Thursday, July 19, 2018

Author Feature: Carol Schoenig

Carol Schoenig lives in Cranberry Township Pennsylvania with her husband.  She has two sons and five grandchildren, which she says is two sets.  One set lives in Erie Pennsylvania and range in age from twenty to sixteen.  The second set is in Grove City Pennsylvania ages five and four.

Carol is an avid reader of romance and mystery.   She was first inspired to write in her early twenties when she submitted a short story to Harlequin Romance.  When she didn’t win the contest, she thought she couldn’t write. But continued writing on the side.  She pursued a career in Human Resources and received a Masters in Organizational Leadership from Geneva College.

Upon retiring from her career, she vigorously began writing. Her debut novel, The Caretaker was released in March 2017. She also is a 2017 New York City Big Book Award recipient.

Find Carol at her Website and on Facebook


Friday, July 13, 2018

Author Feature: Darrick Dean

For someone who has loved reading and disappearing into fantastic worlds as long as he can remember, Darrick Dean took a slightly different path to creating his own worlds. He earned his engineering degree from Geneva College, published articles on space exploration in publications such as Ad Astra and Space Times, and contributed ideas to NASA’s Space Exploration Initiative. Unfortunately, NASA never used his plan to dispose of nuclear waste into the Sun.

Fascination with space travel wasn't the only thing shaping his mind. The other was history, particularly the ancient kind. Exploring the legends of ancient America and other lands, he soon realized much had been forgotten about our past.

Then he discovered the fantasy realms of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and George MacDonald. He asked the questions, “What if not all in myth is fiction?” and “What if the lines between history and legend can be blurred?” His first novel, Among the Shadows, was born as the answer to those questions.

Among the Shadows is the first of the Watchers of the Light trilogy, to be followed by Awakening and Scourge. The Servants of the Flame duology, Fallen and Wielder of Fire, will be set in the same universe.

“History warns us. Legend fascinates us. Imagination drives us. Authors take these and create worlds that entertain, provoke, and warn. Ultimately, even fiction is about the Story we all find ourselves in.”


You can find Darrick Dean on-line at darrickdean.com and facebook.com/DarrickDeanAuthor.


Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Author Feature: Cindy Rinaman Marsch

Cindy Rinaman Marsch was born in Jacksonville, Florida at the end of the Baby Boom, the oldest of seven siblings in blended families. She became a Seminoles football fan at Florida State University, taught at Auburn University, and in 1986 married Glenn Marsch, a professor of physics. The Marsches have four grown children and keep a garden and hobby winery in Slippery Rock, where they have lived since 2004.

Though she currently works as a freelance editor and as guest lecturer in writing at Grove City College, for the previous three decades Cindy homeschooled and taught online. With her nest emptying, she now has time to write as she has always desired, and her debut novel Rosette offers an episode of unknown history with imaginative speculation. The companion short story "Blizzard" adds a chilling episode of Rosette's life. In process now is a companion novel, Solomon Ramsdell, and a transcription of Rosette's actual journal of 1856-58.

The illustrated paperback version of Rosette is enhanced by twenty-four charcoal illustrations by Cindy’s daughter Betsy. Learn more at BetsyMarsch.com .

Contact Cindy Rinaman Marsch via info@morainesedgebooks.com and through her websites at MorainesEdgeBooks.com and RosetteBook.com.


 




Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Author Feature: Randy Ryan

Randy Ryan is a former power lifter who holds three Pennsylvania state records and a world record in the bench press. He holds a Master’s in English from Youngstown State University, and lives in New Castle, Pennsylvania with his two dogs—Lilly and Grizzwald. Perspectives is his first published novel, and is the first of a trilogy that could be read in succession or as three standalone stories. His other titles include My First Baseball Game, My Trip to the Museum, and Hunter’s Christmas Memories.

Find more info about Randy coming soon at Pokeberry Press.


