Member Profiles

Central Coast Writers

All Central Coast Writers branch members are strongly encouraged to provide a short (~200 word) biographical blurb for publication here. This information helps us all get to know one another and helps identify members with like interests or backgrounds to foster the formation of specific interest groups within our organization. If you have a favorite photo, (No driver's license photos, please!), send us a copy of that too. If you'd like to have a new picture taken, please let us know and we can make arrangements for that also. 

Anita Alan is the author of Big Sur Inn: The Deetjen Legacy, winner of the 2008 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Bronze Award (Society of American Travel Writers) and 2007 Gold Medal for Best Non-Fiction in the West Pacific Region (Independent Publisher). Her fiction, non-fiction, and photographic work appeared in Cricket Magazine, Ladybug, The Monterey County Herald, The Carmel Pine Cone, Monterey County Magazine, Sur Magazine, Instructor, The Avalon Bay News, The Denver Post, and Norway Magazine. Alan writes for the Travel section of Norwegian American Weekly. She was editorial writer, reporter, columnist, and photographer for The Big Sur Gazette and The Coast Gazette. While teaching for Carmel Schools she served as a reading, language arts, and graphics consultant for Hampton Brown, Harcourt, Silver Burdett, and Houghton Mifflin. Alan studied at The New School University in New York City, and received her BA from University of Southern California, and MA from Monterey Institute of International Studies. She was a California Semi-Finalist for NASA’s Teacher in Space Mission. Alan received the Lighthouse for Literacy Award from the Monterey County Reading Association and the Teacher Recognition Award for Excellence in Environmental Education from the Rancho San Carlos Education Foundation. In 2002, she left teaching to devote full time to writing. Alan served as Hospitality Chair for Central Coast Writers from 2003-08. She is at work on a memoir about the glory days of domestic and international travel—based on her decade of experiences with Trans World Airlines. For more information on her book, travel, and slide presentations, www.anitaalan.com.

Andrei Aleinikov (Dr. Andy) – Guinness World Record holder in publishing. A Russian native and now a U.S. citizen, Dr. Aleinikov started early (at age four) reciting his poetry to audiences in Russia. His poetry was first published when he reached 11. As an adult he had successful careers in education, military, and science. The latter resulted in two dissertations completed, new science offered, and over 40 academic works published (poetry excluding) in Russian. 
 
He came to America and succeeded in being the first Russian colonel to graduate from the USAF Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, AL in 1993. After graduating, he became a Professor at Troy University in Alabama, where he was named Professor of the Year in 1999 and 2003. Here he originated the Genius Education Methodology (labeled “the GEM of Education” by media). What teachers called “miracles” was a well-developed methodology of transforming an ordinary mind into a genius thinker mind. He “sculptured” successful Idea Learners™ from hopeless and doomed to fail children. His students got the top prizes and awards. Publishers demanded a book. MegaCreativity: Five Steps to Thinking Like a Genius was published by F&W Publications (Walking Stick Press) in 2002, Cincinnati, Ohio and then republished by John Wiley & Sons in Singapore. In Asia, the book became a best seller. He is also known for his project “Instant Author.” One of the books titled Making the Impossible Possible that was written in 4 minutes and 30 seconds and published from scratch in 15 hours 46 minutes in South Africa set a Guinness World Record. Now his books and articles (over 120) are published in 8 languages in 13 countries. The most popular ones are in self-help genre.

As a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, he lectured for American universities and received numerous awards for his innovative teaching. His Genius Education Methodology spread to Singapore, Thailand, and South Africa. He “fathered” 8 new sciences, including Geniusology – the science of genius, and discovered 11 new laws of conservation (www.lawsofconservation.com).
 
In 2006 Dr. Aleinikov moved to Monterey and now works for the Defense Language Institute (DLI) developing Russian language curriculum.

HOWARD BIRNBERG

Mr. Birnberg is president of Birnberg & Associates, a management consulting and association management firm. He is presently serving as an instructor in project management at the University of California-Berkeley Extension. For six years, he served as an instructor on project management in the Office of Executive Education at the Harvard University, Graduate School of Design and also as an adjunct assistant professor at Michigan State University, College of Human Ecology. Mr. Birnberg formerly served as a lecturer on project management for the University of Wisconsin, Department of Engineering Professional Development for nearly twenty years. He has also lectured at the University of Illinois-Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Texas-El Paso, University of Kansas and Andrews University.

