Suzanne Parrott, Author, Publisher
SUZANNE FYHRIE PARROTT
Author, Instructor, Speaker, Publisher | Website
Suzanne is the author of the bestselling books the Ebook Formatting the Publishing Guide and The Lost Sigil Ebook Guide both of which reached Amazon #1 Bestseller status. The guides, which included step-by-step written and corresponding video tutorials were created in order to help the self-publishing author understand the process of moving raw manuscript to a finished printed and published work.
Parrott has offered several self-publishing workshops and speaking engagement for such groups as Road Scholar, Oceana Family Literacy Center, Oregon Coast Learning Institute, Florence Festival of Books, and Willamette Coastal Writers Group.
Under the pen name Sumi Fyhrie, she is the author of four children’s books (Ages 3-8) Billy Beetle Bug and his Beetle Bug Board, Pandas on Parade, Where is Bear?—Let’s Play Hide and Seek, and Two Ghostly Tails. She is currently working on a new book series aimed for middle grade readers (Ages 8-12+): The Tyler Frost Case Files. Not to leave out the adult crowd, Parrott is currently writing a cozy murder mystery, a historical fiction, and a suspense-thriller.
Parrott currently lives on the Oregon Coast.
Allen Ballard, Author
ALLEN BALLARD
Author, Editor | Website
Allen Ballard is a native of Philadelphia and a proud graduate of its Central High School. He holds degrees from Kenyon College and Harvard University and spent most of his career teaching at the City College of New York and SUNY-Albany.
He’s the prize-winning author of two novels and four works of non-fiction. His Civil War novel, Where I’m Bound was a 2001 Washington Post, Notable Book of the Year.
Ballard presently lives in Clifton Park, New York where, at age 88, from early spring to late fall, he tries not to let a day go by without at least a good thirty minute ride on his adult trike!
Lori McNamara, Author, Singer, 320 Ministries
LORI McNAMARA
Author, Editor | Website
Rev. James E. Jimmy Mac McNamara was asked by his pastor to reach out for their church and begin offering church services to the senior community in Las Vegas in nursing homes and assisted living centers. He and his wife Lori began their ministry in 2008. Along with pastoring the senior home ministry, Jimmy also performed weddings. He was named the #2 wedding officiant by Wedding Wire and wrote Tales from the Wedding Altar a book sharing hilarious, behind the scenes moments from weddings he has officiated at. Jimmy and Lori were finishing up this book when he passed away suddenly in 2014. Lori saw the book through to its completion, and is proud to share their work in Jimmy s name.
Lori McNamara has had various careers in the public sector, but finds her greatest joy in serving the elderly. She has recently recorded a music CD titled: Hymns That Take Me Home. She continues the senior home ministry that she and Jimmy once shared for over six years and also serves as president of 320 Ministries International, a ministry she started soon after Jimmy s death to carry on the mission that God had placed on both their hearts.
Glen Voelz, Author
GLENN VOELZ
Author | Website
Glenn Voelz served for twenty-five years in the Army as an intelligence officer. During his career he worked on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the White House Situation Room and at NATO headquarters. He has published on a wide range of topics including diplomatic history, government contracting and military innovation.
Glenn lives in central Oregon with his family and enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, biking and cross-country skiing. He is a volunteer member of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team. His first novel is entitled War Under the Mango Tree and he is currently working on a sequel—Operation Hermes.
Carrie Merrill, Author
CARRIE MERRILL
Author | Website
When she isn’t delivering babies, Carrie Merrill is a prolific writer who has been putting pen to paper since the age of 8, when she wrote her first story about a dragon that lived in a cave across the river from her house in Idaho. A day has not gone by since that time when she didn’t have a story floating around in her head. She is currently a full-time OB/GYN in Montana with her six rescue cats when she isn’t writing about the things that lurk in the dark.
