Joe Molnar

Episode 7:

Joe’s fascination with science fiction started at an early age and has never left him. His writings these days often blend steamy erotica with a dose of contemporary fantasy into long simmering science fiction. He traveled more in earlier days than he does lately. Now he plays with 3d printers, or maybe they just play with him. While pulling what's left of his hair out because of his 3d printer, he listens to a range of eclectic music, especially indigenous music from around the world. In real life, Joe is a software engineer, and resides in a universe in the suburbs of Boston. Find him in cyberspace at http://www.joenobel.com.

Archana Apte

Episode 10:

Archana Apte is a Massachusetts high-schooler. She began writing at six years old and continues to do so for her school newspaper and personal blog, Pixellated Paracosm. She founded her school's online poetry magazine, WHS Literary Talent, and helps organize annual student poetry readings at a local bookstore.

Outside of the writing world, Archana loves ecology and environmental conservation, philosophy, baking, intellectual discussions, music, astronomy, movies, reading, video games, and archery. Currently, her favorite academic subjects are English, History and Biology--but this could change in a wink. You can often find her typing furiously on her laptop, walking in nature, or finding people to argue with.

Tara Sareen

Episode 12:

Tara Sareen is a Certified Health Coach for mothers in the Greater Boston Area. She lives with her husband and eight children. As the founder of iCrave Coaching, Tara coordinates her clients' wellness goals around nutrition, weight loss, appropriate physical activity, and stress management. She enjoys writing as a contributor for online health sites based in NYC and Australia.

Matt Burns

Episode 14:

Matt Burns never really did much creative writing until his early 20s when he started writing one screenplay after another. Many of his scripts ended up placing as finalists in International screenwriting contests; he found it difficult, however, to get his work produced. Eventually growing tired of writing screenplays, Burns wrote his first novel JOHNNY CRUISE in 2009 and has written four more novels to date. He also has two memoirs under his belt and several short stories, both fiction and narrative non-fiction. On top of everything else, he loves writing poetry and has been published twice in the Los Angeles-based literary magazine "Poetic Diversity". In his spare time, he makes short films and videos. Visit Matt's website http://www.mattburnsproductions.com to learn more!

Episodes 16A&B:

Bonnie Furlong's essays have been published online and in print, but her proudest achievement to date is winning a national plagiarism contest. When not working as a legal transcriptionist, she grows steampunk gardens and attends Lord Fairfax Community College in Virginia, where she is considered, by those who don't know her, to be a mature student. She is currently working on Flowbeard's Parrot, a novel set on the grounds of Lord Fearfax College, a campus overflowing with ghosts, lunch ladies, and abducted architecture. It bears no resemblance to any institute of higher learning, living or dead.

Sam Simas

Episode 17:

Sam [Sam] n. — 1992. 1. Sam is a recent graduate of the University of Rhode Island where he received a BA in English literature and a BA in French literature and language.  2. He is currently applying to MFA programs in fiction.  3.  Sam adores fine-tipped pens, his neon running shoes, and the sound of popcorn popping, because that, friends, is the sound of promise.

He has served as an intern for Grub Street in Boston and Barrow Street Press (a NYC-based poetry press).  He currently works as the Managing Editor for the Rumowicz Lecture Series and as a volunteer columnist for OPTIONS Magazine in Providence.

Carly Greenberg

Episode 18:

Carly Greenberg is a writer completing her English thesis at New College, Honors College of Florida. Her interest in combining literature and film has led her to work with MP Management and JV8INC. She has been featured in publications such as Cleaver Magazine and Metazen, with work forthcoming in Really System.

When she is not putting the final touches on her theatrical adaptation of a Beat novel, she serves as the assistant reviews editor for Drunken Boat and a reader for the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency.

H.L. Lee

Episode 21:

H.L. Lee is an engineer and co-founder of a small company that designs and manufactures laboratory instruments. He lives in the Boston area and for a brief time had a blog on Open Salon.com, which recently closed shop. Despite the demands of two young children, both girls, he still tries to find time to write.

Donna B. Comeaux

Episode 26:

Donna writes for Ruby for Women (http://rubyforwomen.com), a Christian women’s online magazine.  She published her first novel, Selfish Ambition, in 2015.  However, there's no greater joy than helping others make sense of life on her blog (www.awriterfirst.wordpress.com).  She inspires people to press forward with whatever God has called them to do.  Editorials and commentaries can also be found at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Donna_B._Comeaux.  

