As a certified clinical hypnotherapist, Mary Lee LaBay reaches people in an unconventional way. For thirteen years she traveled the world, settling in places such as Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. She moved back to the United States to raise her children in 1984 and the following year met her spiritual teacher, who she has followed ever since. For three years Ms. LaBay ran her own bookstore, the first metaphysical store in north-central Ohio.
Having graduated from the Ohio Academy of Holistic Health, she also became a certified instructor of hypnotherapy at the Hypnotherapy Research and Training Institute. This education has allowed her to expand her skills to include ministering to mental, physical, and spiritual discomfort.
Ms. LaBay put her training to use as the founding president of the Lake Washington chapter of the National Guild of Hypnotists and, in addition, currently runs her own practice in Bellevue, Washington. She writes and lectures frequently, and coauthored, with Kevin Hogan, Through the Open Door: Secrets of Self-Hypnosis before striking out on her own in her newest book, Hypnotherapy: A Client-Centered Approach. Some of her lecture topics including empowerment, finding your life purpose, past-life regression, weight loss, smoking, and irresistible attraction and hypnosis techniques for pain management. To expand her resources, she has her own Web site at www.maryleelabay.com.
Jesse Labbé is a freelance artist and illustrator. He previously worked as a concept artist at Eyevox Entertainment, a film and video production company. A frequent exhibitor at Comic-Con, he is also the coauthor and coillustrator of a graphic novel.
Labbé studied at the Art Institute of Dallas. A music enthusiast, he plays five instruments including the cello and the accordion. Labbé enjoys hiking and traveling and lives with his wife in Ridgeland, Mississippi.
Since 1987, Ms. Laborde has been the senior producer for the New Orleans PBS station, WYES-TV, where she has developed, produced, and hosted documentaries and in-studio productions about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. In addition to “Canal Street: The Great Wide Way,” she has produced, narrated, or consulted for over forty-five documentaries, including “Where New Orleans Shopped,” “The Lost Restaurants of New Orleans,” “The French Quarter That Was,” “Mardi Gras: The Passing Parade,” “Holy New Orleans!”, and “Streetcar Stories,” among others. She also hosts Steppin' Out, New Orleans' only weekly arts and entertainment review program, now in its nineteenth season, and winner of the New Orleans Press Club Award in the Public Affairs category.
Prior to her work with WYES, Ms. Laborde worked as a general manager and writer/producer at WLAE-TV in New Orleans (PBS) and at WDSU-TV (NBC affiliate) in New Orleans. At both stations she produced documentaries about local history as well as magazine programs about local events and personalities.
Ms. Laborde has been honored for both her community and professional work, earning awards from the Press Club of New Orleans, the Mayor's Conference on Women, the Public Relations Society of America, the American Council of Career Women, and American Women in Radio and Television. Since the '80s she has been active in the New Orleans community, from theater and the arts to revitalization and conservation efforts. She has served as president of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival since 1992 and has held leadership positions with the Arts Council of New Orleans, the Metropolitan Area Leadership Forum, the New Orleans Coalition, the Mid-City Improvement Association, and the Canal Street Area Service Association.
Ms. Laborde received her bachelor of arts degree in political science at the University of New Orleans in 1975. She is married to Errol P. Laborde, the editor of New Orleans Magazine and producer of the weekly television news roundtable Informed Sources on WYES-TV, New Orleans. In addition to her interest in New Orleans, especially jazz and Mardi Gras, her hobbies include singing, theater, photography, and architectural preservation.
Reporter, columnist, and editor Errol Laborde is a native of New Orleans. He has spent his journalistic career dedicated to preserving that which is uniquely New Orleans. Currently the editor of New Orleans Magazine and editor and publisher of Louisiana Life, he is also the producer of the award-winning public television show Informed Sources on WYES-TV, which delves into local politics.
Since 1972, Mr. Laborde has won more than twenty-five New Orleans Press Club Awards for outstanding journalism. In 2004 he won the Ashton Phelps Sr. Memorial Award for editorial writing, and in 2003 he and his wife received the Hornblower Award. They were honored for their careers and devotion to the enhancement and preservation of what makes New Orleans unique.