 

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Author Feature: Karen Sweeney-Ryall

Karen Sweeney-Ryall mentors women to live their dreams and fulfill the destiny designed for them by God.  She is the author of Revealing Your Treasures Hidden in Darkness. She is an inspirational speaker about thriving and not just surviving, our God-given unique identity, value, and calling and bringing beauty from the ashes of our difficult experiences.  She is also completing her certification as a Life Purpose coach.

Karen is an avid reader, loves the beach, nature, and travel, and enjoys her 4 children, 4 grandchildren, and one great-grandbaby. She works as a hospice bereavement coordinator and is active in women’s ministry and leadership at Living Hope Church.


Find Karen at  BecomingMyBestMe.com

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Author Feature: Todd J. Vicker

With the success of Todd’s first children’s book “The Hunt for Luke’s Bone”, Todd decided to continue his book series. His faithful companion, Luke, his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel continues as the books main character. Born with an artistic sense throughout his life and a graduate from The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Todd has been in the printing industry since college. With his passion for art, Todd has continued to provide us with his combination of love for animals and children. Creating books for children that brings Luke to life, for everyone to enjoy, is his new passion.



Find Todd on his Facebook page


 
 

Friday, May 11, 2018

Author Feature: Sandra Gould Ford

Sandra Gould presents literary and visual art that encourage, refresh, enrich creative thinking and inspire.  Her TED Talk describes the writing program she established at a mega-jail  [https://youtu.be/CYnPzBbmuZs].

Sandra published an international quarterly and produced two writer conferences.

She now enjoys exploring the human experience through the arts. 

Web site:  SandraGouldFord.com

  



Author Feature: Robert Forte

Robert Forte is a multi-talented American writer and producer at Fifth Wind Films. In the last 20 years, audiences have enjoyed his work on virtually every stage, from the small screen to large silver screen. Robert has written or produced seven stage plays, three television sitcoms, one musical, four screenplays and his first crime novel, The Woman in the Yellow Dress. The Yellow Dress is based on his original screenplay and the first in the Patrick Miles Atwater Trilogy. Now, Magenta Dairy continues the adventure into the early 1950s. Robert has also invented a board game, writes original music and has six screenplays of development.

Born in 1947 in East Orange, New Jersey, Robert met his wife Evelyn in high school, reuniting 40 years later. Since 2012, they have lived in Johnstown, Pennsylvania where Robert has served on the Inclined Plane for three years as an Operator, including raising support to preserve this “Jewel of Johnstown,” as Robert calls it.

Robert studied philosophy at Monmouth College (now Monmouth University) before hitting the road with his rock band. These experiences as an aspiring rock star gave Robert the idea of creating On Tour® The Board Game in 1985. The game gives participants the thrill of forming a garage band and going on tour with the goal of making to the top of the Billboard charts.

Although Robert’s last name sounds French, he is of Irish-Welsh decent and was raised in an Italian family after he and his sister, Lori, were adopted as the ages of 6 and 9, respectively.

Find more at RobertForteBooks.com

 


Friday, April 13, 2018

Author Feature: Michael Prelee


“Michael Prelee is a graduate of Youngstown State University. He resides in Northeast Ohio with his family where he enjoys writing. His crime fiction novel "Murder in the Heart of It All" is now available from North Star Press. The next installment in his Milky Way Repo scifi crime series, Bad Rock Beat Down, was recently released. The first book in the series, Milky Way Repo, is currently available from EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy.” 

Find more about Michael and his work at MichaelPrelee.com

  



Monday, April 9, 2018

Author Feature: Joseph Jenkins

Joseph Jenkins lives near Grove City, Pennsylvania on a 143 acre homestead with an organic garden and orchard and a few ducks and chickens. He began self-publishing in 1994 while a graduate student at Slippery Rock University, with no professional writing or publishing experience, and has since sold over 85,000 self-published books with a combined cover price of over 2 million dollars. His three titles include: The Humanure Handbook (in 3 editions), The Slate Roof Bible (in 3 editions), and Balance Point (in 2 editions). His titles have been recognized in numerous local, national, and international book awards.