He is the author of Project Management for Designers and Facilities Managers (J. Ross Publishing, 2008), Project Management for Building Designers and Owners (CRC Press, 1998),Project Management for Small Design Firms (McGraw-Hill, 1992) and as general editor of New Directions in Architectural and Engineering Practice (McGraw-Hill, 1992). His research and articles regularly appear in professional journals. His novel, The Genius Gene will be published in the United Kingdom by Book Guild Publishing (Brighton) in July 2010. He has completed two additional novels, The Clone and The Genesis, both pending publication.

Mr. Birnberg holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from the Ohio State University and a Masters in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis. He is the founder of the Inner-City Education (ICE) program in Chicago. The not-for-profit ICE program provides educational scholarships for urban students who participate in organized ice hockey programs. He is a member of the Oriental Institute in Chicago and has a long standing interest in archaeology, the development of early civilizations and in genetics. Mr. Birnberg has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, North America, Africa and South America.

Please Google “Howard Birnberg” for more information.

Steve Bloch is the author of “A Hard Kept Secret” www.ahardkeptsecret.com, a contemporary Western adventure.  He is currently working on his second novel, a political spy-thriller set in Panama and Central America. Steve served in the U.S. Navy, including submarine tours of duty in Vietnam. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado, and of University of Denver College of Law, and was Deputy District Attorney for Colorado’s 12th Judicial District.  Later, he was Special Assistant for Latin American Affairs to the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, then Chief of Intelligence Operations for the U.S. Southern Command in Panama.  He was also the Deputy Director of the Antiterrorism Center at the Naval Investigative Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C.  Steve currently works as a security consultant and private investigator, and is a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) working with abused and neglected children.  Steve lives in Carmel Valley with his beautiful wife, Dawn, an award-winning equestrian.

Visit Steve's Web site at: www.stephenbloch.com.

Mari Lynch Dehmler is a native of rural central Illinois and moved to the Monterey Bay in 1976.  She is the owner of Fine Wordworking, a writing and editorial services business established in Monterey in 1981.  She serves local and nationwide clients, including authors, publishers, educators, nonprofit organizations, large corporations, small businesses, individual professionals, and others.  In addition to ghost writing and collaborating, Mari writes under her own byline for books, magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and radio.  To contact Mari, visit FineWordworking.com or phone (831) 375-6278.

Martin Dodd, a founding member of CCW, lives in Corral de Tierra. Following his retirement from thirty-five years in community service, he joined the Thunderbird Writers Group in 2002 at age 67. His work has appeared in numerous print and on-line publications, much of which can be accessed through: http://sites.google.com/site/martinhdodd/. He has received various awards and recognition in local, national, and international contests, including those of CCW, East of Eden Writers’ Conference (2008), Glimmer Train, and Writers Digest. A super short film “Happy Anniversary,” written by him, is currently entered in several festivals. You can contact Martin at gopumps@aol.com.

Jerry Gervase: My column "Central Coasting" is now in its seventh year, appearing every Sunday in the Monterey County Herald, a 35,000 plus daily newspaper. I have "ghosted" two books, and currently "ghosting" a third book about a major local business for the offspring of the company's founders. I served as a staff writer for the nationally distributed ARTWORKS MAGAZINE for three years. My feature articles have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, as well as the Oakland Tribune, and the Contra Costa Times. Recently I completed my third screen play and have a fourth in the works. I continue to be a regular contributor to an East Coast Magazine, The Uptight Suburbanite, as association that has lasted fifteen years.

Laurie Gibson Laurie deeply believes in the written word. A professional book editor and proofreader for a dozen years, she's also written more than 200 articles for newspapers, newsletters, Web sites, and magazines. Her education includes a Bachelor's degree in English, numerous undergraduate and graduate courses in journalism, and a specialized certificate in copyediting. As an editor, she works with both experienced and first-time authors to help improve their writing and enhance their ability to connect with readers.

