Our Authors:

Charlotte Babb is the web designer for Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic. She writes four blogs. Her publications include, poems in THE THING IN THE TUB, stories in PORT NOWHERE, a meditation in THE UPPER ROOM, and articles in CIRCLE MAGAZINE.

She is a board member of the Southeastern Writers Association, edits the monthly newsletter, Purple Pros, and manages the website: http://www.southeasternwriters.com

Charlotte has degrees in English, secondary education and Humanities: mythology. She has taught writing in high school and college. She is presenting courses this year on blogging and internet marketing for different audiences. Visit her website: http://www.charlottebabb.com

Aleta Boudreaux

Septerra, Forgotten Worlds: Fantasy.

This rich world of gods and magic can shift beneath your feet and leave you in a totally different reality. Aleta's heroine faces danger and betrayal to solve riddles about her past and save her world.

Beneath The Crescent Moon: Mystery/paranormal romance.

Erica, author of erotic fantasy, knows someone is trying to kill her. She doesn't know who or why. Her search for answers takes her through bayous of Louisiana and back streets of New Orleans. One lover betrays her, another saves her. She delves into black magic and reclaims her own hereditary power.

Song of the White Swan; Laughing Owl Press [historical/romance/paranormal. Sequel now ready.]

Aleta has published several short stories and articles.

Stephen Doster

Voices from St. Simons: Personal Narratives of an Island's Past: Non-fiction
interviews with 17 people whose connection to the island stretches back generations. Five of the people interviewed are direct descendants of well-known planters who owned large plantations in and around St. Simons. Six interviewees are direct descendants of slaves, many of whom lived and worked on those same plantations. [Pulitzer Prize nominee]

Lord Baltimore: Comic fantasy
Country-club slacker Ensworth Harding is in for a surprise on his 18th birthday. "Son," his father tells him,"I give you a great gift today. See that open road? Your destiny lies down there." Ensworth is then kicked out of the car, given instructions to deliver a letter to an address in Savannah, Georgia, and told, "If I hear so much as a peep until your journey is complete, I will disinherit you." Ensworth falls in with a bearded, unkempt, Keds-wearing gentleman who is part overgrown forest sprite, part enlightened bum, and part old-time British knight. He calls himself Lord Baltimore, and he will serve as Ensworth's guide and mentor. In the great tradition of the picaresque novel, the two subsequently endure a series on misadventures that bring Ensworth a little closer to his destination physically but go a long way toward preparing him for it spiritually.. Most of the action takes place on the Gullah island of Zapala off the Georgia coast, a place where the witch doctor is the leading community figure and where ghosts of dead slaves linger in the air. One of those novels that creates its own universe and whose characters walk the line between the real and the fantastic.

Shadow Child- Tales from the Georgia Coast. Sixteen Works of Fiction & One True Story An ancient man who claims to be a time traveler, relates tales that reveal the history and myth of the Golden Isles and the people who have left their mark on the land.

Nicole Finitzo & Richard Verkler

Nicole Finitzo and Richard Verkler are lawyers practicing with the national law firm of Schiff Hardin LLP. Nicole Finitzo is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, where she was admitted to Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism honorary society.

Richard Verkler is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, a Knapp Scholar and Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois.

Together they have authored numerous published non-fiction works in the field of law. Recently turning their writing talent to fiction, they co-authored a screenplay entitled "Playing for Keeps," which won an award in the 2001 Writer's Digest Competition. Their novel High Horse is inspired by true life events that took place in the show horse industry in the 1980's.

The “horse world” is well-known to Nicole Finitzo, who has owned and ridden show horses for more than 30 years. Nicole and Richard are currently at work on their second novel, a legal thriller set in a Wisconsin lake town.

Tory Gates

Tory Gates, Author Tory Gates is a 25-year veteran of the radio industry. He’s worked as a disc jockey, journalist, talk show host, music critic and most recently a traffic reporter and DJ for Sirius/XM Satellite Radio in Washington, DC.

SWEET DREAMS: SEARCHING FOR ROY BUCHANAN is Tory’s first full-length work. Writing and performing have been a driving force for the 43-year-old Vermont native. In addition to his work in the radio business, Tory wrote for several years as a music, concert and book critic for FACE Magazine.

His theater work includes performing in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, and has been involved with two Boston-area casts since 1990. Tory has appeared in stage productions of THE CRUCIBLE and A COMEDY OF EROS, as well as three independent films under the direction of Joel Ohren. His most recent film turn is ROULETTE, directed by Erik Myers, and Tory has been cast for Myers’ next production, GARAGE BAND, which is set to begin filming in 2009.

Tory is also an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and tribal drummer. His current musical project is Ahltyrra, a band he co-founded in 2006.

Tory currently lives in York, Pennsylvania with his six cats and the herd of deer that come to sleep on his lawn every evening.

