Authors

Diana Louise Webb, who has a Juris Doctorate degree and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, is a survivor of 12+ unjust years in federal prison, and a tenacious victor, having successfully navigated a life-threatening disease. She also is the daughter of a German child survivor of East Prussia, who fled the Soviet occupation during the evacuations of 1944. Her experience with adversity has made her even more resilient, a living testament to the cliché: “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”

Frances Bonney Jenner grew up in a big extended family of eccentric Texas storytellers spinning yarns, including her grandmother, a poet, descended from Kentucky pioneers. As a lover of words, she became a professional librarian, reading tall tales to children and peddling YA Lit to teens. Frances and her husband traveled all 2000 miles of the California Trail to research her award-winning novel, Prairie Journey. She shares the name Bonney with William Bonney, Billy the Kid, and was inevitably drawn to his New Mexico haunts to research and write his story.

Claudia Wellborn is a proud Texan. Her rich heritage includes deep roots in the German/Irish culture of South Texas and an Oglala Lakota grandmother through whom she became a member of the Lakota Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Born above the Big Thicket National Preserve in Woodville, Texas, she grew up respecting the power of nature. A graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington and the University of Denver College of Law, she is a career federal employee. Ms. Wellborn has traveled extensively for her job, and she lives by the Pacific Ocean in Oceanside, California with her two dogs.

Nick Greenberg, a professional bassist and composer, has played a wide variety of musical styles: Classical, jazz, rock, Broadway musicals, and even the occasional polka gig. His performances have included concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and in such distant locales as Taiwan.

Jody Weiner, writer, attorney and producer, wrote the novel Prisoners of Truth, a national IPPY award winner, (Council Oak Books 2004, pb 2006).

B. W. Jackson writes short stories and novels. His work has appeared in publications across the United States and in the United Kingdom. He is the author of The Rise of Lazarus. He lives outside New York City with his wife.

EM Templin lives in a small town, cradled in the North Carolina mountains, with her husband and son; her career spans working with vulnerable populations, from children to seniors. A Guilford College alumnus, where she obtained a degree in legal studies. She loves to hike and spend as much time at a beach as possible and is in pursuit of dreaming like a child again. Writing and studying people has always been an obsession; she wrote about anything and everything. That was until empty nester syndrome set in when she decided to take her stories seriously while envisioning the what-ifs of how the world should be. Collecting case studies and armed with a deep understanding of the people around her, she decided to wind stories the average human chooses to ignore and twist a tale into a world she wishes existed. So, Em invites you into worlds of flawed characters who make large impacts.

Geri Spieler is an investigative journalist and award-winning speaker who has written articles for the Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Huffington Post, Westways, and was a featured correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since she fell in love with writing in high school, Anne Shaw Heinrich has been a journalist, columnist, blogger and nonprofit communications professional. Her first article appeared in Rockford Magazine in 1987. She’s interviewed and written features on Beverly Sills, Judy Collins, Gene Siskel, and Debbie Reynolds. Anne’s writing has been featured in The New York Times bestseller The Right Words at the Right Time, Volume 2: Your Turn (Atria 2006) and Chicken Soup for the Soul’s The Cancer Book: 101 Stories of Courage, Support and Love (2009). Anne’s debut novel, God Bless The Child, is the first in a three-book series, The Women of Paradise County, to be published by Speaking Volumes. She and her husband are parents to three adult children. Anne is passionate about her family, mental health advocacy and the power of storytelling.

Marc Zappulla is an American author from the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts. He has worked as a ghostwriter for celebrity figures such as Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Gerry Cheevers, and former MLB strength and conditioning coach Brian McNamee.

He was inspired to write his first novel The Last Longshoreman by his father’s thirty-year career as a longshoreman. Zappulla currently lives in Boston.