A member of the mayor's Mardi Gras task force, his devotion to New Orleans cultural preservation includes starting Twelfth Night, a kickoff to the carnival season that involves a celebration with a Phunny Phorty Phellows party on a streetcar. He helped to start the tradition of the Zulu and Rex parades arriving from the Mississippi River, and the annual Mardi Gras Mask-a-Thon. Mr. Laborde is also the founding president and a current board member of the annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, which has helped to develop tourism for New Orleans.
His book I Never Danced With an Eggplant (On a Streetcar Before): Chronicles of Life and Adventure in New Orleans is a collection of essays he has written for his column, “Streetcar,” which currently runs in New Orleans Magazine. The column was started in the Gris-Gris newspaper by Don Lee Keith, and later taken over by Mr. Laborde.
For two years “Streetcar” disappeared and Mr. Laborde tried to recreate it with his column, “Parade.” When that didn't work, he took an associate editor position at Gambit Weekly in 1982, and “Streetcar” was brought back to life. The column has won him two first place awards in the Press Club of New Orleans' column category and, in 1985, the Alex Waller Award, the Press Club's highest honor for writing achievement.
More than thirty years after the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy, Ray and Mary LaFontaine have discovered startling new evidence in the events that surround that fateful fall day. On November 22, 1963, Ray LaFontaine and Mary Lunney, who had not yet met, were both on the campus of what is now the University of Texas at El Paso when they learned that the president had been assassinated. Later, while Mr. LaFontaine was teaching English at UTEP and Miss Lunney was there to pursue her bachelor's degree, the two met, fell in love, and were married.
Mr. LaFontaine went on to earn his Ph.D. at Auburn University and stayed to teach as an assistant professor of English, while Mrs. LaFontaine worked in university administration and did graduate coursework. The couple then worked and taught at various colleges for the next several years.
In 1983, the LaFontaines launched the small company, Desperado Productions. Murray and Arlene, their first documentary, was aired twice nationally on PBS television stations and received the Barbara Jordan Award for documentaries. The couple focuses primarily on documentary and investigative productions.
Together, the LaFontaine's co-write investigative newspaper articles on various topics. Oswald Talked: The New Evidence in the JFK Assassination is the result of the research done for one such investigative series for the Houston Post. By closely researching Dallas Police Department files concerning the assassination, the LaFontaines have uncovered definitive proof that resolves many previously unanswered questions.
The authors have two daughters and live and work in the Dallas area. They are also the producers of a PBS documentary on the Kennedy assassination.
As Jennifer Lambe's childhood travels took her to forty of the fifty states, she developed a “natural curiosity about things.” Her love of reading grew as she worked at the local library during high school and college. While she worked toward her bachelor's in elementary education, she discovered her “calling”—technical and creative writing.
Her first book, Kudzu Chaos, was inspired by a real plant. The U.S. Department of Agriculture planted thousands of kudzu seedlings along roads and hillsides to prevent erosion, and the kudzu, originally introduced as a decorative plant, grew at one foot per day at times. In Kudzu Chaos, the residents of Red Mud Flats must figure out what to do when the chaotic kudzu overtakes the town. They then learn how to turn a vine considered a curse into a celebrated crop.
Jennifer Lambe is a freelance technical writer and belongs to the mid-South chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Society of Technical Communications. She currently resides in Nashville with her husband, Tim, and daughter, Sydney.
Author and educator Julie Fontenot Landry is continuing where her mother left off with the Clovis Crawfish Series. Her mother, Mary Alice Fontenot, named a Louisiana Legend by Louisiana Public Broadcasting and a Living Legend by the Acadian Museum of Erath, is the author of eighteen Clovis Crawfish books. Born and raised in south-central Louisiana, Landry remains true to her Cajun background.
