This Path Authors

 

Lee Ardell is a native Texan, currently living in Houston and Galveston with her husband, Bob. She graduated from Austin College with a degree in history and serves on the College’s Board of Trustees. She took up writing after a career in banking. Her work has been published in New Texas, Bayou Review and 400 Words.

Betty Wilson Beamguard writes full-time, specializing in magazine features, short fiction, and humorous essays. She has received over 30 honors for her writing, and her work has appeared in Women in the Outdoors, South Carolina, Sasee, ByLine, The Writer and more. In her humorous novel, Weej and Johnnie Hit Florida, two middle-age women spend a week in Florida trying to lose the jerk who is following them. Her most recent book is the biography of a woman who drives a draft horse with her feet – How Many Angels Does It Take: The Remarkable Life of Heather Rose Brooks.www.home.earthlink.net/~bbeamguard.

 

Janis Hughen Bell is a native Houstonian. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin, where her writing vocation began as editor of the Cactus yearbook. After a 30-year career as a commercial interior designer, she retired to pursue writing and art projects. She lives in Houston, Texas, and Georgetown, Colorado, with husband Richard Bell.

Ann Reisfeld Boutte is a former feature writer for a daily newspaper and a national wire service. Her work has appeared in New Texas, Houston Woman’s Magazine, My Table, Suddenly, Texas Poetry Calendar, for five years, and many other publications. She was a Juried Poet in the Houston Poetry Fest in 2001, 2005 and 2009.

Stewart Caffey, a copyeditor, and his wife, Donajean, moved to Abilene when he retired from teaching in 1996. He publishes The Sidney Eagle, a quarterly nostalgic newsmagazine about the Sidney school and community (Comanche County, Texas) and serves as newsletter editor for the Abilene Retired Teachers Association. Caffey also remains active in his church, Abilene Writers Guild (past president and lifetime member), and the Texas Oral History Association. His books includeMy 20-Year Love Affair, A Gallon of White Lightning, and Patchwork of Memories.

Judy Callarman lives in Cisco, Texas. She teaches creative writing and English at Cisco Junior College and is chair of the Fine Arts Division. She enjoys writing mostly nonfiction and has recently discovered she loves writing unrhymed poetry. Several of her works have won contests and been published in newspapers and journals. Two of her long nonfiction narratives were competition finalists in the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference of the Southwest in 2006 and 2007. A short nonfiction work was published in Passager. She is working on a collection of World War II memoirs based on letters from her father.

Mary Carter grew up in Amarillo and lived most of her adult life in Lubbock. West Texas culture and landscape continue to influence her writing.

Brianna Cedes recently started writing after twenty years of teaching science on the primary and secondary levels in public schools in Oregon. Her favorite part of her work was encouraging young girls to think about having careers in the sciences. She has four grandchildren and occasionally does messy science experiments in the kitchen with them.

Becky Chakov lived in Minneapolis, Minnetonka and Mound, Minnesota; Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia before moving to Bemidji, Minnesota. She began writing years ago and had poems published in Poetry Parade, Christian Century magazine, the Chicago Tribune‘s column, “A Line O’ Type or Two,” and the Bemidji State University’s women’s anthology, Dust & Fire 2007. She is 84.

SuzAnne C. Cole writes from a studio in the woods in the Texas Hill Country. More than 350 of her poems, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in commercial and literary magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. She was a juried poet at the Houston Poetry Fest in 2003 and 2005, a featured poet in 2004, and once won a haiku festival in Japan. She was pleased to be included in the anthologies Silver Boomers and Freckles to Wrinkles.

Carlos Colon, a librarian in Shreveport, Louisiana, is the author of 11 chapbooks including Mountain Climbing and Clocking Out, two collections of haiku and concrete poetry, and Circling Bats and Wall Street Park, two books of concrete renku written with Raffael de Gruttola. Colon’s work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Louisiana Literature, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Writer’s Digest, Byline, and other publications. In addition, he is editor of Shreve Memorial Library’s Electronic Poetry Network. Colon is featured in a new book, Haiku: the art of the short poem, and its accompanying video.

Carol Bryan Cook has hundreds of works of poetry and short stories published. Traveling and living in seven countries and thirty-nine of the fifty states for over twenty-five years allowed her to gather glimpses of people and life along the way. Her travels, unique and myriad experiences, friendships, and losses encountered, provided never-ending material. Stories of heartache, love, life, and entanglements endured and touched her heart. An artist and author retired from the business world, she and her artist husband live beside a tranquil lake in Texas.

