We’ve been lucky to have so many amazing guests on our podcast! Check them out below to find out more information about each of them.
Crystal L. Kirkham
Featured on Episode 009: Short Fiction
Standard author bios are boring. They only give you a small glimpse into who the author is. So, let’s go beyond the bio.
What do you want to know about me?
I started writing in high school. I stopped when I went to college and started again 2008. Since that I started writing again, I haven’t stopped. I published my first book, Road to Redemption, in October 2016. After that came the year I decided to take my writing seriously. 2018 when I released Depths of Darkness and signed my first publishing contract for my next full novel, Feathers and Fae. In 2019 I expanded my horizons and started writing short stories, microfiction, and drabbles. I’ve now had work published in multiple anthologies.
Of course, when I am not writing or editing, I can often be found competing in dog shows and dog sports. Or driving to BC or Saskatchewan to visit family. But mostly, you’ll find me writing or editing. Of course, no surprise here, I also work a full-time job on top of all of this in the Alberta oilfield.
If you want to know something that I don’t talk about here, drop me an email or get in touch via one of my social media sites. I will do my best to try to answer your questions!
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Patricia A. Jackson
Featured on Episode 41:
Interview with Patricia A. Jackson
Patricia A. Jackson is a high school Language Arts teacher in Pennsylvania. Her urban fantasy Forging A Nightmare debuted in November 2021 from Angry Robot Books.
She has published a number of short stories in the Star Wars Universe for the WestEnd Games quarterly Star Wars Adventure Journal. Her best known being Black Sands of Socorro, a smugglers’ sourcebook about people of color for Star Wars: The Role-Playing Game, and The Final Exit, a short story about a dark Jedi’s redemption, published by Bantam Spectra in Star Wars: Tales from the Empire anthology.
When not writing, she’s gaming. Her favorite pastimes being Witcher III and Mass Effect. If she’s not grading an endless pile of flash fiction, Patricia advises The Beautiful People, a brave space for students who identify as LGBTQ+. In her spare time, she rides her horses Maya and Indy, practicing for dressage and hunter/jumper competition.
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Matthew Spencer
Featured on Episode 55: Writing Transgender Characters
Matt Spencer is a queer & trans illustrator from southeast Michigan. His work appears in The Chromatic Fates Tarot, Wyrmwood’s Corrupted Tarot and Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness. When not creating artwork for freelance clients or collaborative tarot decks, Matt spends his time playing (or drawing) Dungeons and Dragons characters, and making slow but steady progress on his own Courtly Beasts Tarot . Matt adores any excuse to combine his deep love for watercolor & ink with his passion for fantasy, sci-fi and horror (especially when queer characters are involved).
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K.D. Edwards
Featured on Episode 61: Interview with K.D. Edwards
K.D. lives and writes in North Carolina, but has spent time in Massachusetts, Maine, Colorado, New Hampshire, Montana, and Washington. (Common theme until NC: Snow. So, so much snow.)
Mercifully short careers in food service, interactive television, corporate banking, retail management, and bariatric furniture have led to a much less short career in Higher Education.
The first book in his urban fantasy series THE TAROT SEQUENCE, called THE LAST SUN, was published by Pyr in June 2018, followed by THE HANGED MAN. The final installment in the first of three planned trilogies, THE HOURGLASS THRONE, was released in May of 2022.
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Daniel Waldman
Featured on Episode 100: Elixir Writing Retreats
Daniel is a former marketing and PR executive turned expat and freelance writer/editor/event manager. He has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and public relations, including 7 years running his own boutique agency.
He got his start as an editor at a vanity press, and later went on to lead marketing and communications at a variety of marketing agencies before starting his own business.
He has a BA in English from Loyola College in Maryland and a MA in Communications, Culture & Technology from Georgetown University.
He’s also a published short fiction writer, with a short story published in Bewildering Stories. Daniel also loves painting, hiking, and seeing live music. He lives in Nantes, France with his family.
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Donna Barba Higuera
Featured on Episode 100: Elixir Writing Retreats
Donna is an award-winning middle grade and picture book author. Her books include Lupe Wong Won’t Dance, El Cucuy Is Scared, Too!, and The Last Cuentista, and have won awards including: the Newbery medal, both Pura Belpré medal and honor, PNBA best book of the year award, and the Sid Fleischman award for best children’s humor book of the year.
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Allison Remcheck
Featured on Episode 100: Elixir Writing Retreats
Allison is so lucky to say that she has only ever worked with books–a journey that has taken her from a library, to a bookstore, to a publishing house, and finally to the Studio–and books, particularly those for children, have been her lifelong passion. Her clients include Lamda-nominee Zack Smedley, Newbery Medalist and Pura Belpre Medalist Donna Barba Higuera, and she is co-agent for #1 New York Times bestselling author, Karen M. McManus, among others.
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Chase Neely
Featured on Episode 110: Marketing Your Book
Chase Neely is the Co-Founder and President of Leverage Brands. By trade and training, Chase is an intellectual property attorney who helps grammy award winning songwriters, producers, New York Times bestselling authors, and other creative professionals at the intersection between their business and their art. Leverage is the third company Chase founded.
Brigitta Burguess
Featured in Episode 124: Self-Publishing while Parenting
Brigitta Burguess is a Detroit-based YAF writer, marketer, content creator, web developer, and storyteller. Her passion is, in the words of Sylvia Plath, to “live, love, and say it well in good sentences.” More than anything, she loves writing Layla’s journey, Ritter Sport chocolate bars, and making her little boys laugh.
T.L. Simpson
Featured in Episode 126: T.L. Simpson, author of Strong Like You
T.L. Simpson is an award-winning journalist and novelist living in Arkansas. He is currently the editor of his hometown paper, The Courier. His fiction draws from his experiences growing up in the Ozarks, covering both sports and crime. Simpson lives in the Arkansas River Valley, between the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains with his wife and four children. His debut contemporary YA novel STRONG LIKE YOU (Flux) will release March 12, 2024. His sophomore novel COPE FIELD is set for Spring 2025.
Jenny Adams
Featured in Episode 127: Jenny Adams, on Pivoting Genres
Jenny Adams has always had an overactive imagination. She turned her love of books and stories into a career as a librarian and novelist. She holds degrees in Medieval Studies and Library Science from The Ohio State University and Drexel University. She has studied fiction at Johns Hopkins University and is an alumna of Blue Stoop’s 2019 YA Novel Intensive and the 2021 Tin House YA Workshop, and was a 2021 PitchWars Mentor. Jenny currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her husband and daughter, and can be found on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram as @JAdamsWrites.
...and it's writing. 