Proving her success as a writer, she was honored with the CODOFIL Prize for French Prose in the best short fiction in French category. She is a member of the Louisiana Folklore Society, the South Central Modern Language Association, and the Philological Association of Louisiana, among others. She has written articles for the Louisiana English Journal and the Louisiana Folklore Miscellany. After transferring from Maryville College of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, she received her BA in English, specializing in creative writing, from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she also earned an MA and her PhD
A teacher for more than forty years, Landry is also a singer and dancer. During the summers of 1968 and 1969, she and her husband performed in the Stephen Foster Story, a musical drama in Bardstown, Kentucky. She also writes music and plays.
In the 1990s, Landry narrated and translated, in French, her mother's Clovis Crawfish books, Clovis Ecrevisse et le Crapaud Curieux, Clovis Ecrevisse et l'Araignee Que File, and Clovis Ecrevisse et Bidon Tortue Terestre, among others.
Landry resides in Orange County, California, where she teaches seventh and eighth grade language arts at a nearby Catholic school. She lives with her husband, and they enjoy spending time with their grandson and being outdoors in the beautiful weather.
Alison Hoffman Lane first began writing children's stories when her son and three daughters were growing up. Her son David's curiosity and imagination in particular sparked ideas in Lane that led to elaborate tales. Her husband also served as inspiration for Uncle Arnel and the Swamp Witch.
Lane was born in New Orleans and returned to the Crescent City after a brief period living in Key West, Florida. She graduated from William Carey University in 1995 with a bachelor of science degree in nursing. She is a registered nurse, specializing in peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, and chemotherapy administration. When she isn't dreaming up stories, Lane loves to garden with her golden retriever, Randy, and her cat, Casey, nearby. Lane's husband Mike is also a Pelican author, and the couple lives in New Orleans.
A life-long enthusiast of the great outdoors, Mike Lane developed the Web site RodnReel.com in 1995. RodnReel was one of the first fishing Web sites established in the United States and currently boasts over 220,000 devoted readers.
In addition to being at the helm of one of the most popular sources of outdoors information, Lane is the author of The Offshore Fisherman's Bible. This book is a compilation of the oilrigs and wrecks in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. His years of offshore experience as an ROV (underwater robot) operator and supervisor has helped him identify the many deepwater species included in the Angler's Guide to Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1998, he developed another website, RodnGun.com. Besides being a writer, photographer, and webmaster, Lane also gives presentations about the fishing and hunting industries. He is past vice president and current board member of the Louisiana Outdoors Writers Association and a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association. Lane lives in Metairie, Louisiana.
"When it comes to history, few authors are more adept at mixing historical facts with fun than J. Stephen Lang."
—David S. Duchek, Salem (Ohio) News
A resident of Seminole, Florida, J. Stephen Lang has a master's degree in print communication. He is a former book editor who enjoys finding interesting trivia facts, which he has used to publish several trivia books. He has written The Complete Book of Presidential Trivia, available from Pelican, The Complete Book of Bible Trivia, The Complete Book of Confederate Trivia, and The Big Book of American Trivia.
“Life in the fast lane never lasts long,” claims Ingrid Larnis when discussing her early career as a Beacon Hill model and New York City photographer. Her current California lifestyle may not move as quickly, but it has afforded her no fewer opportunities for accomplishment, the most recent being her joint effort with Jim Arnold, Wine Clubs of Sonoma County.
Larnis was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1955. She spent the 1970s and early 1980s as a model, photographer, and costume designer for rock bands of the era such as Aerosmith. Looking for a change of pace, she moved out west to study at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a certificate in garden design. Today, in Camp Meeker, California, Larnis works as a photographer and graphic artist.
In her local community, Larnis has volunteered with the Friends of the Urban Forest, served as assistant editor of the San Francisco Rose Society's newsletter, and designed gardens for local schools and churches.
Author Charles Larroque is a native of Jeanerette, Louisiana. Now residing in Lafayette, he teaches high school, is a bilingual freelance writer, and a member of several organizations dedicated to the preservation of Louisiana's Acadian heritage. He has spent more than twenty years as an educator, specializing in foreign languages and social studies, and currently teaches in Lafayette Parish's alternative program, “Continuing Academic Program for Students.”