Carole Creekmore, a Baby Boomer who grew up in rural eastern North Carolina, is a widow with two adult children, two lovely granddaughters, and an English Bulldog, Okie. With degrees in English from Wake Forest University, she teaches composition, literature, creative writing, and humanities at an Atlanta-area college, writes prose and poetry whenever inspired, and enjoys traveling, genealogy, and photography. She has had several articles and poems published over the years, as well as the essay “Holiday Expectations – Then and Now” recently published in Silver Boomers and two pieces in Freckles to Wrinkles.

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. She has copyedited 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!

 

David Davis is a humorist, cartoonist, writer, and speaker. He is the author of ten published books so far. He grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and currently lives in Fort Worth. Most of his stories draw on his Texas roots, and his Baby Boomer love of music. Davis is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. His Jazz Cats and Ten Redneck Babies were both named to the Children’s Choice Top 100. Jazz Cats was a finalist for the Texas Golden Spur Award. His satirical Night Before Christmas books are perennial comedy best-sellers. His picture books, Texas Mother Goose and Texas Aesop’s Fables will delight Texans of all ages. His website is www.DavidRDavis.com.

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.

 

 

 

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. Sharon and her husband, Sterling, enjoy being Gramma and Grampa while their son and daughter-in-love raise the grandchildren.

Errid Farland lives in Southern California and writes at a cluttered table where a candle burns to create an aura of serenity. Sometimes she accidentally catches things on fire which turns the aura into angry yellows and reds and sort of wrecks the whole serenity thing. Her stories have appeared in Barrelhouse, Thieves Jargon, Word Riot, storySouth, Pindledyboz, GUD, and other great places. She owns www.ShowMeYourLits.com, a website which sponsors a weekly flash contest.

Judith Groudine Finkel left the practice of law to complete her legal thriller Texas Justice, which is available on Amazon.com, and her memoir The Three Stooges Gene. Excerpts from the latter, including “My Cousins, the Three Stooges” and “Betty Crocker and Me,” appeared in the Houston Chronicle. Her short stories have been published in theBirmingham Arts Journal, The Cuivre River Anthology Volume III, The Heartland Review and Sin Fronteras Journal. She is the recipient of a Summer Fishtrap 2008 Fellowship, a second place award in Moment Magazine’s 2008 Short Fiction Contest and a full tuition scholarship to the 2010 Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

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. 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.

 

 

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.

Phil Gruis is a former newspaper editor who took up poetry in 2002 – challenging the old dog/new trick theory. His poems have since appeared in dozens of journals, and his photos in a few. He’s the author of two chapbooks, Outside the House of Normal (2006) and Bullets and Lies (2007), both published by Finishing Line Press. He lives on Kootenay Lake in British Columbia, and in North Idaho.

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, debuts in 2010 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, a software developer who chose early retirement and spent six years cruising on a sailboat, now lives on land in Beaufort, North Carolina. Her writing has appeared in SAIL, Latitudes & Attitudes, Living Aboard, and the anthology Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas. She currently serves as president of Carteret Writers. Her website is JanetHartman.net.

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, Möbius, 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 (PWJ Publishing).

Frances Hern divides her time between Calgary, Alberta, and Golden, British Columbia. She loves Calgary’s sunny skies and puts up with cold, snowy winters because she enjoys downhill skiing. She’s had numerous poems published for both adults and children, along with two books of non-fiction and a children’s picture book. She is currently writing an historical novel for young adults.

Jeanne Holtzman is an aging hippie, writer and women’s health care practitioner, not necessarily in that order. Born in the Bronx, she prolonged her adolescence as long as possible in Vermont, and currently lives with her husband and daughter in Massachusetts. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in such publications as The Providence Journal, Writer’s Digest, The First Line, Twilight Times, Flashquake, Salome, Hobart online, Hip Mama, Every Day Fiction and The Iconoclast. You may reach Jeanne at J.holtzman@comcast.net.

Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, and freelance writer. He is self-employed in advertising and selling custom promotional products. He is the author of The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom. He has published two chapbooks of poetry. He is also nominated for the James B. Baker Award in poetry, Sam’s Dot Publishing. He is a contributor in the Silver Boomers anthology about aging Baby Boomers and Freckles to Wrinkles, both by Silver Boomer Books. Michael Lee Johnson presently resides in Itasca, Illinois. He lived in Canada during the Vietnam era and will be published as a contributor poet in the anthology Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era. He has been published in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Turkey, Fuji, Nigeria, Algeria, Africa, India, United Kingdom, Republic of Sierra Leone, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia. Visit his website at: http://poetryman.mysite.com.

