From the Porch Swing Authors
G. K. Adams is a native of southeast Texas, recently retired from the practice of law. She is now pursuing her twin passions, writing and bonsai. She has served on the editorial staff of an allied health journal in the District of Columbia and as a technical editor in industry. She was most recently published in Texas Gardener and can be reached at gk.adams82@yahoo.com.
Jim Pascual Agustin writes in Filipino and English. His more recent poems have appeared in Rhino 2010, GUD (Greatest Uncommon Denominator) Magazine Issue 3 and Issue 4, and Dash Literary Journal. He maintains a blog atwww.matangmanok.wordpress.com. He made an unexpected departure from Manila in 1994 to be with the woman he loves, and so has lived in Cape Town, South Africa, since October that year.
Anne R. Allen is the author of two comic novels published in the UK by Babash-Ryan: Food of Love (2003) andThe Best Revenge (2005). She’s now a California-based freelancer. Her work appears in dozens of print and online journals, including the literary humor magazine Opium and the online zines Chick Flicks and Mosaic Minds. Anne invites you to stop by her blog sometime, AnneRAllen.blogspot.com.
Carol Ayer was born in Berkeley, California, in the early 1960s. She grew up in Orinda, California, and graduated from UC Berkeley. Her publication credits include Freckles to Wrinkles, Woman’s World magazine, several Chicken Soup books, The Prairie Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and flashquake. She has won awards from WOW-Women on Writing, Artella, and Brady Magazine. Her romance novella Storybook Love was published in June, 2009 by Wild Child Publishing. Visit her website at www.SeaAirCarol.com.
Glenda Barrett, a native of north Georgia, is an artist, poet and writer. Her paintings are on an online gallery called Fine Art America, and at this time her first poetry chapbook titled When the Sap Rises is on display on Amazon.com. Glenda’s work has been published in Woman’s World, Journal of Kentucky Studies, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Farm & Ranch Living, Rural Heritage, Psychology for Living, Smoky Mountain Living, Georgia Magazine, Living with Loss Magazine and others.
Betty Wilson Beamguard’s publication credits include thirty-four short stories and ten poems, as well as several humorous essays and magazine features. Her work has appeared in such publications as Women in the Outdoors, Draft Horse Journal, Sasee, moonShine Review, Freckles to Wrinkles, and Sweet Tea and Afternoon Tales. She lives near Clover, South Carolina, and her new passion is paddling the waterways of North and South Carolina. Her website is www.home.earthlink.net/~bbeamguard.
Karen Beatty thinks of life as a river, coming and going, surging and flowing. Born in eastern Kentucky near the temperamental Lickin’ River and reared in Bound Brook, New Jersey, on the banks of the Raritan River, she finally settled in Greenwich Village, between the Hudson River and the East River, on the isle of Manhattan. In 2004 she won first prize for an essay published in the New England Writers’ Network (Spring 2004), and her short stories have appeared in Eureka Literary Magazine, Snowy Egret and Writers Post Journal.
Stephanie Bell was born September 11, 1990, and is a college student currently attending Eastfield Community College. She has won several online contests for her writing and is currently working on her first novel. She has never taken a creative writing course. She lives in Garland, Texas, and is majoring in Psychology.
Brenda Bellinger spends mornings writing from her no-longer-empty nest on an old chicken farm in Penngrove, California. She is a member of Redwood Writers and her work has been published in an anthology titled Vintage Voices: Four-Part Harmony and in the Autumn 2009 issue of THEMA, In Kay’s Kitchen. Her story “First Smile” was the non-fiction winner at the 2009 Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. Mother of four grown sons, Brenda looks forward to the day when she’ll have a little hand to hold once again. In the meantime, she plays hide and seek with her muse. (Picture: Brenda with Med and Nana)
Gary Bloom has been writing articles, poetry, and short stories for more than 25 years, with credits in Silver Boomers, American Visions, The Educated Traveler, Milwaukee Magazine, The Buffalo News, The Grand Rapids Press, Grit, Cappers, Oasis, High Technology Careers, Players, Clockwatch Review, Black Diaspora, Mankato Poetry Review and other magazines, websites, and newspapers. He grew up during the ’60s in Minneapolis and has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Mankato State University, Minnesota. After surviving Hurricane Katrina and a long, tedious career as a computer programmer and database administrator he now writes and fishes full time on the Gulf coast.
Teresa Tumminello Brader was born in New Orleans and lives in the area still. She holds a B.A. in English from Marquette University and is the mother of two grown children. Her stories have appeared online at Hobart, 971 Menu, Bare Root Review and elsewhere, and in print in Six Sentences, Volume 1 and in Families: The Frontline of Pluralism, an anthology from Wising Up Press. (Second picture grandmother Rose Tumminello, Teresa Tumminello Brader, and her daughter Rhea)
Judy Brand, before being published, was a visual artist involved in photography and jewelry making. She lives in Texas, outside Houston, with her cats, dog and husband. She is grandmother to her son’s seven daughters and one son. Brand’s stories, poems and essays have been in anthologies and journals including Sojourn, Texas Short Fiction, A World in Itself II, Suddenly III, and Suddenly V, Prose Poetry and Sudden Fiction, Chocolate for a Lover’s Heart, and Dear Mom, I’ve Always Wanted You to Know – Daughters Share Letters From the Heart.
Elisabeth Brookshire is a retired school counselor. She has been published inPatchwork Path, Dad’s Bowtie and Pawsitively Awesome Pet Poems. A fifth-generation Texan, her poetry and prose draw on her faith and life experience. A graduate of the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, Elisabeth and her husband enjoy life in the beautiful and historic Hill Country of Texas. (second picture, Gertrude Henke Krauskopf)
Renie Burghardt, who was born in Hungary, is a freelance writer with many credits. She has been published in over 60 anthologies like Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cup of Comfort, Chocolate for Women, many Guideposts Books, and others. She has also been published in numerous magazines like Mature Living, Mature Life, Missouri Life, Cat Fancy, Pure Inspiration and others. She lives in the country and loves Nature, animals and spending time with her family and friends.