Mr. Larroque is also a teacher-consultant for the National Writing Project of Acadiana, and a presenter for the French Writing Institute. The National Writing Project is an effort by teachers to improve writing in America. Teachers in the area attend annual summer institutes to prepare for leadership roles. They then go on to sponsor project programs at their schools and their neighboring schools.
He has been named Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Republic and is the recipient of the Prix de Louisiane. Mr. Larroque is published in English and in French in several literary reviews, as well as in local newspapers, and is the president of Louisiane à la carte.
Louisiane à la carte is a non–profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Louisiana's French heritage and language through community development. It creates opportunities for French-speaking Louisiana natives to reconnect with their roots. Aside from numerous French and English newspaper and magazine articles (both on-line and in print), Mr. Larroque is the author of Memories of St. Martinville and Memories of Lafayette, both beautiful highlights of their respective areas' best, and sometimes oldest, attractions and cultural legacies. The books are available in both English and French.
Mr. Larroque is also a member of the committee for Acadian Heritage Week, a project to promote greater awareness of the history of the Acadian people of Louisiana. The committee has designated the fourth week in September “Acadian Heritage Week” and their primary objective is to produce a revised Louisiana History curriculum for eighth-grade students statewide. The committee wants to incorporate more Acadian history that is multidisciplined and correct.
Angelina LaRue is a food writer, photographer, and stylist whose love of food and farming has guided her life’s passions. She grew up in West Texas, where her grandfather was a hardworking pumpkin farmer. He was a great influence on her childhood, and she still wishes one day to be able to start a pumpkin farm of her own. Growing up around a family of gardeners influenced her food philosophy—straight from garden to table with the freshest meal possible.
Her education and work experience in government contracts and customs law prepared her to truly savor and appreciate the transition to food writing and recipe development. LaRue writes two weekly food columns, “Food Made Fresh” and “Food Bytes,” which focus on food experiences, recipes, and travel. Her columns are featured in Lubbock Magazine, Lubbock (TX) Avalanche-Journal, and the Idalou (TX) Beacon. She also maintains her own food blog, on which she posts her tested recipes.
A graduate of McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, LaRue is active in their alumni group. A member of St. Elizabeth Catholic University Parish, she has raised funds for Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign, Water for People, and Mercy Corp. In addition to leading numerous collections for the South Plains Food Bank, LaRue works with the Foodways Texas organization to preserve Texas food culture. She lives in Idalou, Texas, where she loves to view the wildflowers and canyons of the Lone Star State.
Born and raised in New Orleans, Tim Lattie studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and trained in sequential art at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Sequential art, used in comics and graphic novels, provides a series of images in a specific order to convey meaning. Since his childhood, Lattie has had a passion for comic books and animation, and he has worked as a freelance artist for Ape Entertainment, illustrating numerous graphic novels. Lattie ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 to fund his work on his creator-owned comic book, and DeCheser Media optioned the rights for the graphic novel series he created.
Lattie has created artwork—including logos, t-shirt design, and packaging artwork—for a variety of bands, businesses, and media outlets. His clients include Jesuit Bend Helicopters, the Crescent City Fall Classic, Jefferson Parish Major Crimes Task Force, and Southport Hall.
Accomplished children’s book author Janet Lawler channels her love of family, nature, and “all things silly” to inspire her written work. Well-rounded in her experience, Lawler has also served as a practicing attorney, freelance proofreader, high school English tutor, and has owned and operated a franchise travel magazine.
Lawler received her bachelor of arts in government and American studies from Connecticut College in 1974, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a summa cum laude graduate. She is an active participant in the New England regional community of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and enjoys membership in the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. Lawler has also been honoured with an Outstanding Science Trade Book award from the National Science Teachers Association.
Originally from Milford, Connecticut, Lawler lives in Farmington, Connecticut, with her husband, children, a dog, and a lizard. In her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, gardening, and playing sports.
