Author Interviews

I have been writing for a very long time, beginning with plays, some of which were produced in the US (I lived in LA for ten years), and I also was a freelance theatre and film critic. A good number of short stories have been published in recent years. ‘A Gap in the Fence of Time’ placed second in Gemini Magazine’s Annual Short Story Competition, while ‘Tea and Biscuits’ was a winner in the Ryedale Book Festival Short Story Competition. I won Moment magazine’s Short Fiction Awards for ‘Lecha Dodi,’ judged by novelist Alice Hoffman, and was a joint first-place winner for Writer’s Atelier’s 2nd Annual Contest. Other stories have been published by Fairlight Books, Prole, and Gold Dust. My primary focus, however, is my novels, and specifically evocative and emotive literary fiction.

Rachel A. Greco dreams of being a dragon but has settled instead for being an author, which is almost as fun. Her short story, Fairy Light, won honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition. Leading Edge magazine published another of her stories, and her debut novel, The Gift of Dragons, is now out in the world. When not writing, she can be found reading, kayaking, or dancing with elves in the forests of her North Carolina home.

Jane Kay is a South African-born writer who lives in Europe with her American husband. She has lived and worked in Canada, Russia, and Portugal. Umbilical, her second novel, was published at the end of 2022. Set mostly in southern Africa, with interwoven elements of the U.S., Canada, and China, it is a story of interconnectedness across continents and decades and of an unwelcome inheritance, one that is as inescapable as it is perilous.

Mallory M. O’Connor, Professor Emerita of Art History, Santa Fe College, holds degrees in art and art history from Ohio University and taught art history at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College. She is the author of six published novels—the American River Trilogy and Epiphany’s Gift, Key to Eternit, and Xanadu’s Cavern (Archway Publishing)—as well as two non-fiction books, Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast and Florida’s American Heritage River, both published by the University Press of Florida. Mallory’s husband, artist and professor Emeritus of Art, UF, collaborated on the book and provided the original art works.

Barbara Lane integrates her life experiences of being a foster child, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, entrepreneur, speaker, child advocate, educator, ministerial counselor, and author into her writing. By sharing her own personal journey, Barbara destigmatizes the fate of child abuse survivors, leading her to write Broken Water. In addition to her twenty-five-year service in private practice as a ministerial counselor, Barbara’s educational background in human development, social sciences, and family psychology with a focus on child abuse inspires her to share her expertise on interrelated issues: the family, family separation, the foster care system, attachment and bonding, child maltreatment, relationship formation, the resilience of the human spirit, healing from trauma, and the power found in having faith in something greater than the self.

Carole Wolfe writes women’s fiction that makes you smile. She enjoys running at a leisurely pace, crocheting baby blankets for others, and drinking wine when she can find the time. After moving nine times in twenty years, Carole and her family have settled in Texas.

Mr. Tennyson is an author and free spirit who resides on Saint Simons Island, Georgia. The origins of his book began in Athens, Georgia, and Portland, Oregon, where he discovered what he considers God’s greatest gift: the Cannabis plant.

Gina Darlington has been writing all her life. She wrote as a child, was published in high school, and later in a national magazine. She wrote articles for the local newspaper, essays, short stories, and a few ten-minute plays. She had a poem published in the local college literary magazine. Gina has been a teacher all of her life, first as a dance studio teacher, then at the college level, and most recently teaching quilting at local stores and in the community. She has written two novels, an autobiography, and a memoir of her journey into real estate investing. She lives in the mountains of Arizona (where it snows) with her husband. She has five sons, four daughters-in-law, and fifteen grandchildren scattered across the country. She enjoys traveling to see them.

Janice Berliner is a licensed and board-certified genetic counselor who has more than thirty-four years of experience in the areas of prenatal, pediatric, and cancer genetic counseling, as well as higher education. She has written many lay and scholarly articles and book chapters on genetics topics and has volunteered extensively within her profession and her community. Since 2018, Janice has been the Director of the Master of Science in Genetic Counseling Program at Bay Path University. Janice’s novels, Brooke’s Promise and In Good Conscience, are derived from her expertise working with patients and their family members facing the risk of disease and the intensely personal and life-altering nature genetic illness can have on family relationships. Her third novel centers on a family with multiple psychiatric conditions and explores the stigma and hardships of hereditary psychiatric illness, as well as the hope and healing born of the family ties that bind us all.