Mandie Schrader, Author, Editor
MANDIE SCHRADER
Author, Editor | Website
An avid reader with an overactive imagination, Mandie Schrader has been creating worlds and telling stories since childhood. She took her love of literature to college, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. After several years of doing administrative work, she returned to her literature roots and earned a Master of Library Science from the University of Hawaii.
Due to the state of the economy after graduation, she returned to the world of event production for several years where she met her friend, Traveling Yoda. In June of 2016 she started Mandieland Literary, a freelance writing and editing business. She hopes to one day add live storytelling to the Mandieland repertoire.
Currently, Mandie is a Young Adult Librarian with the Hawai’i State Public Library System. She and Traveling Yoda spend their free time at the beach, hiking, and crafting works of fiction about bugs, fairies, and the complexities of love and life in general. Her first children’s book, Race Day Blues, was released in September 2018.
Patricia Murphy Minch, Author
PATRICIA MURPHY MINCH
Author | Website
A typical “Army Brat,” by age nineteen Minch had lived in twenty houses located in half a dozen different states, in two countries in Europe, and in the Far East. As her family never, ever “wasted” accrued vacation time, she also traveled extensively beyond those places. Her father aspired to go everywhere and see everything he read about in his many guidebooks. And where he went, the family went!
A National Merit Scholarship finalist in 1958, Minch first attended the University of Texas at El Paso and then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, California. Many years later, she took additional classes at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, where she spent thirteen years as a self-employed “scopist” (editor) for court reporters.
An avid genealogist, gardener, landscape designer, amateur architect, woodworker, and antiques collector/dealer, Minch is also a wife, mother, and grandmother, having written feature articles for local newspapers and recently received an honorable mention for “Writing Paisley,” her very first submission to a Writers Digest competition. She’s also completed a book about my father’s experiences as a guerrilla in North Luzon in the Philippines during World War II, scheduled for publication in 2018. Minch currently lives with her husband, a retired Air Force veteran and college instructor, in Northern California.
Lizzy Armentrout, Author
LIZZY ARMENTROUT
Author | Website
Lizzy calls the Piedmont area of North Carolina home, where she teaches eighth-grade math in her local middle school. She is also actively involved in her local church where she teaches a ladies’ class, is the church pianist, sings specials, and is part of the church choir.
She loves any opportunity to share how God has changed her life with peace and joy. Armentrout is currently writing the third and final book in the Shelly Gale trilogy.
Frances Erler, Author
M.F. ERLER
Author | Website
M.F. Erler has been writing since she was about 14 years old. In fact, some of the initial ideas and characters for “The Peaks at the Edge of the World” were conceived when she was in high school.
Erler and her husband, Paul, have two adult children and make their home in Northwest Montana.
Diana (Weinberger) Kilpatrick, Author
DIANA (WEINBERGER) KILPATRICK
Author, Speaker, Court Reporter | Website
Diana (Weinberger) Kilpatrick has led a varied, adventurous life, from her days with Youth With A Mission and Mercy Ships to her never-dull career as a court reporter and her work in prison ministry. When she isn’t traveling for work or for speaking engagements, Diana devotes her free time to her writing, and her family.
Dorothea Wollin Null, Author
DOROTHEA WOLLIN NULL
Author | Website
“What I want most for my story to convey is that the Lord led me through the trials and tribulations of my life in order that I could find meaning, joy, and peace. Because I am approaching the end of my life, I want to inspire my readers to question their own choices, priorities and values in order to find peace with the Lord and joy in their hearts.” — Dorothea Wollin Null
Dorothea Wollin Null lives on the Oregon Coast with her husband, Larry, in a lovely lakeside home. She is frequently visited by her large family of grown children and grandchildren.
Leslie Compton, Author
LESLIE COMPTON
Author, Speaker, Instructor | Website
Leslie Compton is a retired professional musician, music teacher, elementary teacher and childbirth educator and has taught several courses on memoir writing. She is a writer of non-fiction, collecting historic postcards and doing research. While researching the Great White Fleet Compton wrote an article for the Post Card Collector. In her spare time she enjoys fabric-art and quilting as well as attending classes at SOU through OLLI in Southern Oregon. Compton is currently working on my fourth book, living in Talent, Oregon.
