Ritch Brinkley wrote and performed the monodrama entitled "Hemingway: In Ernest" which was expanded into the three-character play "Hemingway: Before the Storm" and performed at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Currently Brinkley is featured on Sherry Londe's 30a radio (107.1 FM) Breezy Livin' Storytime as Uncle Lijah, wordweaver. Brinkley’s acting career includes “Death of a Miner” with Sarah Jessica Parker, “Breakdown” with Kurt Russell, and “Murphy Brown” with Candice Bergen. He taught acting at the beginning (Los Fresnos, TX High School-1967-69) and at the end (The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 1999-2000). His B.S. in Communications from UT in 1967 was followed by an MFA in Acting from Florida State University in 1978. Upon retiring, he wrote a film commentary (“Before the Lens”) for Destin, Fl’s Beachcomber. Today, he may be found kayaking the clear creeks and springs of the Florida Panhandle with his first mate, a seven-pound Papillon named Beignet -- the Duchess of Yappington.
John Buckner is a retired educator with an Ed D in Educational Administration from the University of Akron. His professional technical writing has appeared in state and national middle school publications to include the Middle School Journal. He has also authored a chapter in C. K. Mc Ewin‟s The Professional Preparation of Middle Level Teacher.
Melinda Harvey, lifetime resident of Glencoe, Alabama, is librarian on the McClellan Campus at Gadsden State Community College. For many years her parents lived in fear that she was a professional student. When not reading, she spends her time cooking and playing with her Irish Wolfhounds. She has dreams of learning to drive an RV, but her husband insists that she must learn to parallel park the van first.
Richard S. Hillman is professor emeritus of political science (St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York). He has lived in Brazil, Venezuela, and Jamaica, and now resides in Florida. He was Director of the Institute for the Study of Democracy and Human Rights. The Liaison is Hillman’s first novel. The plot revolves around Manny White Vidal, an American professor whose quest for adventure in Guarida explodes when he stumbles into a political minefield. The United States invades the Caribbean country to protect big oil. Then Guarida security forces imprison Manny as a spy. President Claudio Sánchez demands that Manny publicly denounce American imperialism in exchange for his freedom. But Manny offers a deal that Sánchez cannot refuse. When not writing, Hillman is playing tennis or boating on Island Girl, his thirty-six foot cabin cruiser.
Melanie Huston is a librarian who designs web interfaces. She lives in Washington, DC. Poetry is her favorite drug.
Sherry Londe is a retired professional modern dance performer/choreographer and teacher. She is on the board of Sinfonia Gulf Coast, writes "On Stage" for The Beachcomber of Destin, and hosts Breezy Livin' Story Time on 30A radio. She is married to Dr. Stephen Phlaum, a cardiologist at Sacred Heart. They have two grown daughters Marlyse and Morgana who are living their dreams in NYC and Los Angeles.
For a quarter century, Martha Mattingly Payne has been writing on the sly while facing the challenges of the day-to-day. Holding degrees in English from UNC-Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University, she’s taught English Lit, edited a city magazine, given birth-times-four, launched two sons into college, washed 12,010 socks, and prepared twice that many meals. A graduate of among others, the Sewanee Writers Conference and the Paris Writers’ Workshop, Payne’s work has been published in such journals as Snake Nation Review and Alabama Literary Review. Her novel-in-progress, A Girl of Summer, was short-listed for the 2010 Dana Award in the Novel, and her sports parenting book, Put Him In, Coach! A Mother’s All-Star Memoir, received a 2008 Mom’s Choice Award. Payne lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two younger children.
Rebecca Taylor is an elementary school teacher. She has presented many teacher workshops on keeping students interested in learning. She lives in Nashville.
Cyndi Faur Talty was born in Chicago, granddaughter of a Romanian Gypsy immigrant, daughter of a “preacher man”. She discovered a fondness for reading and teaching at a young age. She graduated from Judson College in Elgin, IL, in 1977 and taught in Algonquin, IL, Okinawa, Japan, and Omaha, NE. In every teaching position she always finagled her way into teaching reading and language arts and creative writing. While in Japan, she met her husband. After leaving the military they attended Asbury Theological Seminary and both earned a Master’s of Divinity and MA in Counseling. Her love of teaching and writing continues today as she is a Children’s Minister at A Simple Faith Church in Seagrove Beach where she writes her own curriculum. She is also substitute teaching in South Walton County for Butler and Bay Elementary Schools where she continues to encourage children to write.
Maureen Welch grew up in a family of Irish storytellers. She taught English to high-school students in Michigan and Ohio, and to adults in Florida. She's written for newspapers and magazines and did promotional writing for twelve years at the University of Florida. She now writes fiction at home in St. Augustine, Florida.
A transplanted Michiganian, Maureen Vreeland lives on Mallet Bayou in Freeport, Florida, with her husband, Richard and their three cats. Besides poetry and fiction, she writes a weekly Pet of the Week column for Alaqua Animal Refuge, a local no-kill shelter. Maureen is also a runner and a quilter.