Walter Gourlay A native of New York City, Walter moved to the Monterey Peninsula after retiring from teaching at Michigan State University. He has a doctorate in Chinese history from Harvard and has done considerable academic writing. Before his teaching career, he was a freelance writer for men’s adventure magazines. For some time he worked in public relations, and managed a concert hall in New York. He has now returned to writing fiction. He is a founding member of the Fiction Writers of Monterey Peninsula, FWOMP, a member of the Monterey Peninsula Writers Workshop and an active member of  the local chapter of the National Writers Union serving on the Steering Committee and as an elected delegate of the local to the National Writers Union. Walter writes a monthly "Profiles" for the Carmel Residents Association Newsletter. FWOMP's first collected work, Monterey Shorts, contains his short story, Reunion. The "Pebbles” writing group in Carmel, of which he is also a member, has recently published five of his short stories in their latest collection, The Barmaid, The Bean Counter and the Bungee Jumper. An earlier collection, Pebbles, includes two of his short stories. He’s now writing his wartime memoirs and researching a historical novel set in New York City, Java, and Japan during the Napoleonic Wars. Walter lives in Carmel, California.

Born in Arroyo Grande, California, Branch President Harold Grice's main occupation as a youth was MISCHIEF.  Moving often, his family finally settled on a ranch in Huasa Valley, an isolated place southeast of Arroyo Grande. Milking cows, slopping hogs, hunting, fishing, and riding and breaking horses were Harold's life as he attended a one room classroom through the eighth grade. Arroyo Grande High, San Luis Obispo and Bend, Oregon, were the venues of his high school education. Opting for discharge after serving three years in the Marine Corps in the Pacific, Harold worked for the Fire Guard, California Division of Highways and Neill Engineers, Carmel. In 1970, he founded Grice Engineering, Inc. in Salinas.
Harold married Ramona Johnson nee Zezetiheine and they have lived in their home on Torero Drive in Salinas for some thirty odd years. Grice is always free with his thoughts including, but not limited to, the "Philosophy of Success for the Entrepreneur," which identifies character requirements needed for success in something about which you have limited knowledge. These include: Ego, greed, tenacity, ignorance... and a big dose of luck.
Harold has already penned his epitaph: "Here lies Harold E. Grice, what he did was very nice. While he was having all this fun, he left his better works undone." We hope not!

Dick Guthrie was born into an Army family and spent his younger years moving around the United States and Europe. When he enlisted in the Army at age seventeen years , two months, it was for the express purpose of getting the draft out of the way so he could go on to college and into a money-making job -- and live happily ever after. He found he liked the service, though, and went to West Point and was commissioned a second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1963. In 1974 he bought a small house on the Monterey Peninsula where his wife and two children lived while he served a year in Korea. After thirty-four years in uniform he retired and took a position as General Administrative Manager with Southern Peru Copper Corp. After five and a half years in Peru he and his wife moved to the house on the Monterey Peninsula.

He has published several magazine articles and currently is working on Memoirs of Company command in Vietnam. The wartime story of 1967-68 is supplemented with the account of a return trip he made to Binh Dinh Province in 1998 along with his former Senior Company Medic and First Platoon Leader.

Deanne E. Gwinn is Secretary/Treasurer of our branch.

Deanne E. Gwinn has resided on California's Central Coast for the past thirty years, occupied with various jobs, home construction, and raising children. After a long spell of entering contests while trying to gain recognition as a poet, she turned to fiction and penned the Translight Trilogy (copyright registrations for first versions 1990/91). In 2006 she participated in the East of Eden Conference and was awarded first place for poetry.
 
The only authorized published versions of her trilogy and collected poems are available on her website at www.translighttrilogy.com and on www.amazon.com. (Prices are same on both, but the royalty is better if purchased through her website.)  
 
Any versions found elsewhere – ever – were not authorized publications, and should be reported to the Intellectual Property (IP) Program of the Financial Institution Fraud Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  U.S. Department of Justice. Office of Public Affairs  (202) 514-2007/TDD (202) 514-1888.  For a related article see: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel10/ipenforcement_021210.htm

A fourth generation Pagrovian, Patricia Hamilton is descended from the Reverend Sylvanus G. Gale, Methodist minister in the Pacific Grove Retreat, 1890-93. Her daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren live in San Luis Obispo, California.

