Untreed Reads

Joan Wolf’s 47 novels cross many genres.  She started writing regency romances then progressed to historical novels, pre-historical novels, historical mysteries, contemporary romances and biblical fiction.  She is presently at work on a new regency romance.

Joan was born in the Bronx, New York.  She received her M.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Hunter College of the City University of New York and taught high school English for a number of years before she began to write.  She presently lives in Connecticut with her husband Joe, cat Willie Blue Eyes and dog Penny.  Her children and horse live nearby.

Edith Layton wrote her first novel when she was ten. She bought a marbleized notebook and set out to write a story that would fit between its covers. Now, an award-winning author with more than thirty novels and numerous novellas to her credit, her criteria have changed. The story has to fit the reader as well as between the covers.

Graduating from Hunter College in New York City with a degree in creative writing and theater, Edith worked for various media, including a radio station and a major motion picture company. She married and went to suburbia, where she was fruitful and multiplied to the tune of three children. Her eldest, Michael, founded the Artists in the Kitchen art festival. Adam is a novelist, TV writer and performer on NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. Daughter Susie is a professional writer, comedian and performer who works for La French tech.

Publishers Weekly called Edith Layton “one of romance’s most gifted writers.” Layton has enthralled readers and critics with books that capture the spirit of historically distant places and peoples. “What I’ve found,” she says, “is that life was very different in every era, but that love and love of life is always the same.”

Layton won an RT Book Reviews Career Achievement award for the Historical genre in 2003 and a Reviewers’ Choice award for her book The Conquest in 2001. Amazon.com’s top reviewer called Layton’s Alas, My Love (April 2005, Avon Books), “a wonderful historical.” And her recent release, Bride Enchanted, is a Romantic Times 2007 Reviewers’ Choice Award Nominee.

Edith Layton lived on Long Island where she devoted time as a volunteer for the North Shore Animal League , the world’s largest no-kill pet rescue and adoption organization. Her dog Daisy --adopted herself from a shelter-- is just one member of Layton’s household menagerie.

Edith Layton passed away on June 1, 2009 from ovarian cancer.

Lucy M. Loxley, the nom de plume for the author of Her Humble Admirer, has devoured everything Jane Austen and Regency she can get her hands on since her college days. Her favorite film adaptation of Austen is the BBC’s Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciarán Hinds. This is her first Regency Romance, and she was pleased that the novella received 4.5/5 stars in review at InD’tale Magazine. She applies her MFA in creative writing to her teaching, writing, editing, and photography careers, where she savors making art and sharing craft conversations with like-minded creators from all over the world. To learn more about her most-recent writing and projects, visit her website at: Melanie Faith (melaniedfaith.com) .

Sheila Simonson taught English and history at Clark College for many years until she retired to write fulltime. Among her fifteen novels are five mysteries and five regency romances published by Uncial Press. Sheila is married with one son. She and her husband Mickey live in Vancouver WA. A more detailed description of her work may be found at her website, sites.google.com/site/sheilasimonson. She is always happy to hear from her readers.

Gloria Goldreich is the author of Leah’s Journey, which won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction, and of its sequel Leah’s Children. Four Days received the Jewish Federation Arts and Letters Award and West to Eden was the featured selection of the Troll Book Club. Her subsequent novels for adults as well as for younger readers have received critical acclaim. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Commentary, Moment, McCall’s, Redbook, Ms., Ladies Home Journal, Chatelaine and other publications. The mother of three adult children and the grandmother of eight widely scattered grandchildren, she and her attorney husband reside in Westchester County, New York.

Los Angeles-based writer and journalist Richard Natale’s short stories have appeared in such literary journals as Chelsea Station Magazine, Otherwise Engaged, Mollyhouse, Confetti, and MCB Quarterly, Gertrude Press, and the anthologies Happy Hours, Love is Love and Off the Rocks. Natale also directed and wrote the feature film GREEN PLAID SHIRT, which was the closing night selection at the Palm Springs Film Festival and was screened at more than twenty film festivals worldwide. It is available on DVD and streaming.

Nigel Bird is the author of novels, novellas and short story collections. His work has appeared in a number of prestigious magazines and collections, including 2 editions of The Best Of British Crime,The Reader, Crimespree and Needle. He is currently an editorial consultant for the publisher All Due Respect books. He lives on the East Coast of Scotland in Dunbar with his wife and three children. As well as writing fiction, he has been a teacher for over thirty years and has worked in a number of mainstream and special schools.

