Upcoming Titles are One Step Back - Sequel to Stepping Through Seagrass and The Wine Seekers.

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Kathleen Dolan (Bunte)

Kathleen J. Dolan is a New York actress and comedienne who takes her greatest pleasure in speaking. She delights an audience with positive humor and spiritual wisdom. With an early background in teaching, she went on to work for the Chicago Tribune as an Advertising Rep, simultaneously pursuing acting in regional theatre in the Chicago area. Like most actresses, she needed a "day job" and took on the management of an Employment Agency. She credits her background though—as a trainer with the Dale Carnegie Organization—as a major factor in giving her a personal vision. She is a genuine encourager and spiritual mentor.

While living in the New York area, Kathleen has done commercials, a few Off-Broadway readings, some TV movies, and a couple of Saturday Night Lives! She performs a humorous and uplifting "One-Woman Show," created directly from her new book, "I NEED A FACE-LIFT! (Spiritually Speaking)." Kathleen is presently living in Westport, CT with her husband. They have two grown daughters. You can contact her through her website at: www.kathleenjdolan.com.

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 CAROL DEFRANK

I am a non-fiction writer that has been published in hundreds of articles over a 25 year period. My profession before moving to Southwest Florida was advertising.

My byline has appeared in GulfShore Business, Naples Daily News, The News Press and the Fort Myers Magazine, The Business Journal, Parent Magazine, Senior News, The Vindicator as well as many other publications

During my writing tenure I was commissioned to write a coffee-table book titled Visions of the Valley. I have written hundreds of newsletters, brochures and advertisements for newspaper, radio and television. I have written and disseminated a seminar that teaches small business owners how to handle their own marketing and advertising.

A Cum Laude graduate of Youngstown State University with a Bachelors Degree in business/communication and a minor in journalism, I attend writing workshops and seminars to hone my skills .

Contact Carol: cjdassociates@aol.com

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RICHARD GEORGIAN

Mr. Georgian is self employed, and since 1994 has conducted research in American Tent Shows (1892 -1921), and the American Communist Party (1919-1927). He is working on a non-fiction manuscript; Buffalo Bill’s Deceit, the Cossacks Curse, a history of Georgian, Gurian riders in American wild west shows. He is developing; Red Mill Crossing, an historical novel about Buffalo Bill’s wild west exhibition set in 1901. He is continuing his research for a biography of the life and times of Alexis E. Georgian. Mr. Georgian from 1984 to 1994 was a senior systems analyst with Validity Corporation. He was a program manager, technical writer, training department head, instructor, and organized the corporation’s trade shows. Mr. Georgian from 1962 to 1984 was in the United States Navy and specialized in communication system

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BILL PHELPS

Born in Norwalk, Ct in 1954 and lived there until 1964. Moved to Warwick, Rhode Island until he graduated from High School. Served in the United States Air Force from 1973-1993. He's been around the world a couple of times and has lived in Germany, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippine Islands and other fun places like Omaha.

Bill has mined his experiences as a former intelligence analyst and foreign operative during his twenty years in the military to create prose and poetry that speaks with sensitivity to aspects unique to veterans of the Viet Nam era. He is currently working on some fiction pieces derived from his military and intelligence experience. Not your usual spy stuff, but the dangerous, unglamorous, brutal and essentially pointless power politics of the 70’s and 80’s. They will encompass three novels

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    JERI MAGG

Jeri, a freelance writer for the past fifteen year, has written interview, health, travel, history and art pieces for local, regional and national magazines and newspapers. Recent articles have appeared in The National Cowboy Hall of Fame Magazine, Persimmon Hill, Transitions Abroad, Mature Lifestyles, Ft. Myers News Press,  Sanibel Island Sun,  Sanibel Islander  and Ft. Myers Magazine. She has produced newsletters and designed and maintains the GCWA  and Sanibel Historical Village and Museum websites. Currently she is working on a nonfiction book "Historical Sites of Sanibel and Captiva Islands." She is a resident of Sanibel Island, Florida for the past 26 years, and a founding member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association.

Contact Jeri: jerimagg@comcast.net

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          JAN NIEMAN

Hi, you’ve reached the GCWA board member with no credentials. It’s a mystery how I came to be elected Secretary without publishing a doggone thing. I could have simply been attending meetings for their entertainment value. Perhaps the board position of "Blubbering Idiot" had not yet been filled.

However, now that I’ve been a member of GCWA for a year and picked the brains of more experienced members on "what not to do," I’ve begun submitting my stuff to unaware publishers who appear happy to fill up their pages. Two profiles and one story have appeared in the Jamaica Bay’s Newspaper and another story in my church’s newsletter. One day, money will exchange hands.

Oh, yes, I’ve also entered the Florida Writers Assoc. book contest with my manuscript "Going to the Dogs: Tails of a Mobile Pet Groomer." I attempted to view my twenty-one years of operating that miserable business in a humorous light. Some chapters zing and others I labored over to find one speck of humor!

My writing is improving. I know, because my daughter, when editing my stuff, is finding fewer errors (or perhaps she’s just getting bored). My one single fear is that my previous careers (with the dog grooming exception), have each lasted a mere seven years. Although those will provide me with plenty of ammunition for stories, I hope this career will survive the seven year itch.