Kathryn Lay likes to express the oddities of everyday life through her books. Her goal is to give readers a lot of enjoyment with a little bit of knowledge. Her hobby of looking for the unusual began with the strange items she noticed at flea markets, but her inspiration for Josh's Halloween Pumpkin came from a visit to her state fair. On her yearly excursion with family and friends to the Texas State Fair, an exhibit including giant pumpkins caught Lay's attention. It was an opportunity to combine her love of fall with her fascination of natural eccentricities.
Lay is a passionate, precocious, and prolific author. She began writing in the third grade and has published more than fourteen hundred articles, essays, and stories for children and adults. The diverse topics she enjoys range from religion to children's books, from essays to fantasy fiction, from parenting to marriage, and from humor to how-to's. Lay has won over one hundred writing contests for unpublished work. She is the recipient of the 2004 award for Best Juvenile Book from the Oklahoma Writers' Federation, Inc. and the 2005 Golden Spur Award for Crown Me!, a humorous middle-reader novel.
Lay graduated from Tarrant County Junior College. After having worked ten years as a secretary for several companies, she decided to devote herself to her life's passion—writing. In addition to being an award-winning author, she teaches online writing classes at www.coffeehouseforwriters.com and speaks at schools, libraries, and writers' conferences. In her spare time, she runs a volunteer English as a Second Language school with her husband. Lay is a member of the Texas Reading Association, participates in the Texas Book Festival, and is the Texas Regional Advisor of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. A lifelong Texan, Lay resides in Arlington.
Named to the 2001 All-Teacher Team by USA Today
2001 Recipient of the Milken Family Foundation’s National Award for Teaching Excellence
Steven L. Layne serves as director of the master of education in literacy program at Judson University in Elgin, Illinois, where he is also a professor of literacy education. He is a fifteen-year veteran of public education, serving as a classroom teacher and reading specialist for grades two through three and five through eight.
A respected literacy consultant, motivational keynote speaker, and featured author, Layne works with large numbers of educators and children during school visits and at conferences held throughout the world each year. His work has been recognized with awards for outstanding contributions to the fields of educational research, teaching, and writing from organizations such as USA Today, the Milken Family Foundation, the Illinois Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Illinois Reading Council, and the International Reading Association.
A prolific and talented writer, his young-adult thriller This Side of Paradise was the 2002 winner of the Hal Clement Award for Young Adults and the 2003-2004 Texas Lone Star Award. He is also the author of the International Reading Association/Children’s Choice selections My Brother Dan’s Delicious and The Teachers’ Night Before Christmas, the latter of which is also a best-seller in Pelican’s Night Before Christmas Series. Layne lives with his wife, Debbie, their four children, and an adorable Collie named Shelby in St. Charles, Illinois.
For more information on the author, please visit his website, www.stevelayne.com.
As a minister's wife for more than fifty years, Jo Ann Paris Leavell has come to know ministry as part of her regular routine. But as readers of her book Joy in the Journey discover, she had to make drastic changes in her ministry due to health problems. However, she still serves her congregation and community with the same practices and principles she taught in her first book Don't Miss the Blessing.
Leavell was married to Dr. Landrum P. Leavell II, president emeritus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary until his death on September 26, 2008. She taught classes for ministers' wives and conducted family life conferences with her husband. At retreats, luncheons, and conventions around the country, she could be found addressing groups on issues of family, time management, money, and the joy of the ministry that a wife can share with her husband. Since her husband's death, Leavell has pursued an active ministry of her own through teaching, speaking, and writing.
Leavell's work has not gone without recognition. She developed a training program for ministry wives at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and was president of the Ministers' Wives of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1976. Twice she has served as chairman of Lord, Change Me, an interdenominational conference for today's women. In addition, in 1990, she received the Mrs. J. M. Dawson Award for distinguished ministers' wives.
However, it is the combination of all of her roles, wife, mother, grandmother, that has given her the greatest joy. She has four children: Dr. Landrum P. Leavell III, associate pastor, the Village Church, Denton, Texas; Ann Leavell Beauchamp, assistant to a chartered financial consultant, Greensboro, Georgia; Roland Q. Leavell II, president, Rives-Leavell Church Bond Company, Jackson, Mississippi; and Dr. David Leavell, pastor, First Baptist Church, Millington, Tennessee. This grandmother of eleven is still active in her community and local church, First Baptist Church, Wichita Falls, Texas.