Judy Callarman lives in Cisco, Texas, with her husband David. She teaches creative writing and English at Cisco College and is chair of the Fine Arts Division. She enjoys writing in whatever genre fits the story or image in her head. Several of her poems and nonfiction pieces have won contests and been published in newspapers and journals, one in Silver Boomer Books’ This Path. She is working on a collection of World War II memoirs based on letters from her father. (Picture: “Here’s a picture of my brother Jim and me with my grandmother, Mama Jane. She and Daddy Frank had a huge garden with grapevines all along one edge. Their garden and chicken yard covered about half a city block, and it went a long way toward feeding their ten children for years, and then later, any grandchildren and various other relatives who wandered in for a good chicken dinner.”)
Al Carty lives and writes in the high plains of New Mexico. A transplanted Californian, he began to see publication when he accepted the harsh truth that rewriting applied to him as well as others. Now his work appears online and in print. A particular thrill came when several of his stories were accepted for the 2008 Silver Boomer Books anthology Freckles to Wrinkles. When he needs new ideas he climbs into his Baja Bug and cruises the Zuni Mountains, listening for the voices in the juniper thickets.
Sarah Charsley has recently completed a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing and Personal Development at the University of Sussex in the south east of England. She is a freelance writer and runs creative writing workshops for adults with learning disabilities. Her short fiction has been published by Blue Chrome and she reads regularly at live fiction events in her home town of Brighton. She is in the process of writing her first novel.
Curtis C. Chen is not an aardvark. He is a graduate of the Viable Paradise XII writers workshop. Every week, he posts a new piece of flash fiction at 512 Words or Fewer. When not writing or developing ace crimefighting techniques, Curtis can be found playing Rock Band with his wife or attending to their two cats.
Madonna Dries Christensen told the story of her all-girl band cousins in Swinging Sisters, and the story of the disappearing cousin in Family Tree magazine. She’s also the author of Masquerade: The Swindler Who Conned J. Edgar Hoover; The Quiet Warrior, and Dolls Remembered, an anthology about memorable childhood dolls. She’s the editor ofDoorways Memoirs; and Contributing Editor to Yesterday’s Magazette and The Perspiring Writer. Three times nominated for the Pushcart Prize, her writing has appeared in more than one hundred publications. She and her husband live in Sarasota, Florida. View her Web site at: www.MadonnaDriesChristensen.com. (Picture: far right, Madonna Dries (Christensen), center, Gramma Agnes Guertin, far left, Shirley Dries (Fitterer), Sibley, Iowa, circa 1947)
Sally Clark, writing from Fredericksburg, Texas, is privileged to live within two miles of all five of her grandchildren. Her award winning poetry and stories have been featured in numerous anthologies and gift books, some of which have been published by Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House, Chronicle Books, Howard Books, Faith Books, HCI, and Adams Media. Silver Boomer Books featured another of her stories in Freckles to Wrinkles. Find her at www.SallyClark.info.
SuzAnne C. Cole is a retired college instructor, wife, mother, and grandmother who writes in a studio in the woods in the Texas Hill Country. She’s published more than 400 poems, short stories, essays and plays in academic, literary, and commercial magazines, anthologies and newspapers, including three previous Silver Boomer Books.
Carole Creekmore, a baby boomer who grew up in rural North Carolina, is a widow with two adult children, two lovely granddaughters, and an English Bulldog named Okie. With degrees in English from Wake Forest University, she teaches English, creative writing, and humanities, writes poetry and prose, and enjoys traveling, genealogy, and photography.
Barbara Darnall, the daughter of a high school English teacher and a West Texas lawyer and rancher, has been surrounded by words all her life and grew up telling stories and writing scripts for her playmates to perform. She graduated from Baylor University with B.A. and M.A. degrees in drama, and taught at the college level for several years. Currently president of Abilene Writers Guild, she writes poetry, articles, and personal narratives, and has written and directed numerous short dramas for her church. Her work has appeared in the three previous Silver Boomer Books anthologies. She has copy-edited one book and several manuscripts, and, as a tax consultant for more than thirty years, she particularly enjoys the letter-writing contests she occasionally gets into with the IRS! June Rose Dowis reads, writes and resides in Shreveport, Louisiana. As a church librarian, she is in constant contact with the world of words. Her essays have been published in Birds and Blooms, Byline and Appleseeds magazines. After a year-long stint as a freelance writer for a local publication, she is currently plunging into the world of poetry.
Lena Judith Drake is a Creative Writing student at Grand Valley State University, and the editor-in-chief of Breadcrumb Scabs poetry magazine (www.BreadcrumbScabs.com). She has been previously published in magazines such as Halfway Down the Stairs, Della Donna, and Pemmican Press. For more information or more publications, please see her personal website: LenaJudith.sedentarygecko.com.
T. Joseph Dunham lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A survivor of cancer, he has also worked as a historian, herbalist and gardener at various museums in Pennsylvania. Now too sick from side effects of a harsh treatment of chemotherapy and radiation, he focuses his energy on his writing.
Sharon Hogan Ellison is a native Texan. During years of singing, playing piano and directing church choirs, she has written and directed several Christian plays. She puts her BBA in Management to use as a physician’s office manager, and found another creative outlet by joining the Abilene Writers Guild. She has won several contests and has been published in Proceedings and Nostalgia magazines and in the Silver Boomer Books anthology This Path. Sharon and her husband, Sterling, enjoy being Gramma and Grampa while their son and daughter-in-love raise the grandchildren.