Linda Palmer loves, loves, loves to write and always has, starting with poetry in grade school that evolved into full-length novels by the time she was married. Though she never quit her day jobs, she did join a writer's group that motivated her to submit her work to publishers. Silhouette Books published Linda's first romance novel in l989 and the next twenty over a ten-year period (writing as Linda Varner). In 1999 she took a break to take care of her family. She learned that she couldn't not write and began again, changing her genre to young adult/new adult paranormal romance and her point of view to first person. She has full-length novels and novellas out as e-reads and in print and there are always more in the works. Linda was a Romance Writers of America finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC eBook awards in the Young Adult category. Linda is a fan of Ed Sheeran, Keith Urban, Bones, CB Strike, and rain. She loves to read, watch movies, and listen to music. Linda married her junior high school sweetheart many years ago and lives in Arkansas, USA with her family. Her website is www.lindavpalmer.com.

J.A. Clarke is an award-winning author of futuristic and contemporary romance novels. She grew up in Africa where weekly trips to the library were highly anticipated and the main entertainment event of the week. She has traveled on three continents, but is now firmly grounded in the Pacific Northwest. Visit her at her website, http://www.jaclarke.com.

Jael Gates has been writing romance for years. She is happiest when plotting unforgettable characters in search of happy endings and especially loves adding a little spice to turn up the heat.

Beth has always been in love with stories. Beginning with Now We Are Six (A.A. Milne), her love of reading moved from Nancy Drew to Romeo & Juliet, the Old Man and the Sea to the strange and inviting works of E.E. Cummings. Studying film, historical fiction and creative writing in college, she’s more in love with stories than ever before. She lives in Wisconsin with her family, and during the brutally cold winter months, dreams of lazy afternoons snorkeling in the Riviera Maya.

Scarlet Blackwell and Poppy Summers are the pen names of a multi-published writer from the UK. Mainly writing romance, her first love at an impressionable age was horror and she remains devoted to Stephen King to this day. The other writers who float her boat are Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Bronte. She likes books, music and wine, preferably all together.

A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, romantic suspense, novels for kids, and the occasional short story. Her books have received many accolades. Her juvenile novel, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, was an International Reading Association-Children's Book Council Children's Choice. And Don't Bring Jeremy was a nominee for six state awards. As Allison Brook she writes the Haunted Library mystery series. Death Overdue, the first in the series, was an Agatha nominee for Best Contemporary Novel in 2018. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series and the Twin Lakes series. Marilyn lives on Long Island, where many of her books take place.

Robin F. Gainey partnered in the creation of California’s Gainey Vineyard; presided over winery culinary programs; and, with Julia Child and others, founded Santa Barbara’s American Institute of Wine and Food. She also oversaw the breeding and showing of champion Arabian Horses begun by the Gainey Family in 1939. Over the years, she’s lived in Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington, and Rome, Italy. She returned to her hometown, Seattle, to find her heart in writing. Active trustee of the acclaimed Pacific Northwest Ballet, she enjoys reading, cooking, horseback riding, skiing any mountain, and spending three months every year cruising British Columbia's Inside Passage by boat—mostly alone. Light of the Northern Dancers is her second novel. You can learn about Robin and her writing at www.robinfgainey.com.

Marian Allen was born in Louisville, Kentucky and now lives in rural Indiana. For as long as she can remember, she has loved telling and being told stories. She writes science fiction, fantasy, mystery, humor, horror, mainstream, and anything else she can wrestle into fixed form. Allen's latest books are her science fiction story collection OTHER EARTH, OTHER STARS, her fantasy short story collection SHIFTY: TALES FROM THE WORLD OF SAGE, and her novel, BAR SINISTER: A SPADENA STREET MYSTERY, all available through Untreed Reads. She is a founding member of the Southern Indiana Writers Group and Editorial Director of Per Bastet Publications, which is happy to be distributed through Untreed Reads. Allen blogs daily at Marian Allen, Author Lady. She invites you to visit her at http://MarianAllen.com for “Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes” and free short stories.

Pat Murphy's literary science fiction has won many awards, including the Nebula, the Philip K. Dick, the World Fantasy, the Theodore Sturgeon and the Christopher. Pat's favorite color is ultraviolet. Her favorite book is the one she is working on right now.

Loretta Bolger Wish is the author of the fantasy novel Bumpy Night on the Walk of Fame, published by Uncial Press and nominated for Long and Short Reviews 2018 Book of the Year. She also writes plays, monologues, essays, magazine pieces, songs and poetry. A former newspaper reporter and State of New Jersey staff writer, she is currently a freelance writer and editorial consultant. She writes for the Huffington Post and has collaborated on textbooks and reference books. But she’ll tackle nearly any writing project in the name of fun, creative growth, worthy causes or bar bets. Movies have been one of her lifelong addictions; she is the author of the blog Hollywood Castaway and has curated exhibits on film and given presentations on writing and film. Her plays and other theater pieces have been featured in festivals, readings and radio and Zoom programs across the country. A Jersey shore resident, she co-moderates the Writers Room at the Princeton Public Library and plays guitar in a classic rock band, Rising Smoke, with her husband and frequent writing partner, Fred. In her next life, Loretta hopes Eve Arden will star in her film bio -- unless Bette Davis has already bought the rights or Thelma Ritter has already been attached to the project.