After a career as a controller with an international restaurant corporation, Hamilton began writing and publishing interior landscape contractor books in 1982.

In 1994, she enrolled in UC Santa Cruz, completed her degree in Philosophy at the University of Lancaster, England, then lived in Spain where she taught English in Elche, near Valencia. She wrote and published two books abroad: “Peace Consciousness in Northern Ireland and Findhorn, Scotland,” a UCSC President's Fellowship, and "I Can't Be Bothered," about her mates in Lancaster.

She has just completed a healthful travel guide to California, and enjoys spending time with her grandchildren. Local authors interested in self-publishing can reach her for a free consult at 649-6640 or at her office at 591 Lighthouse Ave #20, Pacific Grove.

Georgia A. Hubley was born and raised in central Ohio, moving to Silicon Valley when her husband's tour of duty in the Air Force ended.  In 1996, she retired from 20 years in financial management and began writing her memoirs, and submitting vignettes of her childhood for publication.

In October 1996, since both sons were launched into adulthood, it was time to sell the empty nest. She and her husband moved to a condo in Carmel. Once settled, Georgia became involved in the writing community, and has been involved with CCW from the very beginning, sharing a co-program chair position with Joy Ware during her first year of membership in 2002.

Georgia continues to write full-time. She has had eleven stories published in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Besides being a frequent contributor to the Chicken Soup series, her work appears in the following anthologies: HCI Book Ultimate series, Adams Media Christmas series, Howard Books Best of series and Smith Magazine's Six-Word series . Other stories and essays have been published in Woman's World, Christian Science Monitor, Plus Magazine, Birds and Bloom Magazine, Story Circle Journal, Capper's, Good Old Days Magazine, Senior Wire Syndicate and various other periodicals and newspapers.

Georgia and her husband relocated to Henderson, Nevada during the summer of 2003.

 Ken Jones moved to the Monterey Peninsula after retiring from the Boeing Company in March of 2001. Southern Californian natives, he and his wife felt a growing attraction to the Central Coast that finally became too powerful to resist. Ken holds a Bachelors of Science in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from Northern Arizona University. His working career involved some technical and business writing, but he began writing for pleasure in the mid 80's, focusing primarily on short story fiction. Ken's short-short stories have received Honorable Mention in the Coast Weekly's annual 101 Word Short Story Contests in each of the last four years. In 2003, the Weekly's first prize ($101) went to Ken's Holiday Dinners. He is a co-author of Monterey Shorts, (Thunderbird Publication, 2001), and Monterey Shorts 2, (FWOMP Publications, 2005), collections of short stories set on the Monterey Peninsula, by the Fiction Writers of the Monterey Peninsula, (FWOMP).  He is also working on a novel length mystery that builds on the primary character from his story Borscht in The Bay published in Monterey Shorts, and Canned Hunt from Monterey Shorts 2. Five of Ken's stories are contained in The Barmaid, The Bean Counter and the Bungee Jumper, a collection of short stories and poetry produced in November '03 by the Pebbles Writing Group of Carmel. Ken and his wife Anne have one daughter, Nora, and two grandsons, Alejandro, almost 6, and Santiago, almost 1.  Ken and Anne live in Pacific Grove with their deaf, one-eyed (or in the more sensitive words of her loving Veterinarian, "sound challenged and monocular") cat, Lucky. Ken is a past president and vice president. He currently serves the branch as its Webmaster.

Carol Brown Kauffmann is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. She graduated from college with a major in Psychology. In 1978, she co-founded a school supply manufacturing company which received Sam Walton's "Wal-Mart Vendor of the Year" award.

She has served on numerous civic boards and is Chair of the Mary Brown Fund of Atlanta, a philanthropic family foundation. From 1994-98, she interviewed Holocaust survivors as part of Stephen Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.

Carol co-authored Juvenile Digest in 1975 an Passport to Education in 1994. She wrote for "Peachtree Papers" magazine from 1982-1998. As its editor in 1978-88, she redesigned the magazine and won an international Public Relations Award. She currently writes fiction and non-fiction from her home in Pebble Beach, California. Carol is married and has a blended family, which includes four grandsons and a cat named Charlie, all frequent subjects of her writing.