Renee Emerson was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She recently earned her M.F.A. from Boston University and won The Academy of American Poets prize. Her work has appeared in Tar River Poetry, The Blue Earth Review, The Santa Clara Review, The American Literary Review, and various others. Currently, she lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her husband Bryan.
Megan Engelhardt works at a library and still doesn’t have as much time to read and write as she’d like. Her work has appeared in Thaumatrope, Tweet the Meat, Everyday Weirdness and Allegory. She lives just north of Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, and can be followed on Twitter as @HHCMeg.
Mary Belardi Erickson originated from Passaic, New Jersey, but experienced an upbringing in rural Minnesota. She attended Augsburg College, Minneapolis, and Drake University, Des Moines. After living in Indiana and in the Chicago area, she trekked west again. Today, she enjoys country living with her husband, Jon, and dog, Buttons, in west central Minnesota. Her son, Joe Rader, is a computer science specialist in his first job after college. Mary Belardi Erickson is published internationally, both online and in print, most recently or forth-coming in Flutter, Numinous, Avocet, The Aurorean, Oak Bend Review, Bolts of Silk, Perspectives, MindFlights, Waterways, as well as others. (Second picture, Grandpa Elmer Smith with Mary, 1960)
Joanne Faries, originally from the Philadelphia area, lives in Texas with her husband Ray. Published inDoorknobs & Bodypaint, Off the Coast, Orange Room Review, and Salome magazine, she also has stories and poems in Shinemagazine, A Long Story Short, Bartleby-Snopes, and Freckles to Wrinkles. Joanne is the film critic for the Little Paper of San Saba. She was the president of Trinity Writers’ Workshop in Bedford, Texas. Joanne blogs at www.wordsplash=JoanneFaries.blog.
Jayne Jaudon Ferrer is the author of four books of poetry that focus on family life, including the now classicA New Mother’s Prayers, which has remained in print for twenty years. An award-winning copywriter and freelance journalist earlier in her writing career, Ferrer is a native Floridian who now lives in Greenville, South Carolina. She speaks frequently at women’s and book events and her work has appeared in hundreds of publications ranging from Boca Raton Magazine toChristian Parenting Today. Learn more about her at www.JayneJaudonFerrer.com.
Mike Gallagher was born on Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland. He has been published in, among others, The Doghouse Book of Ballad Poems, Irish Haiku Society, The World Haiku Review, frogspond, Revival, The Stony Thursday, VerbSap, The Poetry Porch, The Swarthmore Literary Review and Crannóg. He won the 2010 Eigse Michael Hartnett viva voce competition and is a founder member of the Seanachaí Writers Group, Listowel, Ireland.
Peter D. Goodwin divides his time between the streets and vibrant clutter of New York City and the remnants of the natural world along Maryland Chesapeake Bay. He has poems published in the anthologies September eleven, Maryland Voices, Listening to The Water: The Susquehanna Water Anthology, Alternatives To Surrender, Silver Boomers, Wild Things–Domestic and Otherwise; as well as in various journals including Rattle, Scribble, Memoir(and) Dreamstreets, Lucidity, Attic, River Poets Journal, Delaware Poetry Review, lunarosity, Bent Pin, Twisted Tongue, Poetry Monthly, LunchLines, Prints, Main Street Rag.
Liza Granville lives in Gloucestershire, England, with her own personal bodyguard, three monstrous Persian cats and an over-active imagination. Her work is published in many magazines and anthologies. She has written seven novels: A Green Hill Far Away, The House in The Riddle, Until The Skies Fall, Curing The Pig, The Crack of Doom, The Tor, and The Nine Witches of Glawster. Her collection of short stories is Baiting The Unicorn.
Ginny Greene likely arrived on Planet Earth with a blue pencil clutched in her fist. Past president of Abilene Writers Guild, her writing life includes years of newspaper lifestyle features, a newspaper column, and a handful of newsletters, including seven years editing the Guild’s newsletter. For fun, Ginny writes poems and works crossword puzzles. She edits everything, even street signage, especially yard sale signs, even in her sleep. She’s happiest seeing her love of words spilled over to her children and grandchildren, including daughter, Karen, also a Silver Boomer Books editor. Ginny still has ties to her Northwest hometown, but Texas is “home.” Ginny’s book Song of County Roads was published in 2009 by Silver Boomer Books.
Violet Greene, 1896-1985, was born in the community of Strawberry, Virginia. Greene was a teacher, a caregiver to her nephews and a cryptologist for the US Government. After the death of her sister-in-law, Greene took over the care of her four nephews with an age range from seven days to five years. When the boys completed high school and left for the Pacific, Greene left the farm for Fort Mead until retirement.
Alice Greenwood, who calls West Texas her home, has been writing poetry, stories, articles, and music since taking early retirement from school teaching 25 years ago. She draws her material from multifaceted personal experiences in travel, community involvement, and, most importantly, life with her large family of five children, twelve grands, and eleven great-grands. Her writings have won numerous awards nationally, statewide, and locally, and have appeared in more than four dozen publications.
Carol Lynn Grellas is a four-time Pushcart nominee and the author of four chapbooks: A Thousand Tiny Sorrows, (March Street Press), Breakfast in Winter (Flutter Press), Litany of Finger Prayers (Pudding House Press), Object of Desire (Finishing Line Press) and two e-chaps, Desired Things (Gold Wake Press) and Tell the Children (Victorian Violet Press). She is widely published in magazines and online journals including most recently, OVS and Saw Palm Florida Literature and Art. She lives with her husband, five children and a little blind dog who sleeps in the bathtub.