James Dorr is an Indiana-based short story writer and poet specializing in dark fantasy and horror, with forays into mystery and science fiction. His The Tears of Isis was a 2013 Bram Stoker Award® finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, while other books include Strange Mistresses: Tales of Wonder and Romance, Darker Loves: Tales of Mystery and Regret, and his all poetry Vamps (A Retrospective), along with his latest, Tombs: A Chronicle of Latter-Day Times of Earth, a novel-in-stories from Elder Signs Press. Dorr has been a technical writer, an editor on a regional magazine, a full time non-fiction freelancer, and a semi-professional musician. He currently harbors a Goth cat named Triana, and counts among his major influences Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allan Poe, Allen Ginsberg, and Bertolt Brecht.

Jeff Vande Zande teaches fiction writing, screenwriting, and film production at Delta College in Michigan. His award-winning short films have been accepted over 200 times in national and international film festivals. When not writing or filming, he can be found fly fishing Michigan’s Pigeon River or woodworking in his garage. He maintains a blog at authorjeffvandezande.blogspot.com

I was born a long time ago. My parents had the foresight to move from Minnesota to California when I was about one year old. (Minneapolis was 20F below zero in for three months in a row.) Thus, I had the honor of growing up in San Francisco. When I was young we lived mainly in old Victorian flats with high ceilings, curved bay windows and no heat or AC. One of them still had the old gas lights installed, though they no longer worked. That experience gave me an ingrained sense of history. I started reading at about age 5, and started writing stories when I was 9. My earliest reading were the Oz books, then I progressed to Edgar Rice Burroughs, who taught me proper use of the English language. Every child and adult should read Tarzan. When I grew up, I graduated from San Francisco State College, but that was after my real education in the U.S. Army. I learned how to use tools, how to clean stuff, how to communicate, and how to blow things up. Luckily, I was never in actual combat. Later I lived in other places, such as New York City and Mexico D.F. Today I occupy a spot on the shore of Clearlake, California. I spent years working in public service as my day job. Now I write stories, most often about early San Francisco and the West. Now and then I do something in the paranormal or fantasy worlds. I am living life as I love it.

David Perlmutter is a freelance writer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

M. K. Wren, a widely acclaimed writer and painter, was born in Texas, the daughter of a geologist and a special education teacher. Twenty-five years ago, she found her soul home in the Pacific Northwest, where she wrote Curiosity Didn’t Kill the Cat; A Multitude of Sins; Oh, Bury Me Not; Nothing’s Certain but Death; Seasons of Death; Wake Up, Darlin’ Corey; and the science-fiction trilogy, The Phoenix Legacy. As an artist, Ms. Wren has worked primarily in oils and transparent watercolors and has exhibited in numerous galleries and juried shows in Texas, Oklahoma, and the Northwest.

Beginning with Anthony Award winner, Caught Dead in Philadelphia, and retiring two decades later with All’s Well That Ends, Gillian Roberts’ schoolteacher, Amanda Pepper was at the center of City of Brotherly Love crimes. Roberts is also the author of Time and Trouble and Whatever Doesn’t Kill You, featuring two Northern California P.I.’s, the nonfiction, You Can Write a Mystery, and Murder She Did--a collection of short stories. Writing under her actual name, Judith Greber, she’s had four novels published in which people sometimes die, but nobody sleuths. She lives in Northern California with her husband and a large Golden Doodle. They are the parents of two grown sons and grandparents of two perfect children.

Lesley A. Diehl owes her twisted sense of humor to growing up on a farm, where cows chased her when she herded them in for milking and one ate the lovely red mitten her grandmother knitted for her. Since determining that agriculture wasn’t a good career choice, she has used her country roots and her training as a psychologist to concoct stories designed to make people laugh in the face of murder. Odd protagonists appear in all of Lesley’s work published by Untreed Reads including Desdemona the crime fighting potbellied pig (Angel Sleuth, The Untreed Detectives) and Lesley’s zany back-home-on-the-farm relatives (The Killer Wore Cranberry, all six anthologies). Monkey Business, an anthology based on the Marx brothers, includes her short story “The Cocoanuts.” Check out all her novel length mysteries and short stories at www.lesleyadiehl.com.