Joyce YelDell LeBlanc is a resident of Baton Rouge and served for many years as publicist for the state Tourism Development Department.
Louisiana's warm, wet climate and fertile soil make it home to some of the most spectacular gardens in the country. The Pelican Guide to Gardens of Louisiana includes histories and descriptions of such splendid gardens as Longue Vue, Rosedown Hodges, Live Oak Afton Villa, and the American Rose Center.
“I always thought a writer had to have a degree,” she says of her early fears of writing. Despite the fact that she had written for several years, her memoirs remained secret until her son found one of her pieces and offered to assist with spelling and editing. Ibbie says, “I was elated as I began to gather the bits and pieces of my stories and recipes. I found stories that I had forgotten, one . . . in my Bible I could not even remember writing.” These stories have been collected to produce Ledford's first book, Hill Country Cookin' and Memoirs.
In Hill Country Cookin' and Memoirs, Ibbie re-created the Tennessee hills of her youth. Recounting tales of the 1930s and 1940s, she introduced outsiders to a mystical place and time through both stories and recipes. In her second book, Y'All Come Back, Now: Recipes and Memories, she shares her collection of favorite foods and anecdotes about how people in the Hill Country have adapted to changing times and modern progress.
Ibbie keeps busy with the FCE (Family and Community Education), an organization that started in the 1930s with demonstrations to acquaint housewives with new kitchen techniques. She has been a member since 1978. In addition, she recently provided the punch at the University of Tennessee bicentennial celebration, and yes, the punch was a recipe from one of her books.
Ledford and her husband recently moved to Dyersburg, Tennessee, from their country home in Linden, Tennessee. Ibbie says they traded in the country life so they could be near their children and grandchildren in the city. Though Ibbie says that the move has created big changes in her life—she no longer has the space and her husband cannot go fishing—they enjoy the abundance of senior-citizen activities and the proximity of their family.
B. J. Lee is an accomplished children’s poet and author. She was inspired to write her debut children’s picture book after moving to Florida and being amazed by the sight of alligators in the wild.
Lee earned a BA in English from Central Connecticut State University and an MS in library and information science from Simmons College Graduate School of Library Science. She is a full time writer and a retired music librarian at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Her work as a children’s poet and author has been published in several notable magazines and anthologies. She has also written performance pieces, including a rap called “Dealin’ with a Feelin.’” Lee is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
In addition to her poetry, Lee is a classical pianist with fourteen years of training. She lives in Pinellas Park, Florida, with her husband, Malcolm, and her toy poodle, Bijoux.
For someone as passionate about writing as Laura Lee is, it is no wonder that she makes her living doing just that. She began her writing career at the age of twelve when she published her first article, “My First Day of Junior High School.” She continued to write for school organizations and theatre groups. She graduated with commendation from Oakland University, then decided to live abroad in England and Scotland. Upon returning to the United States, Lee began working as a copywriter and radio announcer. However, her love of writing was still strong, so she decided to work as a freelance writer and journalist for the Albany Times Union.
Ms. Lee has written press releases, speeches, ad copy, and articles for various publications. The Name's Familiar: Mr. Leotard, Barbie, and Chef Boyardee and The Name's Familiar II look closely at the origins of familiar names, characters, brand names, and phrases. She investigates the actual people whose names are now so familiar, such as James Bond, Charlie Brown, and Chef Boyardee.
The idea for these books emerged after she discovered that the title character in Alice and Wonderland was actually based on a real person. This captivated her interest and led to her further research into other names. Along with this research, she collected bits of trivia and anecdotes, which she also included.
Laura Lee is currently living in New York, continuing to follow her first love: writing.