Maryanne Hannan has poetry and reviews in many print and online journals,Cerise Press, Christian Century, Christianity and Literature, Poet Lore, Pebble Lake Review, Xavier Review, Windhover, and in several anthologies, including Letters to the World: Poems from the Wom-Po Listserv and Motif 2: Chance. Another “Grandmother” poem has been set to music and performed in Boston, New York, North Carolina, and Glasgow, Scotland. (The pictures are Maryanne in the eighth grade with her grandmother and as an adult with her eighth-grade grandson.)
Becky Haigler is retired after 24 years of teaching Spanish in Texas public schools. As an Air Force wife, she lived in Spain, Germany, Japan, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Texas. Her poetry has appeared in Cappers Magazine, Christian Single Magazine, Jack and Jill, Writer’s Guidelines, Devo’Zine, and Lubbock Magazine. Her short stories for adolescents have been published by several denominational presses. Becky has two magic realism stories in the anthology Able to…., from NeoNuma Arts Press. Her collection of stories, not so GRIMM, debuted in 2009 from Laughing Cactus Press, imprint of Silver Boomer Books. Becky resides in Shreveport, Louisiana, with her husband Dave Haigler. She has two daughters and three granddaughters.
Janet Hartman lives in North Carolina and is president of Carteret Writers. Her articles about coastal towns, exceptional people, and boating life have appeared in various national magazines and online. She has also been published in two anthologies: This Path and Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas. Her articles about writing have appeared in several newsletters for writers. As the 2010 guest columnist for the Long Ridge Writers Group, her weekly “Potpourri” column offers information about contests, publishers, and other resources for writers. For more, see JanetHartman.net.
Dixon Hearne teaches and writes in southern California. His work has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his new book, Plantatia: High-toned and Lowdown Stories of the South, is nominated for a 2010 PEN award. Other short fiction appears in Post Road, Cream City Review, Wisconsin Review, Louisiana Literature, and several inspiration books from Adams Media. He is currently at work on a novel and another short story collection.
Joy Harold Helsing is an ex-salesclerk, ex-secretary, ex-textbook editor, ex-psychologist, ex-college instructor, ex-New Englander, ex-San Franciscan who now lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California. Her work has appeared in Bellowing Ark, Brevities, Byline, California Quarterly, Centrifugal Eye, Leading Edge, The Mid-America Poetry Review, Mobius, Poetalk, Poetry Depth Quarterly, The Raintown Review, Rattlesnake Review, Writers’ Journal, and elsewhere. She has published three chapbooks and one book, Confessions of the Hare.
Sonia Hendy-Isaac recently graduated with an MA in Creative & Critical Writing from the University of Gloucestshire in the UK; she is now completing her PhD. Her poetry has been widely published in journals; her most recent work can be found in Snakeskin, The Shit Creek Review, Qarrtsiluni and Equinox. Her debut collection, Flesh, is due from Bluechrome later this year; she is also an editor for Iota magazine and recently co-created Bombast Poetry, a journal dedicated to student poets in the UK.
Megan Hicks writes and tells stories. Her original, independently produced audio books have garnered critical acclaim and national awards. Her unique way with words delights audiences throughout the U.S. and internationally. Her writing workshops – “Your Life as History/Your History as Legacy” – are a hit with elders and young people who might think their lives are too ordinary to tell about. She lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia. (www.MeganHicks.com)
Kimberly Hill has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Sociology. She has taken numerous writing classes and belongs to a writing group. Her passion is exploring the internal dialogue of individuals and the complexity of the social world through writing. She has had two stories published in Adoption Today Magazine, and one included in the book Touched by Adoption Volume 2 edited by Blair Matthews. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three children, Dolan, Kaleigh, and little Abby Mae, named after Kimberly’s grandmother Edna Mae.
Roxanne Hoffman worked on Wall Street, now answers a patient hotline for a major New York home healthcare provider. Her poems and stories appear on and off the net, most recently in Amaze: The Cinquain Journal, Danse Macabre, The Fib Review, Hospital Drive, Lucid Rhythms, MOBIUS The Poetry Magazine, Word Slaw and several anthologies including The Bandana Republic: A Literary Anthology by Gang Members and Their Affiliates (Soft Skull Press), Love After 70(Wising Up Press), and It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure (Harper Perennial).
Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s work has recently appeared in Lucid Rhythms, The Barefoot Muse, Mezzo Cammin, Umbrella, The Chimaera, Loch Raven Review, Every Day Stories, Shatter Colors Literary Review, The Raintown Review, Mobius, Fourteen Magazine, Perspectives and Silver Boomers. She is a tail-end member of the baby boom generation, though a bit more punk rock than Woodstock.
Ann Howells is a long-time member of Dallas Poets Community, a 501(c)3 literary non-profit. She serves on its board and as editor of its semi-annual journal, Illya’s Honey. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart, hung in the Sherri Lane Gallery alongside paintings, and used as dialog in the play Calliope’s Rampage. She has been named a “distinguished poet” by the city of Dallas, been interviewed about her chapbook and the journal she edits on Annapolis, Maryland, television and has taken first place in the Southwest Writers Club poetry contest. Her chapbook Black Crow in Flight was published in 2007 by Main Street Rag Press. Her work appears in various small journals, most recently Avocet, Barbaric Yawp, Third Wednesday and Main Channel Voices.
Dana Huber is a native of Fresno, California, where she lives with her grandmother and an elderly cat. She does substitute teaching part-time, while ostensibly writing the Great American Novel but in actuality playing Spider Solitaire. She is a graduate of the 2008 Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, which she claims broke her as a writer. She misses her grandfather.