June Whyte lives in Elizabeth, South Australia with her husband, Jim, and two of her three now-grownup children. A former middle school and high school teacher, June successfully trained greyhounds to Group finals, plus rode her horses in dressage, show jumping and cross-country competitions. And through it all, she's always dreamed of being an author. She wrote her first full-length story (with chapters) when she was nine-years-old – Donald McDonald in Texas – a story involving a rather extraordinary boy who rode buck-jumpers in a rodeo. And when she penned her first murder mystery, Murder Behind Bars, it resulted in her fifth-grade teacher questioning her home life. Now retired, June’s favorite part of the day is sitting in front of her computer, drawing on her knowledge of life, greyhounds and horses to create humorous mysteries for both adults and younger teens.

Award winning author of twenty historical thrillers, Marilyn Todd is also a prolific writer of short stories, most of which are crime, but also range from commercial women’s fiction to comic fantasy and all points in between. Born in London, these days she lives on a French hilltop surrounded by vineyards, châteaux and woods, and when she isn’t killing people, Marilyn enjoys cooking. Which is pretty much the same thing.

T. Lee Harris is a scribbler of the lowest order. Not only does she pen lies about people who don't exist, but she draws pictures of them as well. Harris has also been known to aid and abet others by putting their scribblings into book form and going so far as to devise covers for these publications. She claims she went to school to learn these things, but that shouldn't be held against anyone. Harris's acts of literary vandalism know no limits ranging from historical mis-information to lies about a retired spy who keeps getting mixed up in other people's business. There are suspicions that Harris is committing another novel or two, but this has yet to be confirmed.

Ed Goldberg was born in The Bronx, New York in 1943. After dropping out of college in 1962, he attempted to do stand-up comedy, unsuccessfully. He wrote for a few of the underground papers in New York. He moved to Washington, DC, 1973, became a technical writer, and wrote pop music features and reviews for a monthly arts and entertainment paper, including covering the punk-rock scene. Eventually, he branched out to jazz, theater, and film reviews. In 1991, he moved to Portland, Oregon and got into radio work and writing crime novels. His first book, Served Cold, won the 1995 Shamus Award for best original paperback fiction. In the same series are Dead Air and Red Flags. His fourth novel, True Crime, (as “Alan Gold”) was published in February 2005. True Faith was published in January 2007. He started listening to classical music seriously in the late 60s. He works on All Classical 89.9, as an announcer playing classical music, and has been there for more than 20 years. He still writes, and is accumulating short stories for a collection.

Stephen Bogart is the son of acting icons Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and has had a very interesting and accomplished life. Steve graduated from the University of Hartford with a B.A. in Mass Communications and a minor in Psychology. He then began a career in television, writing and producing news at the network level for more than 30 years. He has been a producer at several start-ups, including ESPN, The Satellite News Channel and Court TV. In addition, he was a writer and producer for NBC Nightly News; The TODAY Show; The CBS Early Show; WPIX-TV (NYC) News at Ten; and MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olberman”. He also was Executive Producer at WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida and he guided that station to the number 1 spot in the market. In between his professional commitments, Steve found the time to write three books. The first two were novels: Play it Again (1995) and The Remake: As Time Goes By (1996). The third was a non-fiction bestseller, Bogart: In Search of My Father, (1995). Stephen has made public appearances and speeches at various venues throughout the world, (Italy, France, England, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Australia), for various groups and at film festivals across the USA for those who remember the halcyon days of his parents. He has done programs at the Smithsonian Institute, Lincoln Center and prestigious theaters in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities.

Al Haggerty served in the Navy for 27 years as a ship driver and rocket scientist. He has been a factory worker, a ditch digger, a skydiver, a pilot, a ship navigator, a radar engineer, and a contestant on the Jeopardy! game show. He served as United States Deputy Undersecretary of Defense at the Pentagon, where he worked in technology security and counterintelligence. Mr. Haggerty holds degrees in oceanography/atmospheric science and in engineering. He is currently a consultant on defense technology and clean energy, and lives with his wife in Richland, Washington.

Brenda Stanley is a writer and journalist who spent over two decades as a news anchor and investigative reporter with the NBC affiliate KPVI in Idaho. She has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Hearst Journalism Awards to name a few. Brenda holds an MBA and has taught as an adjunct professor. She is the author of six novels and four cookbooks. Brenda is the mother of five children, including two sets of twins, and a grandmother of eight. Idaho’s governor appointed her as board chair for the state’s organization dedicated to preventing child abuse. She is a member of the Mama Dragons and an advocate and ally for LGBTQ rights. She and her veterinarian husband, Dave, live on a small ranch in Blackfoot, Idaho, with their dogs, horses, chickens, sheep, and whatever else Brenda decides to add to her “petting zoo.”