His books have been mentioned on NPR, the BBC, CBC (Canada), PBS, Playboy Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Howard Stern, New Yorker Magazine, Associated Press, and many other media outlets.

Jenkins also owns and operates a nationwide slate roof consulting business, and three internet sales outlets (SlateRoofWarehouse.com, SnowGuardWarehouse.com, and HumanureStore.com). He also provides international consulting services for "composting as a sanitation solution." His research, consulting, and speaking engagements have taken him to 58 countries and territories so far.

Jenkins publishes the Traditional Roofing Magazine and is the founder and executive director of the Slate Roofing Contractors Association of North America, Inc, a non-profit trade association. he is also setting up a slate roof training center in the Grove City area.

Find more info at JosephJenkins.com  and contact him through Facebook


Friday, March 9, 2018

Author Feature: Laura Lovic-Lindsay

Laura Lovic-Lindsay spent her youth playing alone in cemeteries, along a river, and on the paths of some deep woods. Small wonder, then, that the crows chose her to share some of their darkest tales. An English degree from Penn State helped with all the grammary stuff. Two kids and two dogs help keep her humble and focused.

[Website in Progress -- will be updated.]



Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Author Feature: Jamie Lackey

Jamie Lackey lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and their cat. Her debut novel, Left-Hand Gods, is available from Hadley Rille Books, and she has two short story collections, The Blood of Four God and Other Stories and A Metal Box Floating Between Stars and Other Stories available from Air and Nothingness Press.  Her flash fiction collection, One Revolution, and her novella, Moving Forward, are both available on Amazon.  She also has over 130 short stories available.  Her work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Cast of Wonders.  In addition to writing, she spends her time reading, playing tabletop RPGs, baking, and hiking. 

You can find her online at JamieLackey.com.




Sunday, February 4, 2018

Author Feature: W. Stephen Coleman

Stephen Coleman has spent most of his adult life as a professor of theater at the University of Pittsburgh. A specialist in Shakespeare, acting, directing, and stage combat, he taught for more than 30 years and practiced his craft on stage and screen, including roles in Silence of the Lambs, where he had the pleasure of being literally defaced by the epicurean Hannibal Lecter and in the PBS Series The War That Made America, where as the ill-fated General Braddock he was shot from the back of a horse. It was only after he retired that he discovered a new interest: The Civil War, and especially, Gettysburg.

Illustrator Tim Hartman is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has been professionally acting, singing, writing, cartooning, and storytelling since 1982. He is also an award-winning political cartoonist and illustrator whose work has appeared widely in newspapers. (Tim was integral to the development of Discovering Gettysburg but is not attending Fest.)

Find more information about Stephen and Discovering Gettysburg at Savais Beatie, LLC




Author Feature: Ruth Ochs Webster

Ruth Ann Ochs Webster was born and raised in Covington, Kentucky, a not quite Northern and not quite Southern town on the Ohio River. That location sparked a lifelong interest in both history and travel.  Ruth now lives in Metro Pittsburgh, near the confluence of the two rivers that form the Ohio. She is a retired National Board Certified Teacher, specializing in language arts and United States History.

Ruth has been published in various magazines, literary journals, and newspapers.  She was a newspaper columnist for seven years. She is the recipient of the Backbone Mountain Review Fiction Prize, the Stanier Award from the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival (a collaboration), and the Author Zone (TAZ) Award for Historical Fiction.

Her current project is a six-novel series entitled Toe the Mark. The novels are inspired by the lives and military records of real men, ancestors of the author, based heavily on genealogical and regimental research. Published by Tree Shadow Press: Ancestrals.

Book one of the series—Henry: The Jersey Brigade—won First Place in Historical Fiction at the TAZ Awards in 2017.

Book two of the series—Jesse: 53rd Kentucky—will launch this spring and be available first at the West PA Book Festival.