Wynne Huddleston is a writer and music educator in Mississippi with a master’s degree in music education from the University of Southern Mississippi. A board member of the Mississippi Writers Guild, Ms. Huddleston’s poetry has been, or will be published in Emerald Tales: Winter Solstice, Vol. 1, Special 3; Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, Vol. 30, No. 4; Gemini Magazine; Today in Mississippi; The Shine Journal; Emerald Tales: Midsummer’s Eve, Vol. 2, No. 3; THEMA: Music and Math, and the Birmingham Arts Journal. Ms. Huddleston has two sons and two grandchildren. She is currently working on two books of poetry.
IFMiller was born in New York City, educated at New York University, Purdue University, and the University of Michigan. He taught and administered programs at Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, University of Illinois at Chicago, and University of Akron. His poetry has appeared in Poetica Magazine, Free Lunch, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Aurorean, group and solo chapbooks, and on several websites.
Julie C. Judes is a Wisconsin fine artist who has recently begun to write short stories, some of which have appeared in The Rockford Review and Calliope (publication of the Writers’ Special Interest Group of American Mensa, Ltd.). Several other stories are due to be published in different magazines. In addition to writing short stories, Julie enjoys cooking, the opera, knitting, sewing, and bicycling.
Karen Kelsay is the author of two chapbooks: A Fist of Roots by Pudding House Press and Somewhere Near Evesham published by The New Formalist Press. Nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, she has been published in numerous journals and magazines including The Boston Literary Magazine, The New Formalist, Lucid Rhythms, Ancient Paths andTipton Poetry Journal. She lives with her British husband in Orange County, California, and loves visiting England, where she finds the inspiration for many of her poems. Read more of her work at: www.KarenKelsay.com.
Pat Kelsey, West Texas native and great-grandmother, hopes to encourage the generations coming after as her mother-in-law did her. Pat grew up in Sylvester, Texas, where her parents were known as hard-working, honest people. The five children were taught there were no free rides, and all worked in the home and in the barn. Younger children inherited new chores when older ones moved up to new responsibilities. Pat says, “My parents were wonderful examples for us and I’m thankful for my Christian heritage.” “What Granny Left Me” is her first published writing.
Mary Krauss is a retired middle school teacher enjoying a life crammed with family, friends, theater work and travel. She also enjoys stepping back into the classroom to stay in touch with the next “best generation.” Mary is grateful for the time to reflect on her life and do a bit of writing about it.
Bruce Lader is the founding director of Bridges Tutoring, an organization educating multicultural students, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Renata, and two cats. Bruce’s most recent books are Embrace (Big Table Publishing, 2010) and Landscapes of Longing (Main Street Rag, 2010). His first full-length book, Discovering Mortality, was a finalist for The Brockman-Campbell Book Award. He has published poems in Poetry, New York Quarterly, The Humanist, and many other journals. A former Writer-in-Residence at the Helene Wurlitzer Colony, he has received an honorarium from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara. www.BruceLader.com.
Hiram Larew, at 6 foot 6 inches, is one of the tallest poets writing today. He lives in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, and directs international farming programs for the federal government. His poems have appeared in 75 poetry journals and collections, and he has received awards for his work from Louisiana Literature, The Washington Review, and other publishing houses. His second collection, More than Anything was published in 2007 by Vrzhu Press. “Cigar” was written with Salem, West Virginia, in mind – where he often visited his maternal grandparents.
Blanche L. Ledford’s work has appeared in Exit 109, Mountain High, Southern Mist, Lights in the Mountains, and Freckles to Wrinkles. She enjoys gardening, quilting, and writing. Blanche lives in North Carolina.
MaryEllen Letarte has been a dental hygienist, business owner, landlord, and membership director of an art museum. She lives and writes stories and poems in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. Her poems have appeared online and in regional publications. When she’s not writing she’s reading to her grandchildren, traveling with her husband, or talking to her flowers.
Dorothy Leyendecker, a retired Registered Nurse, writes both prose and poetry. She is a member of the Florida Writers Association, The Poetry Group and the Children’s Author’s Team in “The Villages,” a retirement community where she lives. She has stories published in The Barnes and Noble Anthologies, The Noble Generation Vol. II and III, Cats Anthology published by Fireside Publications, Good Old Days Magazine and Reminisce Magazine. Her poems have appeared in The Village Sun, a local newspaper.
Tess Almendárez Lojacono is a writer, business owner and a teacher. Her company, Fine Art Miracles, seeks to accomplish two goals: 1) to bring attention to the underserved through fine art education and 2) to embrace humanity in the elucidation of common experiences and emotions. She has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.International Family Magazine has named her Editor of its Latin Families Column, where you can find her stories, along with the work of other Latin writers. Tess’ work has appeared in OffCourse, a literary journal, in The Cortland Review, Flash Fiction Online, St. Maria’s Messenger, Falling Star Magazine and Etchings Magazine. The Shine Journal featured one of her short stories in their December 2009 issue. Two of her stories won awards in The Writer’s Digest 77th Annual Writing Competition.
Linda Lyons is a two-time finalist for the Martindale Literary Prize, currently completing her second novel and a collection of short fiction. Blessed with grandparents and great-grandparents for most of her life, she is delving into childhood memories to create a comprehensive memoir for her own grandchildren.
Carla Martin-Wood, three times nominated for The Pushcart Prize, is the author of How we are loved andFlight Risk, two full-length collections of her poetry (both from Fortunate Childe Publications). She has authored six chapbooks:Songs from the Web (Bitter Wine Press); Garden of Regret and Redheaded Stepchild (both Pudding House Chapbook Series); Feed Sack Majesty, HerStory, and The Last Magick (all Fortunate Childe Publications). Her work also appears in four anthologies: Love Poems & Other Messages for Bruce Springsteen and Casting the Nines (both Pudding House Publications); Lilith: a collection of women’s writes; and Postcards from Eve, (both Fortunate Childe Publications). Carla’s poems have been widely published in a plethora of journals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland.