Alexandra Wallner was born in Germany. Not able to speak English when she immigrated to the United States, she almost flunked first grade. But with the help of comic books--Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, Katy Keene, Little Lulu--she learned her new language. Words and pictures together lit the spark for her future career. After graduating from Pratt Institute’s Fine Art Program with an MFA and enjoying a brief stint in magazine design, she started collaborating with her husband John in creating children’s books. Not limited to a love for children's books, Alex and John have a passion for renovating and working in old houses. In Woodstock, N. Y. they renovated an 1850’s farmhouse. They restored an 1865 townhouse in Philadelphia and remodeled a 1920's Maine island cottage. During the long Maine winters, Alex started taking notes for a story about Sylvia and Max Saltwater and their encounters with island folk. The notes evolved into PINOCCHIO ISLAND. They started thinking about warmer places to live when Alex became weary of slipping on ice. Breaking precedence, they moved to a warm climate into a newly built Florida house. Unfortunately soon after, they experienced three hurricanes in six weeks. Continuing their gypsy ways, they moved to Merida, Yucatan, Mexico where they restored a mid-nineteenth century casa and added two studios in the back of the garden. They care for an elderly Jack Russell, a family of cats, a rambunctious iguana, and a sprinkling of geckos. Alex threw out the moving boxes and swears this is her final home.

J. D. Webb, a lifelong Decatur, Il resident, served in the Air Force in Viet Nam and the Philippines as a Chinese linguist before working as a manager at A. E. Staley Mfg. for twenty-five years. When he was no longer needed, he owned a shoe repair and sales shop for eleven years, until that business succumbed to the economy. He’s been writing since he could hold a pencil. For most of his 75+ years he wrote short stories, having a few published in magazines before they went the way of the dinosaurs. When he 'retired' in 2002 his wife urged him to write a novel. He didn't know if he could, so his only goal as an author was to finish a novel. He’s blessed to have had publishers who wanted to publish his work. Four novels and many short stories have been published. The latest, Uncial, agreed to publish two of his short stories and one of them, Nine One One, won first place in the Electronic Publishing International organization (EPIC) annual contest. A true joy is having someone say they couldn’t put down something he’d written until they finished. Unless his words are read they languish astride the page. The ultimate goal is to intrigue and entertain readers.

Michael Bracken, an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction, and advertising copy, has received multiple awards for copywriting, two Derringer Awards for short fiction, and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement in short mystery fiction. The author of several books and more than 1,300 short stories, he is also an Anthony-Award-nominated anthology editor and the editor of a quarterly mystery magazine.

Albert Tucher is the creator of prostitute Diana Andrews, who has appeared in more than 100 hardboiled crime stories since 2005. Her Untreed Reads adventures include THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE, THE RETRO LOOK, VALUE FOR THE MONEY, CALORIES, and “Split the Difference” in THE UNTREED DETECTIVES. A retired librarian, Albert Tucher lives in New Jersey, and he loves NJ Turnpike jokes.

Paul Gruhn is a retired engineer with a background in safety in high-risk industries such as refining, chemical and offshore. He has been involved in the development and teaching of industry safety standards for more than thirty years. This is his first novel, but he has written two non-fiction books and dozens of technical articles. Paul’s other interests include playing guitar, reading, painting, home brewing and cooking.

Bert Paul is semi-retired after nearly 40 years in the computer software industry, where he was a software developer, software tester, and technical writer at different stages in his career. Writing goofy short stories (spoofs on murder and sci-fi) acted as mental floss on his cluttered brain, and he hopes it works that way for his readers, too. His short stories are set in a fictional small town in northwestern Pennsylvania, in the region where he grew up. Some of the action takes place in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he has lived since 1983. Many of the same characters are used in each story, much to their dismay, since they become aware they are stuck again in “another dumb Uncle Bert story”. Bert plans other longer stories, with other themes, now that he has more time to write them.

Arlen Blumhagen is an award winning Montana author. He and wife, Lynnette, have two grown children, and three absolutely perfect grandchildren. Arlen has several published works including the world-wide bestselling “Mount” trilogy. After forty years in the broadcast industry, most of it as a television director, Arlen is retired and he and his family live in Billings, Montana.

John M. Floyd’s work has appeared in more than 350 different publications, including Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Strand Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and four editions of Otto Penzler’s best-mystery-stories-of-the-year anthologies. A former Air Force captain and IBM systems engineer, John is also an Edgar Award nominee, a 2021 Shamus Award winner, a four-time Derringer Award winner, the 2018 recipient of the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement, and the author of seven collections of short mystery fiction.