Ryan Cowan grew up in a small town in Ohio called Middleport. He currently lives in Hawthorne, California. A teacher with twenty years of experience, Ryan has taught all grades from K-6th. He currently works as a school administrator in Los Angeles.

I love storytelling and being able to develop characters that are often based on students I’ve taught. The main character in Stranded on Castaway Island, Annie, has her faults—such as bossiness—but the way she struggles to help her orphaned brothers and her lonely father, and then later saves Mirra’s life, makes her a hero. She’s gone through so much—losing her mom and being hurt by Mirra, her best friend. And now, she also needs to survive!

Helen Garraway is the USA Today Bestselling author of the award-winning epic fantasy Sentinals series which was first published in 2020, followed by the first book of the fantasy romance SoulMist series, SoulBreather, released in 2022 as part of the Realm of Darkness boxset.

PATRICIA DIESEL – Certified Professional Empowerment Coach, Leading Organizing Expert, Author, and Founder of Keep It Simple Now!

T.M. DiPietro lives a beautiful life in Alabama. She is a retired Master Teaching Artist, published writer, photographer, and former owner of DiPietro Design Group (ASID member). She worked as a professional artist throughout New England and New York and her murals are displayed in numerous homes and commercial buildings throughout New England. She has been featured on radio and TV and newspapers more than sixty times.

Jill is a collectible artist, published photographer, mother of two, grandmother of a dozen, great-grandmother of who-knows-how-many, kayaker, explorer, learner, pilot, and, as an author—a gymnast of words. Her writing grounds itself in the cultures and world views she’s discovered in her wide-ranging travels. She is a licensed psychologist and former inner city school counselor who received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Michigan State University. During her years of counseling, she and a colleague developed and patented the card game Esteem Architecture to help adolescents develop a greater awareness of themselves and greater respect for others. It has sold several thousand copies over the past twenty years.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, husband of a Dartmouth alumnus, and son of a Brown graduate, Matt Robinson has been steeped in Ivy League culture for most of his life. A professional writer, editor, and educator for over twenty years, Matt has developed a profound curiosity about all things education-related and a knack for remembering and sharing stories about many schools. While much of Matt’s most recent research has gone into his book, Lions, Tigers, and…Bulldogs?, hundreds more pieces can be seen at www.TheRobinsonReporter.com.

B. D’Amato is a psychoanalyst in private practice in NYC. She has written numerous professional papers analyzing the psychic conflicts of literary characters and their authors, i.e., Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. B. D’Amato’s most recent publication considers the lyrics in Bob Dylan’s Murder Most Foul from a hypnogogic perspective. She has written extensively about dreams, adoption, and the curative potential of human interconnection through emotional communication. Triskele is her first work of fiction.

Janine is the Owner/Chief Innovations Officer for Talent Think Innovations, LLC, a multidisciplinary business strategy and management consulting firm. Her career spans eighteen years in HR, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Management that has taken her through the world of pharmaceuticals, the arts, K-12 education, technology, private equity, healthcare, staffing, and R&D, just to name a few sectors she has worked in. Janine is a dynamic speaker, entrepreneur, and an important and respected voice bringing both a human touch and business savvy to the companies and businesses she works with.

Jennifer Sara Widelitz graduated with a BFA in Visual Effects from the Savannah College of Art and Design and worked as a compositor, creating special effects for film and television. She is an artist with a deep-rooted passion for storytelling in a variety of mediums: film, photography, writing, painting, poetry, etc. She likes to view the world as a grand storybook and can’t wait to see what adventures the next chapter brings. Battle Cry is her first poetry collection, although her poetry and photography have appeared in several literary publications. Much of her poetry is based on her personal experience with autoimmunity and chronic invisible illness, writing for the warriors fighting unseen battles and the survivors of the human condition. She is a dog lover and a cat mommy and is rarely seen without a cup of tea or a good book.

JB Blake—student of military history, behavioral science, servant leadership, critical thinking, innovation, and economics. Successful entrepreneur and intrapreneur, corporate executive, and university professor. Every career path has led to interactions with fascinating characters whose traits could be woven into this story. They are like the ingredients that make an amazing recipe! See you on the other side.