Mel Smith, Author
MEL SMITH
Author
“I grew up in the neighborhood described in my book: a blue-collar neighborhood on the edge of town. Our neighborhood had dirt streets, no sewer service, and one street light on the corner. Beyond my block was prairie leading to East Helena about three miles away. There wasn’t a college degree within at least six square blocks. Many parents didn’t have a high school diploma, including my own.
In ways, the neighborhood was a tough one, but as I look back on it now I can see just how ideal it was and the times were, for personal development.
Other than the threat of thermonuclear war, and we were way too young and active to think on that much, the time was one of general contentment and positive reinforcement. America had won the big war; we were the economic engine of the world; we were told daily how incredibly lucky we were to have been born in America. I felt secure and safe and I would stay in this cocoon until I left for the service.
We had little beyond our friends to keep us occupied or entertained. My folks had one of the first TVs in our neighborhood. But TV in those days consisted of about three channels and there was rarely anything good on it. There were no cell phones, Gameboys, computers or internet. No, all we had were friends and time to play. There was no lack of kids to play with, either. In my neighborhood, mostly the block I lived in, there were 31 kids within three or four years of my own age. We were the boomers. We played hard from early morning until our mom’s called us home at bedtime.”
Smith’s first novel, (WT) The Sultans of Swat, is an historical fiction set during the Vietnam war era (1960’s) and due to release in Fall 2017.
Joni Jesme, Author of White Chair Day
JONI JESME
Author | Website | Joni Jesme.com
Joni Jesme is a mom, writer, and creative soul with wet feet, dirty hands, working on her 4th cup of coffee and continuously learning new things. She is employed in the creative world of marketing.
When sharing her first White Chair Day episode, she was surprised by the sharing of stories from others with their own similar, unique and humorous WCD moments. She gathered these moments to share in White Chair Days, the first collection of stories in a series.
Jesme lives in Minnesota and is working on a series of children’s books with her sons, Aaron and Evan. A gardening and water loving gal, you can find her wandering the woods with her side kick, a Labrador named Miss Nala.
Pat Wiley, Author
After a successful career in the aerospace industry Pat Wiley began his second career as a writer at the New School for Creative Writing. A series of short stories followed about his adventures sailing his boat on a two year, three thousand-mile journey to the islands of the Caribbean and South America. From this journey, he wrote his first novel EYEWITNESS, a nautical murder mystery, Book 1 in the Jack Quinn novels.
The Sinking of the MV Le JOOLA: Africa’s Titanic is his first publication. The non-fiction narrative is the result of two-years of research into one of the worst maritime tragedies in recorded history–a tragedy, which tore at the soul of a country. His interviews with survivors and extensive in-country research revealed the shameful loss of life and incredible accounts of survival that form the heart of the book.
Wiley released his second book in the Jack Quinn series, ROUND HOUSE, a deadly side to paradise, in fall 2016 and is currently working on the third book in the series.
Wiley is a licensed Captain and resides in Flat Rock, North Carolina with his wife, an accomplished painter and sculptor.
Mary Richards, Author
MARY RICHARDS
Author | Website
Mary Richards is a retired health and physical education teacher who is still involved in the classroom. She has always had a passion for wellness and a desire to motivate others, especially her students, towards self-improvement. The majority of Mary’s career was spent in the middle-school classroom. In addition to being in the classroom, Mary has coached kids in sports and directed plays. During her career she launched dance teams, jump rope teams, weight-loss clubs, a drug-free club, a community health fair, a pet fair, and a self-esteem club, Feeling Good.
Her published work, I Am Awesome! A Healthy Workbook for Kids was written in an effort to help kids realize, explore, and enjoy the awesomeness within them. (“I Am Awesome!” Workbooks are available in Full Color or Black & White interior)