Jack Bates is an award-winning writer of short fiction, short scripts, and short articles. In short, if it’s short, he probably wrote it. He also taught theatre, speech, and debate for 31 quick years before retiring to write full time.

Scarlet Blackwell and Poppy Summers are the pen names of a multi-published writer from the UK. Mainly writing romance, her first love at an impressionable age was horror and she remains devoted to Stephen King to this day. The other writers who float her boat are Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Bronte. She likes books, music and wine, preferably all together.

My muse shimmered in a knee-length white beaded dress, her black hair in a bob, and a champagne glass in hand. The Twenties ballad ‘More Than You Know’ teased in the background. She glared. When she last whispered into my ear she wore only my T-shirt. I ignored her and banged away on the keyboard. “Like Raymond Chandler, Chris Bauer started selling short stories as an unemployed oil company executive. Since then he has accumulated thirty-six paid publishing credits, and is especially grateful to UNTREED READS—” She tapped me on the shoulder. “That’s your BIO? Where am I?” She downed the remainder of the glass and sat beside me. The breath of her words caressed and seduced. “Write what I tell you.”

Tom Peters has lived his entire life in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, other than a brief excursion to the University of Michigan Law School where he graduated near the top of his class. An Imperfect Miracle, which received a coveted Top Pick Award from Night Owl Reviews, was his first published novel. Besides writing, Tom enjoys playing the violin and studying languages, especially ancient Greek.

Lee Roy Williams was married to Lola Faye for fifty-six years. They had children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He was a graduate of Texas A&M University, Perkins School of Theology, and Writers' Digest Novel and Short Story Course. He wrote novels, short stories, poems and a couple of articles. Lee Roy was an ordained Methodist pastor, and was a teacher in Texas Public SChools, a factory laborer, a construction project manager, and he served in the U.S. Army in the Korean conflict. He grew up on a small sandhill farm in South Central Texas, and graduated from high school in a class of 12. He was serious about his faith and an avid reader. Lee Roy was a theology, history, geography, sociology, archaeology, and anthropology butt and a nut for anything about the American southwest. He loved his family and was proud of his heritage as a sixth-generation Texan. Lee Roy passed away on 25 March 2010, just a few weeks before the release of Return to Four Corners

Brenda K. Marshall is the author of Mavis (a novel, 1996) and Teaching the Postmodern: Fiction and Theory (scholarship, 1992). She teaches in the English Department at The University of Michigan.

Amy Gerstin Coombs received an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Previously a school librarian, she teaches writing and especially loves working with young people. Publications include early chapter books and short stories for children, teens, and adults. Visit her website at www.amygerstincoombs.com.

At 17, Andrew was awarded a Letter of Commendation from the Second Annual American Song Festival for music and lyrics. A new piece titled "A Town Called Home" (music: Julliard’s Dr. Kendall Briggs, lyrics: Andrew Sarewitz) was performed at Grace Church, Newark, NJ, in concert benefitting Hedrick-Martin Institute in 2013. In addition to drafting more than 100 musical compositions, Andrew has written several short stories (links to published work at andrewsarewitz.com) as well as scripts for various media. Mr. Sarewitz is a recipient of 2021 City Artists Corp Grant for Writing. His play, Madame Andrèe, based upon the life of Nancy Wake, “The White Mouse”, garnered First Prize from Stage to Screen New Playwrights series in San Jose, CA, winning the honor of opening the festival with a multi-cultural cast and crew in August of 2019, as well as receiving an Honorable Mention from both the 2018 Writers Digest Competition, Play/Screenplay Division, and the 2018 New Works of Merit Contest (Loyola University, New Orleans). The script for his play Five Men, Four Beds advanced to the Second Round at the 2019 Austin Film Festival Competition and Andrew’s spec script for his sitcom, The White House is a Finalist in the 2019 Pitch Now Screenplay Competition. Mr. Sarewitz also has authored numerous historical and critical artist essays with a primary focus on twentieth century non-conformist art from the former Soviet Union.

Penny Jackson is a novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and award-winning playwright. Her writing awards include The Pushcart Prize for best short story published in a literary magazine, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and best young adult book for Becoming the Butlers from The New York Public Library. She is also the author of L.A. Child, published by Untreed Reads, a collection of prize-winning short stories.

