National Intelligence Award and the Career Intelligence Medal. After globe-trotting careers, she and her husband reside in Tennessee. Find out more at carmenamato.net.