Gerald A. McBreen is a retired U.S. Postal Service letter carrier. He is Certified by the Newspaper Institute of America. He was recently named Poet Laureate of Pacific, Washington. He discovered late in life he can say things poetically that he couldn’t say successfully as an essayist. McBreen says mostly his work reaches out to non-poets. He hopes to intrigue and delight readers enough to draw them down a path they would not ordinarily traverse and be glad they did.
Janet McCann has poetry in journals such as Kansas Quarterly, Parnassus, Nimrod, Sou’wester, Christian Century, Christianity and Literature, New York Quarterly, Tendril, Poetry Australia, and McCall’s, among many others.
Carrie McClure, actor, poet, and barrista extraordinaire, is a resident of Shreveport, Louisiana. This is her first published poetry.
Tiffany Streifel McCone loves to tell stories, confess her transgressions, rant about the state of the world (or just the fact that people don’t know how to properly use the carpool lane), and make people laugh. She also loves lists of things that she loves. The written word has been her emotional outlet since writing her first poem at age 10, although these days most of her words spill out in the form of blogs. She is fiercely in love with and dedicated to her husband, two step-children, family, friends and her stubborn, yet adorable, basset hound. She is also quite fond of her two cats, but only when they are doing their business in their litter box. Happiest when using her imagination and her own two hands to produce something beautiful, she can often be found in the garage with a power sander or in the living room with a laptop.
Madeleine McDonald lives on the East coast of England, where the wind whistles up through the floorboards. Her short stories have been broadcast on local radio and BBC World Service, and her humorous pieces on life with her irrepressible family are regularly published in the Yorkshire Post, a regional newspaper.
Pat Capps Mehaffey received a degree from Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, and worked as a bank officer for over 30 years. After retirement, Pat and her husband, Howard, moved to a lake home where they enjoy birds, gardening and grandchildren. Pat has published two books of daily devotionals, Lessons for Living and Strength Sufficient for the Day. Her short stories appear in publications, including Cup of Comfort, Rocking Chair Reader, The Noble Generation, The Upper Room, the Silver Boomer Books anthology This Path, and the Guideposts series, When Miracles Happen. Her work has won awards in journalistic contests.
Margaret Gish Miller was born in Palo Alto, California, in 1946. She earned her B.A. and M.A. at California State University, Fresno. An award-winning poet, her work has appeared in Hipfish, Verseweavers, the Peralta Press, New Millennium Writings, Walking Bridges Using Poetry as a Compass, Poets & Writers and elsewhere. A retired college English teacher, she lives in Independence, Oregon, with her husband Ron Miller. As grandparents, they enjoy frequent trips to Seattle, Washington, where they hope to live when “Grandpa” retires.
Sharon Fish Mooney, a native upstate New Yorker, teaches nursing research and gerontology online (Ph.D., University of Rochester). Her most recent book is Alzheimer’s – Caring for Your Loved One, Caring for Yourself, targeted for a UK audience (Lion Hudson, England). One of her poems on Alzheimer’s is featured on the Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) website. She coordinates monthly poetry and music nights at Tim Hortons for the Write-On Writers of Coshocton, Ohio. Sharon and her husband Scott spend weekends blazing trails in the woods for a future home and writing/poetry retreat center.
Sharon Lask Munson grew up in Detroit, Michigan. After thirty years of teaching overseas and in Alaska, she is retired and lives in Eugene, Oregon. She has poems in Sandcutters, Manzanita Quarterly, Windfall, Verseweaves, Earth’s Daughter, Thema, Drash: Northwest Mosaic, Goose River Press, and others. Her forthcoming chapbook, Silence Settles Down the Lane, will be published in the Summer, 2010, by Uttered Chaos Press.
Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy is a native of St. Joseph, Missouri, the town where the Pony Express began and Jesse James met his end. She now lives in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks in a small town with her husband and three children. She is a lifelong writer, member of both Missouri Writers Guild and the Ozark Writers League. Her work has previously appeared in many publications including Classic Christmas (October 2006), Adams Media, The Rambler, Country Woman, FATE, Catholic Digest, and many more. When she isn’t writing, reading, or taking care of her family, she is gardening or researching family history.
Patricia Cochran Murrell lives in the country in Benton, Louisiana, with a wonderfully wise omega man, sharing six children, a jumble of grandchildren, and a hand-me-down lab. After leaving a lifetime of teaching English in high school and then on faculty at Louisana Tech University Barksdale Air Force Base Program, she has partnered with her daughter in Murrell.Stewart Photography. Her poetry has been published in Comstock Review, Louisiana Review, Louisiana Literature, and Between Quiet and Confrontation. In 2004, her chapbook Useful Fiction was published by Pudding House.
Sheryl L. Nelms, Kansas native, graduated from South Dakota State University in Family Relations and Child Development. Her poems, stories and articles have appeared in periodicals and anthologies including Readers’ Digest, Modern Maturity, Capper’s, Kaleidoscope, Grit, Cricket, over 5000 times. Fourteen collections of her poetry have been published. Sheryl has taught writing and poetry at conferences, colleges and schools. She was a Bread Loaf Contributor at the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Middlebury, Vermont. She has served as editor for many journals, including her current post as Fiction/Non-fiction Editor of The Pen Woman Magazine, the membership magazine of the National League of American Pen Women. She holds membership in The Society of Southwestern Authors, Abilene Writers Guild, and Trinity Arts Writers Association. Sheryl’s book Bluebonnets, Boots, and Buffalo Bones is published by Laughing Cactus Press, an imprint of Silver Boomer Books.
Johnsie Noel resides in North Carolina where she writes poetry in an attempt to capture human conditions, within the flora and fauna of life, and nail them like Jell-O to the wall. Her published and forthcoming work appears in Metazen, PANK, Referential Magazine, The Legendary, Picfic, The Shine Journal, FlashFire500 and Emerald Tales. She holds a BFA from Winthrop University and attended UNC-Chapel Hill. In her spare time Johnsie works full-time, single parents and trains in equestrian dressage.