Daniel Matuszewski published his first "novel," A Tiger Hunt in India, at the age of 8 at a neighborhood press in Chicago. In it, he built classmates and friends into an imaginary adventure in far-off, exotic lands. All proceeds (25 cents a copy) went to the school coffers, and every student had to buy one. Talk about a captive audience!
Later, real-life travel and research as a Fulbright Fellow and cultural exchange administrator in Russia, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and China, helped shape Daniel's current affairs books and articles on international relations, globalization, and rapid change in those countries.
Now blessedly free of policy responsibilities, Daniel is trying to weave 35 years of travel and foreign affairs networking into a series of historical novels and short stories around the theme of "The Clash of Civilizations".

Founding Branch President Patricia Matuszewski grew up on a ranch in southwestern Washington State. Since then, she has lived in Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Princeton, NJ and Washington, DC. She and her husband Daniel first came to the Monterey Peninsula when he studied, and later taught Russian, at the Defense Language Institute. They live in Seaside Highlands.
The Matusezewskis have two sons, Erik, a journalist, and Ian, who is currently teaching in Spain. Pat has been a high school history teacher, lecturer and administrator at Princeton University, and grant writer for The National Geographic Society.
Although most of her publications have been in education and history, her short story, The Haint in the Hills, was a winner of The Monterey Herald's 2002 fiction contest, and she is a co-author of The Barmaid, The Bean Counter and the Bungee Jumper published by Thunderbird Publications in October of 2003. Pat continues to write short stores and is currently at work on a mystery series set in Monterey County.

Wanda Sue Parrott is one of this veteran writer's 18 literary aliases.

She made her debut as a stand-up- comedy poet as Professor Parrott in Springfield, Missouri poetry slams in 2007. “I love to experiment, and to invent,” she says.

As Diogenes Rosenberg, in 1997 she invented the world's shortest--and only purely horizontal--sonnet, the Pissonnet (pronounced Pee-so-nay if intoned for delicacy with a French accent).

As Edgar Allan Philpott, in 2009 she won the Louisiana Senior Poet Laureate Award by masqueraging as an itinerant musician from New Orleans. As Philpott, she also self-published The Boondoggler's Bible, a limited-edition private mini-book, in 2009.

As Prairie Flower, a name that evolved decades ago, she has produced poetry inspired by the Native American influence. Other bylines include Juan Garcia, Thomas de Mia, Susan Norris and Alexandre Scotch.

During the 1970s she wrote Swamiwanda's Metaphysical Mailbag column for the old Hollywood Citizen News, and for nearly forty years, survived an on-and-off career as journalist under her best-known byline, Wanda Sue Parrott. Under this name, while living in Missouri from 1988 through 2009, where she was syndicated columnist with Senior Living Newspapers and teacher of writing at Ozarks Technical College, she invented the Story Stanza.

“This is a 100-word Shortcuts To Success formula I've used to win every flash fiction contest I've entered, except one,” she says. “My students used to get published. I hope to share it with California writers because it works. You don't need a Ph.D. to succeed as a writer. You need shortcuts to success that will work for you if you work with them.”

She is co-founder of the National Annual Senior Poets Laureate Poetry Competition for American Poets age 50 and older, and is currently serving as editor of Scribbles, newsletter of the Central Coast Writers branch of the California Writers Club.

She lives in the Monterey area with her feline friend Big Blackie. No new names are on the agenda—yet.
She is often referred to as "Amy" and always answers such mail. "Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation is a business name, not one of mine," she says. www.amykitchenerfdn.org.
 

David Perry is a third generation Monterey native who, at fifty six years of age, has recently found his writing voice. He has written extensively for his employer of thirty one years, and is now a site steward for Creative writing: Short stories at Helium.com under the name of David Elder. He has published over one hundred pieces there, a majority of which are short stories. He also writes satire and humor and offers critiques and advice to new writers at Helium.com. In addition, he manages several other websites including his favorite, Tantalizing Tales. Tantalizing Tales displays exceptional short stories of all categories by various writers, and offers a monthly short story writing contest with the prize of having the author’s story and name featured on his site.

David is also writing a novel, which he hopes to have finished within the year. He is married to a very understanding and thoughtful wife who indulges his passion for writing. Like most budding writers, David has had his triumphs and disappointments, but through it all has embraced the accepting spirit and encouragement of fellow writers. To read his work, or participate in the contests, please follow these links.