Madelyn D. Kamen is a free-lance writer who has published short stories, poems, and essays in local and national magazines and online. Prior to establishing a document development company, she was an associate dean and professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. She was a graduate of the Leadership Texas Class of 1992, and was listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in the Southwest, Who’s Who in American Education, and Who’s Who in America. She is currently working on an anthology of short stories about everyday life.

Terrence Kandzor lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound where he writes part time. His non-fiction entry, “My Next Story,” was published in the 2005 In the Spirit of Writing anthology. “My Next Story” was recognized as a winner in the annual competition sponsored by the Whidbey Island Writers Association. His story, “The Fall of the Football Hero” was published in the Silver Boomers anthology, 2008. “Christmas 1949,” a memoir, received an award in the 2007 In the Spirit of Writing competition, and was included in the Whidbey Island Writers Association publication. He writes non-fiction and literary short stories that have a touch of the unexpected.

Helga Kidder has lived in the Tennessee hills for 30 years, raised two daughters, a half dozen cats, and a few dogs. She received her BA in English from the University of Tennessee and MFA in Writing from Vermont College. She is co-founder of the Chattanooga Writers Guild and leads their poetry group. Her poetry and translations have appeared in The Louisville Review, The Southern Indiana Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, Comstock Review, Eleventh Muse, Snake Nation Review, Voices International, Moebius, Free Focus, Phoenix, Chug, and others, and three anthologies.

Janet Morris Klise is a retired Writer-Editor-Photographer-Darkroom Technician, having fulfilled these duties for 40 years for high school, college, university and federal government publications. She finds that after so many years of loving to read, write and edit, she cannot leave the reading and writing alone. She limits her editing to her own writing and to Letters to the Editor sent to the local newspaper. Janet was born in Monroe, Louisiana, but has lived in California since the age of four. She now resides with her husband Tim, son Jonathan and cat Kaylee in Clovis, California.

Linda Kuzyk is a contributing author of the book, How To Use the Internet in Your Classroom, published by Teachers Network. She wrote two state-level award-winning WebQuests. She is a contributing author of the story “Anvil Floats,” which appears in a student literary magazine, Sneakers, Stilettos, & Steeltoes, published by Curry Printing and Mailing. Linda’s interview with author Simon Rose is posted on the NWFCC website. Kuzyk is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, and the Children’s Writers’ Coaching Club of the National Writing for Children Center.

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 retiring, 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 and the Guideposts series When Miracles Happen. Her work has won awards in journalistic contests.

Anthony J. Mohr writes from his home in southern California. His essays, memoirs, and short stories have appeared in Bibliophilos, The Christian Science Monitor, Circle Magazine, Currents, Literary House Review, and Skyline Magazine. Since he is a recovering lawyer, he also has been published in several bar journals and law reviews. His hobbies include hiking, travel, horseback riding, and improv theater.

Though minor editing for language, grammar spelling, etc. is done without author approval, Silver Boomer Books run bigger edits by the author first. We erred, though, early in the process of including “At Play with the Mouseketeers” in This Path, not realizing a portion had been deleted. In an effort to correct this mistake we are posting the piece in its entirety here.

The story was first published in the April, 2009, edition of Oracle.

Carole Ann Moleti lives and works as nurse-midwife in New York City. She lectures and writes on all aspects of women’s health with a focus on feminist and political issues. In addition to professional publications, her work has appeared in Tangent Online Review of Short Fiction, The Fix, Vision Magazine, and Noneuclidean Caf&eelite;. Carole’s memoir Someday I’m Going To Write a Book chronicles her experiences as a public health nurse in the inner city. She is at work on her second memoir Karma, Kickbacks and Kids, the title of which is self-explanatory. Her website is CaroleAnnMoleti.com.

 

 

Craig S. Monroe is a leading edge Baby Boomer who holds a B.S. in physics and an M.S. in finance. He is recently retired from the electronics industry and is now following his passion of writing fiction on the Florida West Coast. He recently published his first story, a recollection of his younger days in Michigan. He has completed other short stories of various genres and is researching a novel.