Donna is always plotting her next story inside her head and she enjoys the complexities of her writing journey.  

Donna and her husband, Glenn, have two grown sons and eight grandchildren.  They reside in Oklahoma.  

Barbara Carter

Episode 28:

Barbara Carter was born on Christmas Day in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada, and has lived in the province ever since. She is married, with three grown children and three grandchildren. In addition to working as an art instructor, she'd held many other jobs, mainly in retail. She has worked as a visual artist since 1988; visit her website at www.barbaracarterartist.com.  

Barbara is an emerging writer, with stories published in:

• Enhance magazine, Issue No.13. Fall 2013

• Fictitious magazine. Jan 2014

• UNDERSTOREY Fall 2014 Issue Four

• Foliate Oak Literary Magazine April 2015

She writes about her life experiences. Currently she is seeking a publisher for her memoir: FLOATING IN SALT WATER.

And she is busy writing more stories.

Nicholas Gregory Schwab

Episode 29:

Nicholas Gregory (Schwab) is a 30 year old student: both literally an English Major and a Film Studies Minor at The Ohio State University and Columbus State Community College, as well as a metaphorical student of his hobbies: films and music. He started writing for arts and news sections of newspapers at the age of 23 (despite dropping out of college during that time) and moved his way into fiction about a year and a half ago. Nick resides in the same house in Westerville, Columbus, Ohio that he grew up in-- no comments from the peanut gallery, both students and writers are often poor, haha-- and aims to go to grad school for Creative Writing or Film Screenwriting, perhaps on the West Coast.

Ruth Weiner

Episode 30:

Writing is how I breathe best. 

An English teacher for thirty-three years, I happily retired in 2006. Since then, I’ve traveled with my husband, spent time with our children and five grandkids, ridden my bicycle throughout New England, kicked up my heels at Zumba, fenced, and read read read (especially for One Book One Town: Sharon Reads Together). My stories appear in the anthology We Teach Them All, in A Cup of Comfort for Breast Cancer Survivors, and in the Provincetown Banner. I write feature stories for the Canton Citizen, the Sharon Advocate, and the Jewish Advocate. I am presently working on two novels: The Maker of Meaning (about a girl who champions the rights of abused children) and The Farbissiners (about four elderly Mah-Jong playing women who expose a scam that threatens their community).

Michael W. Schwartz

Episode 31:

Michael Schwartz spent his youth involved with karate training and dragon slaying in the woods of New Hampshire. He was fond of role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and even created his own written adventures and modifications. At the young age of eighteen, he fell in love with and married his neighbor and high school sweetheart, Kimberly. Shortly thereafter, he earned his black belt in martial arts. After graduating high school, he embarked on a short term of service in the United States Marine Corps, during which his two sons were born. He returned to the simple working life at the grocery store, adding a daughter to the household, raising a family of three children with his wife. Their children are grown and Michael and Kimberly have been married happily for twenty-two years. They are now kept company by a small host of furry animals.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had a profound effect on Michael’s outlook of life, God, and His purpose for mankind. He was moved to study theology and philosophy, in particular religiously-inspired warfare. Trying to discover the answer to divinely justified murder, and man’s eager claim to it, he wrote this book series.

Visit the Ratarra website at ratarra.com
Facebook: facebook.com/ratarra.bookseries

John T. “Jack” Hitchner

Episode 32:

Raised in Pitman, New Jersey, John T. “Jack” Hitchner graduated from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and Dartmouth College. He also studied at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

For over 35 years, he taught English in public schools in New Jersey and New Hampshire, until retiring from public education in 2001. Since 1989, he has been an adjunct instructor in English at Keene State College, where he presently teaches Creative Writing and Coming of Age in War and Peace.

His publications include three chapbooks of poetry—Not Far From Here, 2010, Seasons and Shadows, 2011, and Pieces of Life Between Latitudes, 2015. How Far Away, How Near, a collection of short fiction, appeared in 2012 and The Acolyte, his first novel, appeared in 2014.
  
His poem, My Father in Winter, was awarded the Robert Penn Warren Free Verse Prize by The Anthology of New England Writers. He has also been a Featured Poet in the noted poetry journals the Aurorean and Long Story Short.

He lives with his wife Patricia in New Hampshire.