Helium.com or Tantalizing Tales

I am C. Jonathan Shoemaker. I came here from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to study Russian at  the Army Language School in 1961. I have a Secondary Teaching Credential with a Major in German and Minors in Spanish and Russian. I also have a Bilingual Certificate of Competence.
I have taught in many academic areas and a variety of situations, as a foreign language teacher, department chairman, resource specialist, special day teacher, migrant resource teacher, summer migrant program director, English as a Second Language teacher, teacher of Personal Responsibility, and a home/hospital instructor.
I have now retired from full time teaching for various reasons, but I still enjoy working with the public, especially young people. I enjoy working as a marshal at the Pacific Grove golf course. I enjoy reading literature of all kinds, and I have written three books, two of poems and an instructional book on golf.

Jonathan serves the branch through volunteer development and hospitality related efforts.

A native of the Bay Area of Northern California, Michelle L. Smith aspired to pursue a profession dedicated to assisting people in need.  During her freshman year at Mills College, a private women’s college in Oakland, she determined that a career in medicine was the perfect choice to accommodate her love of the sciences and passion to help others.  After obtaining a B.A. in Chemistry at Mills, she earned her medical degree from the University of Southern California, and then returned to Oakland to complete an internship and residency in Internal Medicine.

After 11 years of practicing medicine, Dr. Smith listened to her inner voice and acted upon a longstanding desire to write.  A proponent of preventive medicine, she was pleased to discover a venue that afforded an opportunity to communicate with a large number of people.  While writing articles for trade and consumer magazines, focusing on subjects ranging from health to travel, she also enrolled in novel mechanics courses and took on the arduous task of penning her first novel.

In 2001 Dr. Smith founded The Ebony Quill, LLC through which she continues writing freelance.  She enjoys attending writers conferences and critique sessions and studying the writing styles of other authors to congeal much of what she has learned in the classroom.  Her website (theebonyquill.com) highlights some of her work, and she hopes to find an agent to represent her novel, Hide and Seek, a suspense-drama that follows the metamorphosis of a troubled nine-year-old girl who encounters an uncanny ability to communicate with spirits while her dysfunctional family struggles with the death of her younger brother.

While Dr. Smith maintains her medical licenses in the states of California, Arizona and Hawaii, she is also a member of The Authors Guild, The National League of American Pen Women and the National Writers Union.  Currently, she splits her time between residences in California and Arizona.

Visit Michelle's Web site.

Fran Vardamis
Frances Diem Vardamis was born in New York City. A graduate of Queens College of the City of New York, she has taught English and history, at the high school level, in California, Germany, New York City and up-state New York, and in Vermont. For several years she worked in public outreach and sales positions with the Sugarbush Ski Resort in Warren, Vermont. She was employed as a journalist and lecturer in North Dakota. She is Membership Chair and Newsletter Editor for the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation in Carmel, California. Fran serves as Treasurer on the Carmel Harrison Memorial Library Board of Trustees. She is on the Board of the Friends of the Carmel Library.

She is the author of the Yannis Lavonis series of detective novels published by Silk Label Publishing Co., a subsidiary of Royal Fireworks Printing Co. of Unionville, NY. The novels, Russian Doll, Ancestral Voices, and Pity the Children are set in modern Greece and deal with contemporary politics as well as crime. The fourth novel in the series, Vermont Sea Glass, follows Yannis Lavonis to the United States. The novel looks at the America through the eyes of a Greek visitor. Its themes are immigration and terrorism.

In addition to the Yannis Lavonis novels, Vardamis has done considerable translation of Norwegian texts. Among them are some half dozen self-help books published by Psyk Opp, the Norwegian Psychiatric Information Foundation. She has translated Freedom and Fear by John Arne Markussen, a contemporary analysis of American society, as well as a medieval verse play set in tenth century Norway. Her translation of The Carriage Stone, by the modern Norwegian novelist Sigbjørn Hølmebakk was published in 1996 by DuFour Editions, Inc. of Chester Springs, PA. She is, also, the recipient of a Nordic Council translation grant for the prize-winning short story collection, “What Will We Do Today?” by the contemporary author, Øystein Lønn.