Sharon Fish Mooney, a native upstate New Yorker, teaches nursing research and gerontology on-line (MSN, PhD, University of Rochester). Her revised edition of Alzheimer’s — Caring for Your Loved One, Caring for Yourself, was recently published by Lion Hudson for a UK audience. She has authored and co-authored articles and books on nursing, ethics and spirituality and is a contributing writer for Christian Research Journal. She coordinates monthly poetry readings for the Write-On Writers of Coshocton, Ohio. Sharon and her husband Scott spend weekends blazing trails in the woods for their 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 A Cup of Comfort Cookbook, has been published in Sandcutters, Manzanita Quarterly, Windfall, Verseweavers, and Earth’s Daughters. She spends her free time biking quiet country roads, writing poetry, gardening in pots, and taking long and interesting road trips to places she has never been.

 

 

Bill Neal, a native of Quanah, Texas, is a rancher, former newspaper reporter, retired trial lawyer, and an author. In 1964 he graduated with honors from the University of Texas Law School. He returned to his hometown where he practiced law for forty years. His books include The Last Frontier: The Story of Hardeman County, Texas; a collection of oral histories entitled Our Stories: Legends of the Mounds; Getting Away With Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings & Celebrated Trials(2006); From Guns to Gavels: How Justice Grew Up in the Outlaw West (2008); and Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law: Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style. His website is www.BillNealOnline.com.

 

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 4,500 times. Twelve 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 essay 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.

Carl Palmer doesn’t own a wristwatch, cell phone or pager since retirement. With no structure or guidance, every day is Saturday. Carl gladly smiles when he can’t remember the date.

 

 

 

 

Ken Paxton, married for over thirty years, is the proud grandfather of one, father of two and master of none. Employed in the hard disk drive industry he wonders, “Will flash memory one day make all drives obsolete?” For fun he enjoys hiking, camping, doodling on the piano and guitar, and writing…most anything.

 

 

James Penha, a native New Yorker, has lived for the past sixteen years in Indonesia. No Bones to Carry, a volume of Penha’s poetry, is just available from New Sins Press, www.newsinspress.com. His award-winning 1992 chapbook On the Back of the Dragon is now downloadable from Frugal Fiction, www.frugalfiction.com. Among the most recent of his many other published works are an article in English Journal; fiction at East of the Web and Ignavia; and poems in THEMA and in the anthologies Silver Boomers and Freckles to Wrinkles (Silver Boomer Books), Queer Collection (Fabulist Flash Publishing) andOnly the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami (Bayeux Press). Penha edits a website for current-events poetry atwww.newversenews.com. Visit also http://www.jamespenha.com.

Yvonne Pearson is a writer and clinical social worker who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her poetry and essays have appeared in a variety of publications, including Sing heavenly Muse! Transformations, Wolf Head Quarterly, Poetry Calendar 2000, and Studio One. She is the recipient of a Loft Creative Non-Fiction Award, has participated in readings at The Loft, the University of Minnesota, and the American Association of University Women, St. Paul branch, and is the co-author of several books.

Arlene Pineo’s friends call her ‘Arly,’ a late bloomer who went back to college when her last child finished. A third of her interesting life was spent in Heidelberg, Germany, and Paris, France. Returning to the States in ’92, she settled in Bedford, Texas, where she discovered the Trinity Writers Workshop and began to receive awards for her writing. She mainly writes narrative-driven fiction.

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 contentedly writing and publishing and wondering why she didn’t listen to her young self sooner. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Kenneth Pobo, in addition to having a poem in the first Silver Boomers anthology, has work in Colorado Review, Nimrod, Antigonish Review, Hawai’i Review, and elsewhere. In 2008 WordTech Press published a new collection of his poems called Glass Garden. He teaches Creative Writing and English at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Nancy Purcell studied Creative Writing at Florida Atlantic University, served as a North Carolina Writers Network/ Elizabeth Squire Daniels Writer-in-Residence, Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina, under the guidance of Doris Betts, and teaches Creative Writing in the Brevard College Community Education program. She is the Transylvania County representative for NCWN Netwest. She also Quick Coaches writers. Her writing has appeared in Publications: RiverSedge, The MacGuffin, Pangolin Papers, Troika, LongStoryShort, The Square Table, among others, including three anthologies. Her stories have been read on the Writers’ Radio Show out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Retired from Marketing and Sales, she spends her days in the office and the garden. She holds membership in the North Carolina Writers Network, Netwest, and AWP.