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Anna Kaling

Episode 33:

Anna Kaling is a professional bid writer for a construction consultancy by day and a romance fiction author by night. Although she enjoys her job, she admits preferring love scenes over methodologies for building housing blocks. When she isn't writing, she's watching British sitcoms with her husband and two cats, Ted and Pepper.

Mandy Moore

Episode 37:

Mandy Moore has been writing since she was 11. Once she acquired the taste for the written word, it never left her. Having graduated with a B.A. in English from The University of Central Oklahoma, Mandy now resides in San Antonio with her husband and two children.

Chris Piccone

Episode 38:

Chris Piccone is a restless soul living in New Jersey, teaching English in a small private school and enjoying the passing of time. He has been published in several forms, most recently in Independent School Magazine. Chris ran his car on used vegetable oil for 85,000 miles before realizing that he was driving away from the resentment he maintained for the breakup of his first marriage. He came home to write Retribution, a mostly true account of what could push people to do extraordinarily bad things.

To read more chapters of Chris' book, check out his blog: www.chrispiccone.com. 

Tom Heeren

Episode 39:

Tom Heeran has been writing on and off for the past twenty-six years. He is Deaf and has cerebral palsy but neither HINDERS him from pursuing his writing career and living his life to the fullest. He volunteers at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus each Wednesday. He's been working since 1996 and will officially retire from volunteer work on December 7, 2016 after twenty years of service. 

Tom obtained his BA degree in English from Nebraska Wesleyan University. While he was at NWU, he wrote theatre reviews for the college yearbooks and book reviews for the college newspaper. For leisure, Tom enjoys watching "Downton Abbey," being a history buff, is an active reader of historical fiction, British and American novels, poetry, plays and essays, and is a doting uncle to five nephews and five nieces as well as a great uncle to two great nephews and a great niece. His writing genres are historical fiction, essays, short fiction for children and adults, children's books and poetry. 

Joyce Doyle

Episode 40:

Joyce Doyle is a freelance and fiction writer living in Portland, Maine. She started her professional writing career in newspapers before discovering she could make up much more interesting stories and started writing fiction. Joyce decided to get close to the books and worked in public libraries for several years, where she reconnected with favorite books from her teen years and solidified her love for YA literature. She runs creative writing workshops by contract and has instructed writing groups across the country. She blogs writing tips at: www.joycedoyle.com.

Joan Yenawine

Episode 41:

Joan Yenawine has been published in The Boston Globe, and two of her flash fiction pieces were selected by The Columbia Art League as part of their Interpretations III exhibit. She is currently working on her first book, Georges Island, a literary novel which explores isolation, the human need for connection and the impossibility of ever fully knowing another person. She is inspired by her two daughters, who consistently do things that scare them and who give her impossible writing prompts. She is a marketing writer by day, and an aspiring novelist while riding the commuter rail from her home in Hopkinton, MA.

Dan Biles

Episode 42:

Dan Biles is an anesthesiologist living in Cambridge. He’s currently working on a novel involving a biologic attack in New York City.  An avid backpacker and sailor, he has an upcoming piece in BACKPACKER magazine and is a volunteer instructor at Community Boating in Boston.  

Joyce Gerber

Episode 43:

Joyce Gerber is a former divorce attorney who loves a good story. She’s written several middle-grade novels, but Girls I Love Best is her first attempt to write an accessible book about the all too common experience of family divorce. When not writing novels, she likes to quilt, play tennis and spend time with her family. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, two children, three cats and dog.

Martha Coats

Episode 44:

Martha developed a love for writing stories in elementary school and still enjoys writing poetry, children’s picture books, fiction and personal essays. She lives outside of Boston with her wonderful husband and delicious redheaded sons. Visit her blog: marthamaryblog.wordpress.com.

Robine Audrau

Episode 45:

After attending Middebury College, the Institut d’Études Politiques of the University of Paris (a certificat d’études politiques), and the George Washington University (BA in international relations), Robine started her work life as a teacher at the International School in Holland. When she returned to the U.S., she dabbled in librarianship, later earning an MLIS from Simmons College, but found her preferred work to be that of editing. While working full time as an editor, she spent weekends teaching herself the craft of writing and produced a romance novel, which is now safely gathering dust in a dark closet it calls home.