Linda O’Connell is an award-winning writer and poet whose work appears in numerous anthologies, periodicals, literary magazines, books and newspapers. Linda is a teacher, wife, mother and grandmother who understands how something as simple as drumming fingers on a porch rail can create a lifetime memory. Read Linda O’Connell’s blog, Write from the Heart. She blogs at LindaOConnell.blogspot.com.
Karen O’Leary is a wife, mother, nurse, and freelance writer from North Dakota. Her short stories, poetry, and articles have appeared in various venues including SP Quill, Sketchbook, Purpose, Beyond Katrina, The Journal of Christian Nursing, Lucidity, and Mississippi Crow Magazine. She feels blessed to share her writing with others.
Carl Palmer, nominated for the Pushcart Prize in poetry and the Micro Award in flash fiction, formerly of Old Mill Road in Ridgeway, Virginia, now lives in University Place, Washington.
Lynn Pinkerton announced in the fifth grade that she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. After careers in social services and special event marketing, Lynn reclaimed her childhood aspiration and joined a writing group. She is happily writing and publishing and wondering why she didn’t listen to her young self sooner. She lives in Houston, Texas.
Diana M. Raab is a memoirist and poet who teaches writing at the UCLA Writers’ Program and at conferences around the country. Her latest book, Dear Anais: My Life in Poems for You (2008) with a preface by Tristine Rainer, is poetry winner of the 2009 Next Generation Indie Award and other high honors. Her memoir, Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal (2007) was the recipient of numerous honors including the 2008 National Indie Award for Excellence in Memoir and the 2009 Mom’s Choice Award for Adult Nonfiction. Her poetry and essays have appeared widely in anthologies, literary journals and magazines.
Carol McAdoo Rehme, a prolific freelance writer, collects antique autograph albums. Her favorite verse, dated 1868, states, “Your story begins at home.” So that’s where she looks first. Carol’s 25-year career includes ghostwriting, editing, and compiling anthologies; her award-winning vignettes appear widely in inspirational collections. Her publications include The Book of Christmas Virtues, five gift books, and her latest release, Chicken Soup for the Soul Empty Nesters: 101 Stories about Surviving and Thriving When the Kids Leave Home. Learn more at www.Rehme.com.
Rebecca Anne Renner comes from a large family down south, and this is where she draws most of her inspiration. She attends the University of Florida to study Spanish and French, and she plans to join the Peace Corps upon graduation. Rebecca also plans to teach English as a Second Language after graduate school. One of the subjects of her poem, Barbara Renner, recently lost her long battle with cancer. This poem was written a month before her death and commemorates her strength of spirit. It is for families with loved ones lost to cancer, to help them remember the love, not the loss.
Jeremy Rich has published several poems in various print and online journals like Watershed, Take Back The Night, Chantarelle’s Notebook, Ceremony, Thick with Conviction, Speedpoets, Poetic Hours, and others. He is currently an 8th grade Language Arts teacher in Colorado, but was a long-time chef in California.
Kerin Riley-Bishop is an editor, contributing author, and partner of Silver Boomer Books. She is a poet, essayist, photographer and intermittent blogger. Kerin is a member of local writing and critique groups, and a faithful advocate of social networking. She is continually pushing things around on her plate in order to make room for more! Her writing can be found in Silver Boomers – a collection of prose and poetry by and about baby boomers, Freckles to Wrinkles, This Path and on her mother’s refrigerator. She lives in West Texas with her sweetheart, Mason, and their two children.
J. D. Riso is the author of the novel, Blue (Murphy’s Law Press, 2006). Her short fiction and travel writing have appeared in Slush Pile, Avatar Review, Superstition Review, Prick of the Spindle, and many other diverse publications. She leads a nomadic life and currently resides in Budapest, Hungary, with her husband and her rabbit. (Picture: Julie with her grandpa Floyd Wenglikowski) Lisa Rizzo is a poet and middle school teacher living in San Carlos, California, who manages to combine her love of poetry and words with her day job. Her work has been published in such journals as The Lucid Stone, 13th Moon, Writing for Our Lives, Earth’s Daughters and Bellowing Ark.
Barbara B. Rollins lives in Abilene, Texas, a judge who writes while waiting for lawyers. Her children’s books include a novel Syncopated Summer and a forensic series Fingerprint Evidence, Ballistics, Cause of Death, and Blood Evidence. Her latest book, A Time for Verse, Poetic Ponderings on Ecclesiastes, was published by the Eagle Wings Press imprint of Silver Boomer Books in 2009. Like many baby boomers, she shares her husband with three dogs, worrying about aging parents, two sons, and daughters-in-law. She is a past president of Abilene Writers Guild, 2009-2010 Area Governor in Toastmasters International, and a principal in Silver Boomer Books. (Picture: Barbara Breedlove Rollins, Mike Rollins, Rhapherd Thomas “Pop” Breedlove, Irma Lorene Richards “Grandmom” Breedlove, March 2, 1974)
Peg Russell, with husband Mike, lives in a log cabin in the mountains, where everyone is a storyteller and everyone loves stories. She retired from teaching in Sarasota where she generally drove her students nutsier than they drove her. She wrote Dreamers of Our Past, a Sarasota history booklet, and co-authored Beginning Genealogy at Selby Library. A contributing writer for The Cherokee Scout, she is a pre-published mystery short story writer.