Diana Raab M.F.A., essayist, memoirist and poet, teaches at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. A columnist for InkByte.com, she writes and lectures on journaling. Her memoir, Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal, is a finalist for Best Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine. She has two poetry collections, My Muse Undresses Me and Dear Anais: My Life in Poems for You. Her writing has appeared in The Writer, Writers Journal, Skylight Review, Rosebud, The Louisville Review, Palo Alto Review, Oracle, The Binnacle, Homestead, and Red River Review. She’s the recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Book Award for Getting Pregnant and Staying Pregnant: Overcoming Infertility and High Risk Pregnancy. Visit her website: www.dianaraab.com.

Rita Rose Rasco left her elementary teacher’s role to travel the United States and several foreign countries with her husband. A mother, grandmother, and award-winning fiction, poetry, and inspirational writer, she writes now in Abilene, Texas, and has published I Don’t Wanna Be a Witch, Through Storms and Rainbows – A Journey of Faith, Mozzarella House Mouse Goes to School and A Dream as Big as TexasRichard T. Rauch holds a doctorate in theoretical physics and has worked in various scientific and engineering disciplines in academia, industry, and the government. He currently manages rocket propulsion test activities in support of NASA’s Constellation Program to send human explorers back to the moon and on to Mars. Rick lives along Bayou Lacombe in south Louisiana, exploring the many possible universes of poetry in his spare time.

Charles P. Ries lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His narrative poems, short stories, interviews and poetry reviews have appeared in over two hundred print and electronic publications. He has received four Pushcart Prize nominations for his writing. He is the author of The Fathers We Find, a novel based on memory, and five books of poetry. He is the poetry editor forWord Riot (wordriot.org). He is on the board of the Woodland Pattern Bookstore (www.woodland pattern.org) and a founding member of the Lake Shore Surf Club, the oldest fresh water surfing club on the Great Lakes (www.visit sheboygan.com/dairyland/). You may find additional samples of his work by going to www.literati.net/Ries.

 

 

 

 

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, and on her mother’s refrigerator. She lives in West Texas with her sweetheart, Mason, and their two children.

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. 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 and a principal in Silver Boomer Books.

Gaby Romero is a public relations professional by trade. Reading and writing – in quiet, smoky bars or on comfortable couches during lazy, weekend afternoons – are her favorite hobbies. Travel is her other favorite hobby and she counts herself three times lucky that her work in multicultural outreach indulges these passions. Originally from Queens, New York, she also spent many years in southern California. Though she has an ambition to write the next great novel she’s still looking for her voice, and as such, is grateful for friends like Kerin Riley-Bishop, who encourage and nurture those wildly undefined ambitions and who graciously invited her to be part of this anthology. She currently lives in the Midwest with her long suffering fiancé and their two Welsh Corgi guard dogs.

Terry Sanville lives in San Luis Obispo, California with his artist-poet wife (his in-house editor) and two cats (his in-house critics). 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 70 literary and commercial journals, magazines, and anthologies (both print and online) including The Houston Literary Review, Storyteller, Yale Angler’s Journal, and Southern Ocean Review. 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.

Marian Kaplun Shapiro grew up in a low-cost housing project in The Bronx, and practices as a psychologist and poet in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is the author of a professional book Second Childhood (Norton, 1988); a poetry book Players In The Dream, Dreamers In The Play (Plain View Press, 2007); and two chapbooks: Your Third Wish, (Finishing Line, 2007) and The End Of The World, Announced On Wednesday (Pudding House, 2007). She is constantly amazed at her good fortune, which includes her husband, two children, and four grandchildren. A Quaker, her poetry often reflects the splitscreen truths of violence and peace, doubt and belief, despair and abiding hope.

Sandra Simon began her career as a research biochemist, and later worked in government human services. She comes from a large family with many stories. After years of writing scientific articles or government reports, she is now enjoying the challenges and joys of memoir-writing. Her daughters, husband, step-children, and grandchildren are the core of her life. She cherishes her connections with them, and with her friends. Her writing companion is Daphne, a small shaggy dog.

Rebecca Hatcher Travis is a native Texan and an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Her writing often reflects her native heritage and the natural world. Her book length manuscript, Picked Apart the Bones, selected winner of the 2006 First Book Award for Poetry by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, was published in 2008. Other published work appears in literary journals, anthologies, theChickasaw Times, online and Texas Poetry Calendar 2008.

Phillip J. Volentine is a forestry technician in the same Louisiana woodlands where he was born. He came late to the world of literature but yearns to be a teller of stories in prose and poetry. Phillip and his wife have one son and two grandchildren.