After retiring, she began writing in earnest. She now spends a good chunk of her time promoting her newly published memoir/biography, Bowing to the Emperor: We Were Captives in WWII, an account of her family's and her experience as prisoners of the Japanese. She is also writing a novel, creates essays for a monthly column in the Scituate Mariner, and has been submitting personal essays to the Sunday Boston Globe and the Patriot Ledger (several published in both of them), and other newspapers and journals.

Robine lives in Scituate, MA, near her children and their families, and every day she learns something new about technology from her grandchildren. Contact info: http://www.robineandrau.com; randrau@comcast.net

Maggie Ferguson

Episode 46:

Maggie Ferguson is a graduate student at Emerson College where she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She started storytelling at a young age by narrating aquarium fish manuals and illustrated medieval histories before she could read. The California native has lived in Colorado and Paris, speaks passable French, volunteers as a writing tutor, and salsa dances. Her fiction has appeared in Stone Crowns Magazine, Noise Medium, and elsewhere.

Brenda Marsian

Episode 47:

Brenda Marsian is the Chief Development Officer for Becket-Chimney Corners YMCA, directing a multi-million dollar fund-raising campaign and lecturing to other Ys on the craft of raising money. The craft of writing is also a huge passion of Brenda's. She is completing her second draft of a novel and shares her short stories and essays on her blog: https://brendamarsian.me/.

Brenda holds a Master of Arts in Communications from the University of Hartford and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Western New England University. She lives in Connecticut with her son and husband.

Richard Santarelli

Episode 48:

I have spent the last 10 years writing short stories and novels of detectives, historical fiction, science fiction, fairy tales, and others, of which a few short stories have been published. In the works is a short story about a Scotland Yard Chief Inspector and a novel about a New York private eye. One short story involving a young woman who gets involved in a mystery has been submitted to Ellery Queen magazine. I am also an active member in The Private Eye Writers of America.

Rebekah Fraser

Episode 49:

Rebekah L. Fraser earned her bachelor degree in Film Studies/Screenwriting from Yale and has written several feature film scripts (which were not produced), short films, and short stories. As a freelance journalist, she has contributed hundreds of articles and personal essays to publications throughout North America, including Christian Science Monitor, MindBodyGreen, and Elephant Journal.

Cathryn Bonica

Episode 51:

Cathryn Bonica is an educator working with students at a day treatment school in Portland, Maine. When not working, keeping track of her three teenagers, or doing homework for her Masters in English and Creative Writing, she enjoys writing novels and short stories. She self-published her first novel, Far From Kansas, and has two stories in the Maine Writes anthologies. Cathryn is a world-traveler, though most of her stories feature fictional places in Maine. If only she didn’t need to sleep, maybe her second novel would be finished by now. She lives in the Lakes Region of Maine with her husband, kids, and a Bull Mastiff named Bella. 

Kathleen Kirsch

Episode 53:

Inspired by Dickens's "A Christmas Carol", a gift from her father, ten-year-old Kathleen looked up "writer" in the green World Book encyclopedias. She chose "novelist" as the type of writer she wanted to become. Along the way, Kathleen worked as a news reporter, features writer, curriculum developer, radio copywriter, and publicist. She was a Finalist in the 2006 Austin Chronicle Short Story contest.  She belongs to the Portland Writers' Group in Maine, where she lives with her Korat cat Nimue.

Karen Corsi

Episode 55:

Karen Corsi is a single mother of two amazing kids. Her son and daughter are the reason she gets up in the morning and sometimes the reason she can’t sleep at night. She works in a public school setting with children that have behavioral issues due to Autism and other disorders. Her degree in Social Psychology (as well as Elementary Education Certification) was the perfect foundation for this career. Understanding how the brain functions and how it affects the way we relate to other people is at the core of helping children on the spectrum. 

Karen went back to school for a Masters Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis and is in awe that she gets to work with these incredible kids every day in both the classroom and home-based services. Now that her children are older and she has a fragment of free time, she has found the voice she has inside needs to come out and writing is its doorway!

Billy Bowden

Episode 56:

William Bowden is a Graduate Student in Comparative Literature at the University of Rhode Island. Interested in both pedagogy and literature, Bowden has published an article in the Journal of Media Literacy Education (JAMLE) which offers contemporary teachers a new way of thinking about social and emotional learning. Literature has been a life-long passion for Bowden, and he hopes to encourages others to pursue their passion for the discipline despite the challenges one might face on the modern (global) job market. 