Terry Sanville lives in San Luis Obispo, California, with his artist-poet wife (his in-house editor) and one fat cat (his in-house critic). He writes full time, producing short stories, essays, poems, an occasional play, and novels (that are hiding in his closet, awaiting editing). Since 2005, his short stories have been accepted by more than 120 literary and commercial journals, magazines, and anthologies (both print and online) including the Houston Literary Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, Boston Literary Magazine, and Underground Voices. Terry is a retired urban planner and an accomplished jazz and blues guitarist – who once played with a symphony orchestra backing up jazz legend George Shearing.
Heather Ann Schmidt teaches composition at Oakland Community College and ITT Technical Institute in the United States. Her poetry and flash fiction have appeared in several online and print journals. She has two full collections of poems forthcoming: Recalling Life Through the Eye of the Needle (Village Green Books) and Transient Angels (Crisis Chronicles Press).
J. Michael Shell, a Southern writer, is a serious and dedicated artist. At the University of South Carolina (B.A. in English) he studied under the great American poet and novelist James Dickey. Internationally published, Shell’s fiction has appeared in Tropic: The Sunday Magazine of the Miami Herald, Space and Time Magazine, Hadley/Rille Books’ Footprintsanthology, Spectrum Fantastic Arts Award winning Polluto magazine, and the Shirley Jackson Award nominated Bound for Evilanthology (Dead Letter Press), to name just a few. His fiction has also been audio produced for MP3 download by Sniplits, and his novella An Occidental Book of the Dead is scheduled for podcast by Nil Desperandum.
Weslea Sidon is a poet and musician living in West Tremont, Maine. Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies including Still on The Island, an anthology of poems inspired by Mt. Desert Island published in August 2009. Her essays and reviews have appeared in (among others) the Bar Harbor Times, Over Easy, and The Squash.
Jeffrey T. Spinazzola, formerly an attorney, has recently traded law for fiction. His previous publications include an untitled piece of fiction in Marisa Murgatroyd’s limited addition art book, Wandering Boston (1998-2000), and a poem, “Crows Walking,” as part of Diane Samuels’ Lines of Sight (2006). He is a graduate of Brown University and New York University School of Law.
Ken Staley is a retired high school English teacher currently living in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Bonnie Stanard is a South Carolina writer currently completing an antebellum novel about a slave on St. Helena Island. She has been writing and editing for 25 years with credits in numerous publications, such as Slipstream, Kestrel, The South Carolina Review, Connecticut Review, Eclipse, and North Atlantic Review. In the ’80s while she lived in Brussels, Belgium, she edited a magazine for English speakers. On returning to the States, she edited and published for five years a county newspaper. Though she has traveled far from the farm where she grew up, she often returns to it in her fiction.
J. J. Steinfeld, Canadian fiction writer, poet, and playwright, lives on Prince Edward Island. He has published two novels, Our Hero in the Cradle of Confederation (Pottersfield Press) and Word Burials (Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink), nine short story collections, the previous three by Gaspereau Press – Should the Word Hell Be Capitalized?, Anton Chekhov Was Never in Charlottetown, and Would You Hide Me? – and two poetry collections, An Affection for Precipices (Serengeti Press) and Misshapenness (Ekstasis Editions). His short stories and poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and periodicals internationally, and over forty of his one-act plays and a handful of his full-length plays have been performed in Canada and the United States.
Donna Stone resides in Texas with her husband and their four children. She has been published in numerous print and online publications, writing on various topics related to parenting, health, and environmental issues. Donna also enjoys writing personal and inspirational essays on the Christian life. Currently she is busy working on her first novel-length fiction, blogging, and spending time with her family. You can read her blog at www.RandomMusingsFromTexas.blogspot.com.
Athena Strickland waited until her fifth decade to enter college. She attends Kennesaw State University and is pursuing her B.S. in Organizational Communication with a minor in Writing. Her works appear in Dead Mule, Dogzplot, Muscadine Vines and the Birmingham Arts Journal She is a devoted writer, mother, wife, dog-lover and diet soda drinker.
James Vescovi’s essays about his grandparents have been published in The New York Times, New York Newsday, Ancestor, Creative Nonfiction, and other venues. He has performed them on stage at the Kansas City Fringe Festival. He lives in New York with his wife and children.
Duncan MacCarthy Whitmire lives in New Hampshire, where he works with children with developmental disabilities. His fiction has appeared in Amarillo Bay, Ascent Aspirations, and Inscribed Magazine.
Jim Wisneski lives in Pennsylvania and has been published in many anthologies including Flash!, Elements of Horrors, Diamonds in the Rough, and Inner Fears. Other stories have been published in Flashes in the Dark, Twisted Dreams, Pow! Fast Flash Fiction, A Twist of Noir, among many others. He doesn’t sleep, drinks lots of coffee, and listens to Guns n Roses. Jim’s web site is www.JimWisneski.com.
Ellen E. Withers‘ grandfather, Dr. Homer Albert Gorrell, practiced medicine for over fifty years in rural Missouri and entertained his grandchildren with his adventures in the medical field. Ellen is a member of the Ozark Writers League, Fiction Writers of Central Arkansas and the Pioneer Branch of National Pen Women. In addition to garnering numerous writing awards, her fiction has been featured in seven anthologies. She is a regular contributor to Life in Chenal magazine and is the editor of SIU Today, an insurance fraud awareness magazine published by the International Association of Special Investigation Units.
Catherine Zickgraf is indebted to MySpace for helping her find her long-lost son whom she placed for adoption two decades ago – thus you can find her blog there: MySpace.com/CZickgraf. Her poetry has appeared in theJournal of the American Medical Association and in BirdsEye Review. She also has work forthcoming in GUD Magazine and decomP.
Thelma Zirkelbach, aka Lorna Michaels, has published thirteen romance novels. Recent widowhood has shifted her focus from romance to personal essay. She enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with her granddaughter, who also likes to write. (Pictured with granddaughter Gabriella)