Arthur S. Lefkowitz is an author, Revolutionary War historian, businessman, and independent researcher. A member of the board of governors of the American Revolution Round Table, he previously served on the board of the Brigade of the American Revolution. Lefkowitz has lectured extensively for the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, at various National Park Service sites, the annual Fort Ticonderoga Revolutionary War Symposium, Fraunces Tavern Museum, and Chubb & Son, Inc. He was also the keynote speaker during an annual meeting of the prestigious Washington Association of New Jersey.
Lefkowitz received a BA from New York University and earned his MBA at Long Island University. While he enjoys many areas of history, the American Revolution resonated with him after he joined a Revolutionary War reenactment group. He says that the American Revolution “marks the beginning of the modern age in world history when men took action to decide how they would be governed.”
His books have received numerous awards and accolades, including the Outstanding Book for Teenagers by the New York Public Library and a recognition award from the New York chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He won the American Revolution Round Table’s annual book award, and one title was voted an Honor Book by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Louis S. Leland Jr. has been a professor of psychology at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, for more than twenty years. He regularly contributes to psychology journals and heads the department's Community Behavioral Change Program. The program allows students to study and improve community awareness of and contribution to areas such as recycling, refugee aide, and donor volunteering.
Mr. Leland has also written the perfect translation from American English, chiefly Texan and Ohioan, to New Zealand English. He was inspired by the experience of his wife, a native New Zealander, or Kiwi, who moved to the United States for a year during high school. Needing an eraser in class one day, she leaned over to her classmate and asked if he had a rubber. She was baffled by his response and slightly uncomfortable thereafter; a guide such as this would have helped.
Composed in equal parts of fact and hilarity, this specialized dictionary will aid the traveler, amuse the linguist, and delight even the casual observer. A Personal Kiwi-Yankee Dictionary is also the perfect companion to Pelican's comprehensive Maverick Guide to New Zealand.
Leonhard has worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer, specializing in the illustration of children’s books, for more than twenty years. It was his love of nature and the world of comics that inevitably led to his career as an artist. He has a wealth of experience depicting a variety of themes from fantasy and foliage to music and entertainment. Leonhard has won numerous awards for his versatile work in both traditional and digital media.
In addition to children’s books, Leonhard has also illustrated magazine and album covers, greeting cards, posters, and calendars. He provided illustrative work for D Magazine, a regional publication of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and designed album covers for Cyrille Verdeaux, Max Wilson, and Robert Zephiro Milla.
Leonhard received a bachelor of fine arts in illustration from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon. He also attended Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, concentrating in commercial art. Leonhard resides in Prosser, Washington, with his wife, son, and a plethora of pets.
C. Gerard LePre has spent over twenty years as an insurance executive and personal finance planner. He is also a Christian who believes that he can take the knowledge he has gained from both disciplines and formulate an economic strategy for a Christian-based financial plan. Using seven steps based on biblical principles, LePre shows how financial security can be achieved.
LePre is the founder of Faith Financial Ministries, Inc., which is a nonprofit organization devoted to teaching Christians how to obtain financial security. He is a noted lecturer on the topic of Christian finance and consumer awareness and has helped many people achieve their economic goals. God's Money-Back Guarantee: The Seven Steps to Financial Security is LePre's first book.
Paul Lester, PhD, now deceased, presents firsthand narratives of Galveston hurricane survivors as told immediately after the disaster. His stories and accounts offer an emotional glimpse into one of the greatest disasters in the history of the United States. Lester is the author of several other publications, including the book Life in the Southwest.
George Levy, former professor of legal studies at Roosevelt University, became interested in Camp Douglas as a student at the University of Chicago, which is located across the street from the site of the camp.
His interest in the Civil War began much earlier. In the fourth grade, this Windy City native was required to learn President Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. He has spent the rest of his life trying to appreciate it.
When he is not researching or writing, Levy passes his time relic hunting on campgrounds of the Union army in Virginia. He also searches for and photographs sites where Union soldiers were executed. His research often finds its way into the Lincoln Newsletter, which has published many of Levy’s articles, including one entitled “Economic, Social, and Political Impact of Military Depots in the Civil War.”
Levy occasionally unearths some rare finds. In To Die in Chicago: Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-65, Levy’s primary sources include original camp records only recently discovered after a church fire in Chicago, as well as baptismal books kept by a priest who visited the camp.