Tim Black was a history teacher for the Martin County School District from 1979-2004. He sold his first short story in 1975 for $25, photocopied the check before he cashed it and framed the photocopy. Throughout his teaching career he moonlighted as a freelance writer for several Florida regional magazines and The Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald and Orlando Sentinel. He also wrote for Armchair General and Military History Quarterly, and The Times of London (the Queen’s paper). As far as he knows he is the only writer to receive payment from the Florida Bar Journal (He wrote a humor column under a pen name Judge Crater). While teaching he never had enough time to write a book and, having married a woman with five children as well as siring two more, he was more concerned with income than writing the great American novel. However, when he retired from teaching and the children had flown the nest he began to write books, beginning with Daydreams & Diaries by Taylor and Tim Black. That first book, rewritten five times, was published by California publisher Untreed Reads. D & D is the story of Taylor’s fight against brain cancer, a fight that she lost twenty years ago. Tim then went on to write two novels set in South Florida, a WW II historical novel, The Man from Banner Lake, and a science fiction novel Eye. After science fiction, he wrote a four volume Young Adult Historical Novel series in US History for middle schoolers and another historical novel Residents of History, dealing with the civilians at the Battle of Gettysburg. He then wrote a God-awful romantic novel which, it seems, is unintentionally funny. During The Pandemic he has written a Civil War novel A Song of Love and Loss and a memoir of his boyhood in the 1950s, Boyhood, Baseball, Bobby and Bill. In The Pandemic he also wrote two screenplays based on his two South Florida novels. No, Tim does not know Stephen King or James Patterson and he doubts if they know him.

Marie Etzler, writer, cyclist, Tom Petty fan. Marie wrote her first story in the third grade, dramatizing the life of her tiny ceramic pig who lived in the world Marie created in the strip of dirt alongside their trailer. She climbed out of the dirt and earned a Bachelor's and Master's degree in English. Her first novel was "County Line Road" about a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks who made good. She has written Middle Grade and YA novels, stories and continues to write books and screenplays. https://metzler.wordpress.com/

Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Hillside, NJ, Larry earned an Engi-neering degree from Rutgers University. In addition to a 30 year corpo-rate career in sales, sales management, and sales training, Larry taught courses in “The Art of Creative Living” and other spiritual classes, was a public speaker, workshop facilitator and served as a Minister for 20 years. Author of “Journaling The Journey: 25 Spiritual Insights to Light The Way” and “Journey to Bliss: Stories to Inspire You to Find and Follow Your Passion,” Larry also hosted the radio show, “Evolution in Con-sciousness,” interviewing leaders in the “new consciousness” movement like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Gregg Braden, James Twyman, and many others. At 60 years old, he served in the Peace Corps in Ghana for 27 months and then spent three years living at Sunrise Ranch, an intentional, spir-itual community in Loveland, Colorado. He is currently a storyteller, actor, public speaker and offers workshops on “Finding and Following Your Bliss.” Having traveled extensively, he now happily makes his home in the mountains of Black Mountain, NC.

Kenis Dunne wonders if three decades is some sort of questionable record for writing and publishing a 120-page book. “Hey, I had stuff to do – marriage, career, children, planning to join a gym.” She has spent her career working with words, starting as a journalist writing for community newspapers and then moving into various forms of communications for trade associations and hi-tech companies. Along the way, she and her husband raised two daughters and one son. She is a mother-in-law twice over, and a grandmother of three. Kenis and her husband Rob live in Monterey, California.

Founder of Creative Solutions Editorial, and CEO of Untreed Reads Publishing, K.D. is the author or coauthor of several books, including The Gremlins of Grammar, The McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers, and Proofreaders, The Art of Styling Sentences (Fourth and Fifth Editions), The Pocket Idiots Guide to Spanish for Healthcare Professionals and Easy Writing Styles, Step-by-Step. K.D. is also a publishing consultant, and she and her team assist writers of fiction and nonfiction around the country develop and publish their works.

Darryl A. Forman grew up in Newton Mass and graduated from Syracuse University. She discovered northern California and, except for a brief interlude on a hippie farm in upstate New York, has lived in San Francisco. Darryl is the author of “The Unleavened Truth,” an ebook of humorous essays filled with word play, irony, a dash of poignancy and just a pinch of snark. Always verbal and usually entertaining, Darryl’s writing is simply a melding of the two together. Unlike speaking, writing is a real discipline. Darryl wrote the essays for The Unleavened Truth before she’d ever thought of having them published, and in so doing, she created a new literary genre – notaubiography. It’s similar to memoir or fiction based on real events. Darryl retired from her career as a financial-services writer in 2011. She figured that between 1984 and 2011, she had written more than 1,375 newsletters for various investment firms. She joked that she really was Rumpelstiltskin, turning a company’s performance into gold. In 2019, PrettyProgressive.com named “The Unleavened Truth” to its list of the “11 Funny Books Women Can Get a Ton of Laughter From.” Her 6-word memoir on advice, “Because I’m your mother, that’s why,” made it to page 22 of the book and a favorable mention in the New York Times Parenting Blog. Since retirement, Darryl has volunteered at 826 Valencia and Project Open Hand. Now she lives with her adorable poodly dog Romo on Bernal Heights. She is now working on her pandemic series: “The Good, The Bad and the Orange.”