Bowden intends to pursue a Ph.D in literature while simultaneously working on publishing articles on pedagogy. Currently, Bowden is also a special education teacher for Pathways Strategic Teaching Center in Coventry, Rhode Island. 

He dedicated his creative writing to his Grandmother, who passed away in 2011, his fiancee, and his parents, to whom he owes everything. 

Nancy Webb

Episode 58:

Nancy Webb is a writer, artist and photographer whose articles have appeared in Southwest Art and other magazines. She received a writing residency to Millay Colony for the Arts, and an earlier novel manuscript won at the Southeast Texas Writers Conference. One of her short stories was selected for the Santa Fe Writers Project long list, and as former Public Information Officer of the Texas State Library and Archives in Austin, she helped establish the Texas Book Festival. Nancy now lives in Rhode Island.

Mary Newton Lima

Episode 59:

Mary Newton Lima is a freelance writer and aspiring novelist living in Cape Cod. She writes stories about misfits kids, some with superpowers, some not. She is a member of SCBWI, loves her critique group, and she spends her free time reading and playing with her husband, two kids, 7 year old lab, and 4 month old puppy.

James Goedkoop

Episode 60:

James Goedkoop makes wooden weapons for the Japanese sword-related martial arts. From his workshops in Vermont, he ships to enthusiasts world-wide, and occasionally, movie sets or television productions. Thirty years of specialization have allowed him to write papers to a narrow but attentive audience. Technical things, music, art, and literature are equal in his estimation, affording life’s greatest excitements: he couldn’t put one above the other.

Erin Oldham

Episode 61:

Erin Oldham, Ph.D. is a researcher, writer, and relationship & divorce coach. Erin works with people as they navigate getting into, sustaining, and getting out of relationships. Erin has been researching child well-being and the formation of healthy relationships among children and adults for 20 years. She facilitates intriguing, engaging workshops on the impact of divorce on the brain and the skills necessary to nurture healthy relationships. She is also the Director of the Data Innovation Project at the University of Southern Maine. Writing brings her comfort. Find her and her blog at localflamesmaine.com.

John Leggett

Episode 64:

John Leggett was born and raised in upstate New York. In 1980, he moved to Aroostook County, Maine with his wife and two daughters. His short stories have been published in periodicals, literary journals, and serialized in Maine newspapers. In 2015, Leggett received one of two awards for fiction presented by the Topsham, Maine’s Library in recognition of their annual “Joy of the Pen” writers’ competition. Most recently, Leggett’s short story, The Canfield, was selected for the 2016 Goose River Anthology.

In 2014, John published his first novel, The Five-Cent Gang―a coming of age story―which was followed in December of 2016 by his second novel, Diamonds In the Rough. .John and his wife Kathleen currently reside in Falmouth, Maine.

His novels are available in several Maine bookstores, Amazon books, and through his website:  www.johnleggettbooks.com

Melanie Leivers

Episode 67:

Melanie Leivers is a Children’s Specialist at Glades Road Library in Boca Raton, Florida, where she lives with her awesome husband and beloved dog, Toby. She enjoys many creative hobbies such as writing fiction, poetry, and songs as well as playing the ukulele, photography, and painting watercolors. Currently, she is also earning her Masters in Library Science at Florida State University. Last summer, she completed her first novel which she plans to try to publish at some point, when she feels that it is ready. She is also presently working on her next novel as well.

Abhishek Indoria

Episode 68:

Abhishek Indoria grew up in India. He has been writing since he was 13, getting a few publications in the children's monthlies. He is currently studying Computer Science in Southwestern Arizona. Abhishek's fascination with horror and fantasy started with a number of books such as Dracula, The Alchemist and the Farseer Trilogy. He enjoys hiking and is an avid history-geek. 

Gwyn Plummer

Episode 69:

In her youth, Gwyn wrote many poems and short stories, and often participated in Literary Criticism competitions during high school. As she got older, she became an avid reader of romance novels, which are now her main focus. She currently reviews romance novels for Publisher’s Weekly magazine, and she has her own romance book review blog at www.gwynplum.com. Gwen and her husband live in North Texas. They have six children, five of whom are now adults. Gwyn is a procurement analyst who graduated with an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management. She's currently working on two series ─ a romantic suspense and a romantic comedy.