She is married to Alex Vardamis, also a writer, and a retired Army Officer and university professor. She is the mother of two adult children, a daughter, Sharon, a poet and playwright, who resides in Massachusetts and is a professional fundraiser, and a son, Daniel, who teaches in Colorado and is a freelance journalist and blog manager who writes at http//offcambertypepad.com/dv8/ Colorado.

Joy McCullough Ware is a charter member of CCW.

Joy has been published nationally by Prime National Publishing in their juried magazine: Healing Ministry Journal, a hospice related publication. A feature article appeared in The Handmaiden, a Journal for Orthodox Women that focused on caring for parents in their declining years.

Joy was also a member of the original Pebbles, the Thunderbird Writers group from 1999- 2003. Stories published while a Pebble include Granny and the Case of Seagram Seven, The Shock of Recognition, The Princess of Periodicals; a Carmel Fairy Tale, and The Floozy, the Frump and Fred.

In addition to teaching, Joy has been credit manager in a jewelry store, sold print and radio advertising space and worked for the State of California as a Job Developer. Now that she is retired, Joy wants to continue writing Book Reviews, publish reflections on her years in public education, as well as finally produce the stories that are hidden in her nearly seven decades.

The teacher has retired; the writer has emerged. Joy is poised in her cottage on the edge of Hatton Canyon, only blocks from Scenic  ready to find out what ELSE goes into writing professionally  beyond the ubiquitous, “If I only had the time”.

Gwyn Weger, alias Gwyn Weger, has been writing all of her life. During her childhood, teens, and early twenties, she wrote children's stories and poetry. She attended California State University, Chico, and in 1995 completed her master's thesis, "Women's Stories," which she not only wrote, but also developed into an interactive CD-ROM. As a college student, she focused primarily on nonfiction: scholarly papers, media writing, and personal essays. By her thirties, she flirted with screenplay writing. At the 2008 East of Eden Writers Conference, she took 3rd place in the Memoir/Nonfiction category with a short called "Practically Magic." For the last several years, she's been researching and working on a historic account of a local family's tragic story from the 1800s, which she has tentatively titled "Unknown." Currently, she's working on a new twist to an ancient tale. This contemporary fiction novel is in the hot new genre called misery memoir and is related to her everyday 20-year struggle with autoimmune disease Gwyn has been an editor/writer for the Department of Defense since 1996, at Fort Ord, California. She lives in Salinas with her husband and their two children. Her first novel, "East Garrison," was published in February 2009 and received great reviews. For more information check out her website: www.gmweger.com and blog: www.eastgarrison.blogspot.com.

Kerry M. Wood is a retired teacher of English, co-author of eight textbooks, a self-published memoirist, and a prize winning poet. He is a regular contributor to Writers Digest Forum and Helium.com. His 37-year teaching career involved secondary schools, private and public, on the San Francisco Peninsula as well as three years in Istanbul, Turkey. He received a BA in English at Yale and an MA at San Jose State. His military service was mostly spent studying Russian at DLI. Currently he is a member of FaceBook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, and Twitter.

Please visit Kerry's sites:
http://www.kerrymichaelwood.com
http://www.helium.com/users/134001

Judy Zhu grew up in Beijing, China. She came to Monterey for graduate school in 2000 and landed a job as a Chinese language professor after graduation. She is a member of the Chinese Language Teachers Association of California (CLTAC) as well as a member of American Translators Association (ATA).

Judy began publishing her works at the age of 14. At the age of 15, she won Third Place at the International Chinese Poetry Contest and her poem Speechless Winter was published in the book International High School Chinese Poets. At the age of 17, six of her essays were included in the five-volume series of Beijing Top Ten High School Award-winning Writings. In short, before she came to the US for graduate school, she had won many literature awards in China and her 300 plus poems, prose and stories were published in national newspapers and magazines as well as being broadcast by national radio stations in China. She was also an invited part-time columnist for Teda Times when she worked in Beijing.

Judy's first English book is Modern Chinese Cultural Encounters. She is devoting herself to education related writings now, such as diagnostic assessment, teaching, and motivation.

Please visit Judy's Web site: www.chinese-consultant.com