Shoshana Bennett, Ph.D. ("Dr. Shosh") from the popular DrShosh.com Radio Show is the author of "Pregnant on Prozac", "Postpartum Depression For Dummies", and co-author of "Beyond the Blues: Understanding and Treating Prenatal and Postpartum Depression & Anxiety". She is also the creator of the new mobile app PPD Gone. Her newest book, "Children of the Depressed", will be released in June of this year. National TV shows including "20/20," "Discovery Channel," "The Doctors" and "The Ricki Lake Show" feature Dr. Shosh as the pregnancy and postpartum mood expert and news stations such as CNN consult her. Several publications including the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News have written articles on Dr. Shosh's work. She's interviewed regularly on national radio and has been quoted in dozens of newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, WebMD, Boston Globe, Fit Pregnancy, Glamour, Parenting, Psychology Today, New York Post, Self, Cosmopolitan, and the Chicago Tribune.

Dr. Shosh is a pioneer in the field. She is a survivor of two life-threatening postpartum depressions. She founded Postpartum Assistance for Mothers in 1987, and is a former president of Postpartum Support International. Dr. Shosh helped develop the official Postpartum Support International training curriculum for professionals which is now considered the gold standard in the field. She has helped over 19,000 women worldwide through individual consultations, support groups and wellness seminars. As a noted guest lecturer and keynote speaker, she travels throughout the US and abroad, training medical and mental health professionals to assess and treat postpartum depression and related mood and anxiety disorders. She earned three teaching credentials, two masters degrees, a Ph.D. and is licensed as a clinical psychologist.

Intriguing tales … told Texas-style … are the hallmark of legendary author, Herb Marlow. The acclaimed writer, educator, and counselor offers a rich series of historical and adventure novels that are destined to become classics for readers of all ages. These timeless treasures spark the imagination and remove the mystery from history as readers interact with captivating characters and creatures. Herb Marlow has been featured on TV, radio and in print publications nationwide. Sixty-eight of Herb’s books have been published, including “COWBOY RICHES.” Dr. Marlow spent a portion of his adult life as a pastor. During those years, seeing the myriad of heartaches faced by the people he served, he returned to the university to obtain his Ph.D. in counseling and to begin a private pastoral counseling practice. Though basically retired, he continues to provide limited counseling today. Marlow has published over sixty books, both print and electronic, including fiction for children (“Twisters, Bronc Ricers & Cherry Pie,” “Jack the Border Collie,” etc.), young adults (the four-book “Guns of the Civil War” series, “Hood River Home,” etc.), and adults, and professional works addressing counseling issues, writing and education, and a trilogy of books on parenting. As a freelance writer, Herb’s stories and articles have been published in many national periodicals and professional journals, as well as online blogs. His clean adult books include: “To Everything a Season,” “The Laughter of God,” “Cowboy Riches,” and its sequel “Mesquite Riches.” Also, Herb’s ever popular four-book “Minister Wanted Series” is now available. Herb is an Old West author too, with several books and collections of short stories to his credit including “Outlaws West,” “Trouble on the Bosque,” “Drive the Pecos,” “Red River Rising,” “Jericho Shade,” “Texas Comes Calling,” and “High Lonesome.”

Laurie Herrick is a fundraising consultant and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in the not-for-profit sector. The emphasis of Laurie’s work is creating fundraising breakthroughs by empowering leaders to build a healthy Culture of Philanthropy within their organizations. It is through fostering this culture shift that Laurie fulfills her personal mission to make positive social change. Laurie has served in numerous professional and volunteer roles. She’s been a development director, executive director, board member and board chair of a variety of nonprofit organizations. These experiences led to her profound awareness of the challenges they were facing. One of the noteworthy obstacles she observed in her role as a consultant was the way the culture, and specifically a destructive mindset of scarcity, got in the way of fundraising success. She built a coaching approach that addressed this mindset and trained organizational leaders to build a culture that was more intentional and came from a mindset of abundance. This shift of mindset has altered the overall fundraising strategy and success of countless organizations. When she’s not consulting, Laurie enjoys trail running, swimming, blowing glass, gardening and cooking. You can reach her at www.rainmkr.com.

Mark Anderson has written articles on science, history, and technology for a variety of national and international publications and media outlets. He has a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's degree in astrophysics. Anderson's first book, "Shakespeare" by Another Name, supports the Oxfordian theory that the Elizabethan court poet-playwright Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford wrote the works conventionally attributed to William Shakespeare. The book is the first Oxfordian literary biography – connecting de Vere's life to Shakespeare's plays and poems.