Thomas Wheeler loves to tell stories. If a grain of truth or a worthwhile thought finds a way in, so be it. However, it’s the smiles and giggles of friends and family that keep the words flowing. When not scribbling random thoughts, he is dedicated to his job as a fund raiser for the Society for the Elimination of Chiggers, West Texas branch. (Contribution should be sent to PO Box 2066 Abilene, Texas 79604.)

Carl L. Williams is a Houston author and playwright. His short stories and poems have been published in literary magazines. One of his stories finished seventh in the Writer’s Digest short-short-story contest, appearing in the May/June, 2008 issue. His full-length and one-act plays have won numerous national competitions, with productions around the country, including off-off-Broadway. Over 20 of his plays have been published. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Jim Wilson is a veterinarian in private practice for 36 years who nine years ago began treating his poetry seriously and saving it. He now has five published books: Distillations of a Life Just Lived, 2002; Coal to Diamonds, 2003; Taking a Peek, 2004; Down to Earth Poetry, 2006; and his fifth book Poetry Floats published in 2009 by Laughing Cactus Press, an imprint of Silver Boomer Books. He’s been published recently in Border Senses, U.T. El Paso; Concho River Review, Angelo State University; The Desert Candle, Sul Ross State University; and Spiky Palm, Texas A&M University at Galveston, and won sweepstakes in the Cisco Writer’s Club annual contest for 2007. He has poems in Silver Boomers and Freckes to Wrinkles and says, “I write about everyday events every day.” His website is www.JamesRayWilson.com.

Ellen E. Withers is an insurance fraud investigator by day and a freelance writer by night. She is a regular contributor to Life In Chenal Magazine and the editor of SIU Today Magazine, an international fraud awareness magazine. Her work has been included in seven anthology publications including Tales of the South, Echoes of the Ozarks and Silver Boomers. Her website is www.WithersWrites.com.

 

Thelma Zirkelbach, a native Texan, is a recent widow who lives in Houston. She is working on a memoir of her last year with her husband titled The Final Chapter: A Love Story. She has written romance novels for Harlequin and Silhouette under the pseudonym Lorna Michaels. After many years as a speech pathologist in private practice, she continues to work half-time with children, enjoying the opportunity to share in their lives and language. Visit Thelma’s blog atwww.widowsphere.blogspot.com.

Meet Those Following in the Path

Annalyn’s story is largely still unwritten, though there may never be words enough to fill her epic. Her mother believes she was actually ferried to this planet in an egg from another world and delivered on a late campfire-lit night in March. She was an odd duckling of an infant, with a strong neck, rock solid head and curiously long appendages. She has the voice of a siren, the quick and clever eyes of a wolf, and the loving heart of those who are sainted. A junior in high school, this is her first publication.

Hailey Kay Dods finds her name special, named for her grandmother. Now a senior in high school, Hailey has loved art all her life – her mother claims as a toddler Hailey truly began her “art career” as a “doodler!” In the fourth grade, she created her breakthrough piece, illustrating her first poem, which an author chose to include in her book. That inspired Hailey’s first self-portrait, leading the way to many new opportunities. She says, “This new journey offered to me by This Path is truly my gift from God.”

Nate Giesecke is 16 years old and a sophomore at Abilene High School. He went to Austin Elementary and Lincoln Middle School. Nate plays the trombone in the Abilene High School band and has been involved in marching, jazz band, and the steel drum ensemble. He is very involved in his Church youth group activities including attending the Christian Book Expo, Vertigo, and other various activities with the youth group. A Life Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, Nate will soon be achieving his Eagle Scout rank.

Cody Holloway’s enthusiastic love for music inspired him to write the short story “Aerials” for a college admissions essay while in his senior year of high school at age 17. He lives with his family in Aledo, Texas and is attending the University of Texas at Austin as an aerospace engineering major.

Riley McCone is an eighth grader this 2009-2010 school year. He is the son of editor and author Kerin Riley-Bishop. Riley has a talent for weaving beautiful fictional stories that begin with one small factual sentence. Riley splits his time between Texas and Washington, spending his summers with his Father and Step-Mama, who loves to cook bacon for him!

Jordan Reyes is eleven now and lives in Abilene, Texas, with her mom and little sister. She gets to see her dad often. Jordan will leave Austin Elementary and go in 2009 to middle school. She was first inspired to write by a friend named Riley Stirman in the fourth grade. “In fifth grade, writing became more of a regular thing in my life. People were impressed by my writing, and I was proud of it. This opportunity would have never happened without the help of two of my fifth grade teachers, Mrs. Dooley and Mrs. Niblo.”