Harlan Hambright

Harlan Hambright is a Georgia native, grew up in Knoxville and earned a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Tennessee in 1976. His interest in photography led him to architectural photography as a professional endeavor after graduation which he has pursued since. He practiced in Washington, DC the entire decade of the 1980s and was affiliated with the National Building Museum during its nascent period. He relocated to St. Simons Island in 1990 and expanded his pursuits into the graphic design and publishing fields. He lives on St. Simons Island, dabbles in music, and is married to the finest soprano east of the Mississippi River.

His photography has been published in numerous publications and he has authored three books:
Coast Cottages 2003, Crawdad Studio
The Cloister 2006, Sea Island Co.
The Art of the Cloister 2007. Sea Island Co.

James Hillebrecht

Ann Hite

Ann Hite author of the Black Mountain Stories Ann Hite has published over sixty stories. Her BLACK MOUNTAIN stories were featured in the May 2008 Issue of The Dead Mule as an e-book, LIFE ON BLACK MOUNTAIN. BEAUTIFUL WRECK, a novel, was a semi-finalist in the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. CIRCLE OF LIGHT was nominated for Sundress Best of 2008. BELIEVING IN MAGIC, a personal essay, appeared in a new anthology published by Adams Media October 19, 2009, CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS. THE CHRISTMAS TREE HUNTER appeared in CHRISTMAS THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES, published by Adams Media in 2008. My personal story, SURVIVING MOM, was part of Marlo Thomas’ latest collection, THE RIGHT WORDS AT THE RIGHT TIME, VOL., 2

Ann has published over forty-five book reviews. What does this mean? She's a book junkie.

She has taught numerous workshops and most recently spoke at Scribblers’ Retreat Writers’ Conference on St. Simons Island.

Ann lives with her family in Atlanta where she owns over 1,000 books, a butterfly/hummingbird garden, and her laptop. She is hard at work on my next BLACK MOUNTAIN novel, Where THE SOULS GO.

Visit her website at: www.freewebs.com/annhite/

Lauren Hope

Lauren Hope - Author After getting a degree in Communication, studying abroad in Rome and Florence, Italy, and putting my education to use in the corporate world, Lauren Hope decided writing was her ultimate love. She’s now a published suspense author who throws in romance, comedy, and a little mystery depending on the story.

She’s a member of RWA, nationally, and active in her local chapter, the Smoky Mountain Romance Writers, with two previously published novels—Hidden Shadows and Chasing Shadows. Both novels make up The Shadow Series, published by The Wild Rose Press.

Her latest novel, Screaming to be Solved, is a fast-paced, twisting suspense that we think her readers will love!

Misty Massey

Mad Kestrel Pirate Fantasy: Kestrel is an orphan with wild magic to wield in a world where her gift is forbidden. It has already cost her parents their life. When the pirate captain who raised Kestrel is kidnapped, She leads his crew on rescue mission that pits her against deadly enemies and aligns her with a man she can't trust. Now Available from Tor. Visit her website: http://www.mistymassey.com

K.D. McCrite

K. D. McCrite Kathaleen McCrite Deiser loves the common folks. Sometimes dark and serious, sometimes touching and funny, her stories portray everyday people living lives from the depths of their extraordinary souls. Three novels have been published by Avalon books under the name Kathaleen Burr.. Her other works have appeared in regional magazines, such as The Ozarks Mountaineer and The Ozarks Reader, as well as Woman's World and the literary magazine, Kansas City Voices.

Marina Julia Neary

MJ Nearly Marina Julia Neary is an award-winning historical essayist, multilingual arts & entertainment journalist, published poet, playwright, actress, dancer and choreographer. A specialist on the obscure works of Victor Hugo, she has lectured at the French Alliance. Her historical tragicomedy Hugo in London featuring the adventures of the French literary genius in England during the Crimean War was produced in Greenwich in 2008 and recently acquired by Heuer Publishing. A sequel, Lady with a Lamp: an Untold Story of Florence Nightingale, premiered in 2009 as a theatrical benefit for The Wyatt Foundation.

In 2007 she was commissioned to collect and publish the memoirs of residents from an affluent retirement community in Stamford, CT. The project involved interviewing over forty senior citizens over the age of ninety. A new Connecticut-based leisure publication Norwalk Beat has recently brought her on board as a steady contributor. She focuses on the entertainment industry in Connecticut. Her poems have been accepted by literary journals such as Alimentum and The Recorder and First Edition (UK). After having her short story accepted by Bewildering Stories Magazine, she was invited to join the editorial staff.

Wynfield’s Kingdom is her first novel, in which she celebrates her love for Victorian history and the Romantic movement. The novel was published by Fireship Press, a publication specializing in historical and nautical fiction. Here are some of the reviews:
The spirits of Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo haunt this darkly compelling novel of the mid-Victorian underworld. Exhaustively researched, ambitious in scope and rich in period detail, Wynfield’s Kingdom is a harrowing tale of wretched poverty and desperate survival, of monstrous child abuse and atrocious acts committed in the name of science. Diana the wild robber maiden and her bandit lover Wynfield are larger than life anti-heroes destined to linger long in the reader’s imagination. – Eileen Kernaghan, author of Wild Talent: a Novel of the Supernatural

Neary writes with unbelievable power, yet never loses her sense of emotional insight…. Wynfield’s Kingdom is truly an extraordinary first novel. – Tom Grundner, author of Midshipman Prince.