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Patricia B. Janda

My interest in writing goes back to childhood days in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1942, at the age of ten, I was impressed by a movie newsreel account of General James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle’s crucial bombing mission over Tokyo in World War 11. That evening I composed a poem about him and my grandmother mailed it to the War Department in Washington. A short time later, the general responded. He said my poem "was indeed inspiring"…and he would take it with him and go on to victory. Those words, and the rest of his letter, gave me the encouragement to pursue writing. Continuing to write poems and short stories, later I joined the high school newspaper and yearbook staff.

In 1977, my husband and I and our sons moved to Spencer, Iowa, where I got a job working in the Activity Department in a nursing home. It was there that I had the opportunity to start a monthly newsletter for the residents. Not knowing how to type, I wrote the copy in long hand and the Activity Director typed it. The Lantern continues to this day. In 1983, I was again working at a nursing home, this time in Topeka, Kansas. A resident wanted to improve his English and asked me if I had any books on grammar. I searched my home and found an old workbook from college days in 1951. One exercise had never been turned in. A question on the page asked, "What do you really want to be?" I had written, "I want to be a writer." Realizing then just how long this love of writing went back, I decided to really pursue my desire to write.

Enrolling at Washburn University, I took all the Creative Writing and Writer's Seminar courses available. I joined Kansas Authors Club and eventually my poem, Wayward Boy, was selected for their yearbook. It remains on file at the university library. I was now writing poems and stories for the classes and initiated a newsletter for the Newcomers Club, writing in long hand and my friend typed it. When she moved out of town, I was forced to learn to type. Unable to attend the typing classes offered at the time, I bought a $3.00 instruction book, sat at my kitchen table for hours at a time, and

typed on my son's manual typewriter with a grocery bag on my head (so I couldn't peek at the keys!). In one week, I could type – very, very slowly, but accurately.  A column called Personally with Pat for the Topeka Weekly Review came next. The pay was ten dollars a week, but I had a byline with my picture!

My first check ever for writing was $50.00 (for five columns). That made me a ‘professional writer!’ Taking the coveted check to the bank, I suddenly snatched it back from the teller before she could cash it. I just couldn’t let it go. Hurrying over to a Xerox machine, I made a copy to keep forever and finally cashed the check.The tiny Sherwood Gazette periodical hired me for a 300-word piece and paid the unbelievable salary of $20.00 a month!

My poem for the newsletter Compassionate Friends was published on the front-page and circulated in several states. In Topeka, Kansas, all my dreams came true. Perhaps I was going to be a writer after all. Another transfer, and we were in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Joining a writers' club, I began submitting non-fiction manuscripts to the big magazines. I learned the hard way that you do not send a story about the elderly to Redbook, which caters to 18 to 40 year olds; finding the right market is key.

My 300-word piece to Reader's Digest came back so fast, it almost made my head spin. Later I learned they receive 50,000 unsolicited manuscripts a year. I'm sure mine never had a chance. Little by little, I was discovering the trials and tribulations a writer must go through. From White Bear Lake we relocated to Florida. While working at the Seven Lakes Association, I had the opportunity to write stories for their seasonal Seven Laker newspaper. Besides my regular column about the residents called At the Pavilion, I wrote more than one hundred additional non-fiction articles over an 11-year period.

In October 2001, Gulf Coast Writers Association came into my life. Since then several of my articles have been published in the club's Anthology and five pieces have appeared so far in Ft. Myers Magazine. My association with Gulf Coast Writers has been extremely gratifying. The members' encouragement, assistance and caring help me more than I can ever say.  Looking back over the years, I smile when I think of General Jimmy Doolittle’s kind words, as well as that gentleman in Topeka, Kansas who wanted a book on grammar. Because of them, I realized that, "Yes, I want to be a writer."

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    JANE KENNEDY SUTTON

For years, moving around the globe with my husband and daughter, I considered myself a 'professional tourist.' While living in Taiwan, Korea, England, the Netherlands, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, I had the chance to explore many other places. Now that I’m back in the states, I'm an occasional tourist and full time writer.

I’ve had several articles published in the AWAR Forum magazine in Rome. I’ve won a short story contest and received an honorable mention for best first chapter of a novel.

ArcheBooks is publishing my first novel, The Ride. It should be released in early 2008.

Please visit my blog, http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/, my web site, http://janekennedysutton.googlepages.com/home, or read my short story at http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton.

You can contact me at janekennedysutton@gmail.com

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JOYCE VOET

Joyce Voet is a retired teacher and librarian from Holland, Michigan, who writes for fun while spending six months in Florida each year and participating in a writing group called "Wordsmiths" at Siesta Bay R.V. Resort on Summerlin Road in Ft. Myers. She was a poetry contest winner in the 2007 writing contest for GCWA.

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    Mary Beth Lundgren

Mary Beth Lundgren has belonged to Gulf Coast Writers for six years. She especially loves to write for children, and is the author of two picture books—the award-winning Seven Scary Monsters, and We Sing the City, and teen novel, Love, Sara, a Junior Library Guild selection. Her stories, poems, and articles have been published in anthologies and magazines for children: Spider, Cricket, Pockets, and My Friend, she’s also published articles, memoirs, and essays in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines for adults. For three years, she tutored students at Project: LEARN, an adult literacy program in Cleveland, OH, which published her award-winning, restricted-vocabulary book about computers. Since moving to Florida in 1999, she’s been a member of the Florida Native Plant Society, and put together the monthly newsletter of the local FNPS chapter for a year. She lives in "The Cape" with husband, Ted, a computer consultant, and three gorgeous and loving black cats.

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STEVE RUEDIGER