Sarah Caruso

Episode 70:

Sarah is a professional ceramic artist and educator living on Cape Cod. Creative writing is a passion that she had set aside for many years, and has become, once again, an important part of her life. She is in the process of figuring out how she wants her writing to shape her life, and how her life shapes her writing.

James Kabler

Episode 71:

At age 55, James retired to a small town in the hills of western Pennsylvania. There, he enjoys a charmed life with his wife, Bonnie, four of their six sons, and five grandchildren. Throughout his career, James has written for various promotional, technical, or service projects. These days, he writes to entertain. James’ favorite audience is lower middle grade. He is currently working on a series of four novellas in that genre. When he’s not writing, you’ll find James in his woodshop, or relaxing on the back porch with a jar of apple pie and a good book. 

Kimberly St. Lawrence

Episode 78:

Kimberly is a multimedia storyteller. As a producer, she won a New England Emmy Award with the magazine-style television series Styleboston and a Telly Award for a full-length inspirational documentary. She manages a multi-million dollar revenue stream as Director of Marketing for a Boston-based information publishing company and seasonally hosts a New England winter travel series on NBC Sports Boston. She is also a fiction novelist—dark and modern YA is her sweet spot, but her portfolio includes middle-grade fantasy and punchy picture books as well.

She lives in New Hampshire with her border collie and her husband Ryan, who is an adaptive athlete and advocate for spinal cord injury awareness. Go to https://www.kimstlawrence.com/ to learn more about Kim.

Valley C. Shaia

Episode 79: 

Valley C. Shaia has wanted to be an author from the moment she finished the Song of the Lioness Quartet. She just. Knew. She wrote her first “novel” during her middle school years—and hasn’t stopped writing since.

She is a graduate of James Madison University (go Dukes!), with a BA in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She spends her days as a middle school teacher—and loves it!—but has realized her true calling lies in writing books, not teaching them.

Valley currently resides in Richmond, Virginia with her mountains of books and her beloved Ford Mustang.

Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick

Episode 80:

Tom Wilinsky and Jen Sternick met in high school in  Concord, Massachusetts and started a conversation which, years later, is ongoing. Tom lives in New York with his partner, and Jen lives in East Greenwich, RI with her family. They write YA novels for the LGBTQIAP+ community and, hopefully, the reading community at large. They can be found online as Never Have I Ever Books. Their debut novel, Snowsisters, a YA romance, was published in February, 2018 by Interlude Press.

Erica Verrillo

Episode 82:

Erica Verrillo came to fiction late in life. Her first novels (a middle grade trilogy published by Random House) weren’t published until she was 50. Her background is in linguistics and in speech communication. Prior to her novels, she had published in her field and in medicine. It turned out that fiction was a great deal more fun to write. So far, she has written five novels. One day she will get around to publishing them. In her spare time, she gardens and is the director of a national nonprofit, the American Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society (www.ammes.org).

Casey Hardt (a.k.a. Meredith Hardt)

Episode 84:

Casey Hardt is a pen name, and not a particularly original one, at that. Casey lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young daughters, and a golden retriever named Rebel. She writes children's picture books and YA and is working on using that one year of art school (and a lot of online tutorials) to try her hand at illustration as well.

When not writing, Casey can either be found working as a nurse, taking care of her girls, or reading on her kindle app. She is currently unpublished but looks forward to the day when she sees her books on the shelves in libraries and bookstores.

Christopher Roche

Episode 85:

A native of New Mexico, Christopher Roche now lives and writes in the Dallas area. After writing a number of short stories, featured both in online publication form and buried-deep-in-the-desk-drawer form, he started researching and writing his first novel, AFTERGLOW, still in progress. Christopher works in the public sector in workforce management. Besides writing, Christopher, along with his wife and two sons, enjoys reading, exercising and participating in various volunteer projects.

Episode 86:

Katie Hurwitz began writing when she was young, finishing her first short story at eight years old entitled “The Magic Starfish.” She loves to write about philosophy, nature, and music. At Walpole High School, she had served as the president of the Creative Writing Club, as well as Online Managing Editor and Arts & Entertainment Editor of the school newspaper, The Rebellion. She has attended the Champlain College Young Writers’ Conference. Her poetry is published in Rare Byrd Review and the Scarlet Leaf Review, and she has won a Silver Key and Honorable Mentions from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for her short story, poem, and memoir, respectively. Katie will be double majoring in elementary education and music and minoring in creative writing at Salve Regina University starting in September 2019.