In addition to her writing career, Neary has a career in the performing arts. She has starred in several independent horror films shot in CT and NY. In the 1990s she has competed in various talent competitions in New England and placed second in Miss LaSalle beauty pageant.

Jesse Odom

Through our Eyes; A Grunts Story
When the first ground assault on Iraq began, Jesse Odom was only 19 years old. He sat in the commander's seat of one of the huge converted amphibian vehicles that hauled American Marines across the desert from Kuwait to the Iraqi boarder.

Through our Eyes by Jesse Odom Inside the vehicle they called a 'track.' were 18 young Marines and enough supplies to last several days. They would fire the first shots and take the first prisoners and capture Sadam's palace. One of them would be the first American to die. In this frank and personal account, you will come to know some remarkable Marines and see a view of the war in ways you won't see on the news.

Stephanie Osborn

Stephanie Osborn is a former payload flight controller, a veteran of over twenty years of working in the civilian space program, as well as various military space defense programs. She has worked on numerous Space huttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts the raining of astronauts on her résumé. Of those astronauts she trained, one was Kalpana Chawla, a member of the crew lost in the Columbia isaster.

Stephanie holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in four sciences: astronomy, physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and she is “fluent” in everal more, including geology and anatomy. She obtained her various degrees from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Stephanie is currently retired from space work. She now happily “passes it forward,” tutoring math and science to students in the Huntsville area, elementary through college, while writing science fiction mysteries based on her knowledge, experience, and travels.

Degrees and Certifications

Bachelor of Science, Austin Peay State University
Master of Science, Vanderbilt University
Ministry License, North Tennessee Bible Institute
ACE certified personal trainer
Madison City Schools certified substitute teacher
American Heart Association Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) certification
National Weather Service certified storm spotter

Sandra Page

Sandra Page, Author She was born and raised in Miami. She is a graduate of Florida State University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in history. After teaching in schools in Florida and Georgia for ten years, she attended Mercer University law school where she graduated with a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude. She was a trial lawyer in Macon, Georgia, for twenty-three years. She lives in Macon with her husband, also an attorney, and their toy poodle, Murphy

Kalayna Nicole Price

Dark Haven. Urban Fantasy.

Kita is a runaway from a shape-shifting world. Since she is can only shift into a kitten, she is no threat to the human city of Haven. During an attempted rape, her claws come out. The wounds she gives her attackers turns them into shifters. These bad men are a threat. They are murdering young women. Kita is sentenced to death for turning humans. The bite of a handsome vampire saves her when she is near death. Now she is undead and a shifter. First in a series.

Lisa Reinhard

Lisa Hussey Reinhard is a native of Pittsburgh, PA and grew up in Louisville, KY and Kansas City. She graduated magna cum laude from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX and earned a Master’s in education from Texas A & M /Commerce. She has been an elementary, middle school, and college teacher for thirty years. She is the author of the book Psalms for the Single Mom, published in 1999, and raised three sons in Atlanta, GA as a single mother from the ages of 2, 4, and 6 to adulthood. An avid reader, she goes nowhere without a book, and also loves to walk her faithful Sheltie, Lucy. She is married, and she and her husband, Jack, live in Jacksonville, FL with two of their four sons.

Reavis Z. Wortham

Reavis Z. Wortham is a renowned outdoor writer, humorist, and longtime columnist for a number of newspapers and magazines. His work has appeared in American Cowboy, Texas Sporting Journal, Texas Sportsman Magazine, Frisco Style, Texas Hunting Directory, Vintage Truck, and Western Outdoors. He is listed as Humor Editor for Texas Fish and Game Magazine and pens their monthly Open Season column, as well as a number of sporting articles. He has won over thirty state and national awards for his outdoor writing.

He is the author of Doreen’s 24 Hour Eat Gas Now Café. He lives in Frisco, Texas, with his wife, Shana. He was born in Paris, Texas, the location for Center Springs, Texas. After a 34-year career in public education, Reavis will retire in 2010 to devote his full time and efforts to writing.

Reavis Wortham’s 114,000 word novel Center Springs, Texas takes you back to a time when kids could just be, men had to be, and evil was…

It is a story of boy named Top who is being raised by grandparents after his mom and dad die. But this is no ordinary situation. His grandfather, Ned Parker, is a full-time farmer and the part-time constable of Center Springs, Texas in the early 60’s. To say the least, it is never boring. Top is learning to hunt, the true meaning of right and wrong, and what honor and integrity actually mean during a time of civil and racial unrest.

When mutilated animals and then humans are found, this mostly quiet Texas town suddenly finds itself fearing every person, neighbor or stranger, and the once trustworthy countryside.

Center Springs, Texas is based on stories from Reavis Wortham’s grandfather who was a true constable in Lamar County, Texas during those years. While reading this book you will be taken back to that time, to the point where you can feel the dry, hot Texas heat, see the dust and haze, and sense your heart beating in terror of the unknown killer in your midst.