Contributors

Author Rebecca Ayers is a self-identified bibliophile whose love of words has guided her through every aspect of her life. Raised in the American South, she grew up with a love of folklore and storytelling. She began writing stories at the age of six and studied literature at Winthrop University, with the lifelong goal of becoming professionally published. Her hobbies include playing the alto saxophone and expanding her knowledge of music and film. She currently works as a freelance writer in South Carolina and can be found online @Nighean.

Terry Barr’s essays have been published or will soon be published in such journals as Red Truck Review, Deep South Magazine, Hippocampus, The Bitter Southerner, Blue Bonnet Review, and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. His essay collection, Don’t Date Baptists and Other Warnings From My Alabama Mother, will be published in 2016 by Red Dirt Press. He lives in Greenville, SC with his family.

Sally Basmajian is an escapee from the corporate world of broadcasting, and has spent much of her professional life selling, marketing, acquiring, and scheduling other people’s artistic visions. Recently, she started dabbling in writing, and has won prizes in contests including the 2014 and 2015 Rising Spirit Awards and SQ Mag’s 2015 Story Quest Contest. Once, she was a piano major at Queen’s University and she holds a Master of Arts degree in Musicology from the University of Toronto. She lives in bliss with her husband and sheltie in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.

After a lifetime of reading clones and a decade of proofreading coffee table books, Dani J Caile started writing. So far he has completed a handful of novels, including Man by a Tree, The Bethlehem Fiasco, The Rage of Atlantis, Manna-X and How to Build a Castle in Seven Easy Steps (Line by Lion Publications), and hundreds of flash fiction stories, including a few novelettes, TDX2 and Alice on the Outside-In, and the new mystery-thriller, All For Love.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is an LA poet who is currently enrolled in the MFA Graduate program at Antioch University in Los Angeles, where he lives with his wife and their cat, Woody Gold. His poetry has been featured in The Yellow Chair Review, Thick With Conviction, Silver Birch Press and one of his poems was named Cultured Vultures’ Top 3 Poems of the Week. You can connect with Adrian on his website, adrianernestocepeda.com.

Susanna Donato is writing a music-driven memoir about coming of age as a gothy, redheaded minister’s daughter in Denver and NYC of the 1980s and 90s. Her work has appeared in Okey-Panky and Hippocampus, among others. She’s studied at the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. She blogs occasionally, mostly about music, at  auditorymemory.com and tweets from @susannadonato.

Barney Harper is a master procrastinator, Olympian self-flagellator, and epic abandoner of projects. When she is not completing these herculean tasks, she occasionally gets some writing done. She first got noticed as a writer at the age of 12 when she won an essay competition for her piece on the unparalleled joy of a really good burger. She was awarded a meal with the headmistress of her school (which did not include a burger), and a portable CD player. She is still waiting for her second major literary prize. Barney has previously published two non-fiction books and edited another (under different names), as well as authoring several book chapters, magazine articles and sinister short stories. She is currently completing her first novel. You can follow her writerly adventures on Twitter @BarneyWriteNow.

Wendy Kennar was a public school teacher for twelve years and is now a freelance writer, who has lived her entire life in the same Los Angeles zip code. Over the years, her writing has appeared in several publications including the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, United Teacher, L.A. Parent, Breath and Shadow, Write for Light, and Lessons From My Parents, to name a few. She is a regular contributor at MomsLA.com and writes at wendykennar.com.

Don Kingfisher Campbell, who recently earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, has been a coach and judge for Poetry Out Loud, a performing poet/teacher for Red Hen Press Youth Writing Workshops, Los Angeles Area Coordinator and Board Member of California Poets In The Schools, publisher of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, leader of the Emerging Urban Poets Writing and Deep Critique Workshops, organizer of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival, and host of the Saturday Afternoon Poetry reading series in Pasadena, California. For publication credits, please go to dkc1031.blogspot.com.

If it were possible to knit and write at the same time Polo Lonergan would never rest. As a displaced Brit living in Canada she finds plenty of inspiration for both.

Cassie Newell dons her cape professionally in the pharmaceutical industry and in her spare time she is a blogger, an author of several short stories, and writes under the pen name, Mira Monroe. She is in the throes of editing her first young adult novel, Unwanted Magick, set to publish under her imprint eBook Me Up later this year. Cassie is an avid reader and enjoys supporting her fellow indie authors.

Susan Tepper has been a writer for twenty years. Her sixth and most current book is fabulist fiction titled dear Petrov (Pure Slush Books, 2016). Set in late 19th century Russia, it’s a story about love, war and deprivations. susantepper.com

Dave Thome, aka DC Thome, is the author of the Fast Lane Romance trilogy, featuring Palm Springs Heat, Malibu Bride, and San Fernando Dreams. He has also authored the devilish comedy, See You in Hell, and a nonfictional take on love, sex and panties, entitled Man Writing A Romance, and can be found online at his ManWAR blog.