“Many people, especially in the South, seem to want some spiritual contact with the place where their ancestors had suffered so much,” says Levy. In his moving, authoritative account of the atrocities that occurred at Camp Douglas, he bridges the gap between past and present in order to provide the contact necessary to heal these long-festering wounds.
Levy, who has also maintained a private law practice, served in the Public Defender’s office and as an assistant attorney general for the state of Illinois. Prior to his tenure at Roosevelt University, he taught at John Marshall Law School. In addition to belonging to the Illinois State Bar Association, Levy is a member of Midwest Authors, which is based in Chicago.
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KE Lewis is the resident cartoonist for Cobblestone, a children’s American history magazine, and an animator for Dig It!, an education program based out of Seattle, Washington. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, she has illustrated several books and is well regarded for her skills as an animation artist and graphic designer.
After graduating from Brown University with degrees in fine art and art history, Lewis spent several years traveling through Russia, where she served as an interpreter for Siberian shamans, coached rowing teams, and wrote stories for children’s radio. She credits her art career as aiding in her ability to explore the world, and through her art she attempts to communicate what she has learned in a style that is both accessible and visually appealing.
When she is not out drawing or adventuring, Lewis’s interests include bicycling, skydiving, and gardening. A member of the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association, she lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, young son, two cats, four chickens, and forty thousand honeybees.
On a divisional level, Likins has served as Florida division president (2000-2002), second vice president (1998-2000), and recording secretary (1992-1994 and 1996-1998). In addition, her division participation has including the following: education chairman (1998-2000) and committee member (2010 to present), publicity chair (1990-1994), Southern cross of honor chair (1998-2000), president of the Florida presidents’ advisory council (2010-2012), electronic Florida database committee member (2010-present), history of the Florida division committee member (2010-2012), vice president of the great-great-great-granddaughters club (2009-2012), and division convention page (1987-1992 and 1996-1998). The Florida division awarded her the Winnie Davis Medal in 1995 and the Jefferson Davis Gold Historical Medal in 1997.
Likins is a fifth-generation Floridian and a descendant of Florida pioneer William H. Brooks, who helped settle the state. Her maternal ancestors were also pioneers of Flagler County, where she was reared. Likins majored in English and minored in psychology at the University of Florida. In 1963 she married Roy Weldon Likins, who passed away in 1991. The couple have three daughters and thirteen grandchildren.
Likins has worked as executive secretary for Time Finance and was a photo-journalist with the Daytona Beach News-Journal and the Flagler (FL) Tribune, covering news around Flagler County. She also wrote a society column, called “The Hammock Happenings,” and a cooking column. Likins owned and operated two antique shops, one in Flagler Beach and one in Winter Park, under the name of The Likins Collection, and she traveled extensively throughout Europe searching for items for her business.
Likins has served as state secretary of the Florida Friends of the Library Association and was a founding member of the Flagler Friends of the Library Association. She was the first woman to be elected president of the Flagler County chamber of commerce and served three consecutive terms. She helped to organize the county’s genealogical society and served as its vice president. She has served as chairman of the county’s March of Dimes program and the county fair association and has been an active member of the Flagler County parks and recreation advisory board since its inception in 1982. She also organized and became the first Girl Scout leader in the barrier island community of Hammock, where she resides.
A certified genealogy consultant with the Mormon Church Family History Center in Bunnell, Likins’ love for genealogy knows no boundaries. She delights in spending time with and cooking for her family, reading spy novels, and living each day thankful for her many blessings.
Devotion to Our Lady comes naturally for David Michael Lindsey. He was born on Mary's true birthday (August 5), went to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary parochial school, and today attends Mass at St. Mary's Church. He wears Mary's Miraculous Medal, has a life-size statue of Our Lady in his backyard, and has, on occasion, received Mary's perfume at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Kansas City, Missouri.
A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, Michael J. “Mike” Lipsey is the president and founder of the Lipsey Company. With over twenty-five years in the commercial real-estate industry, he is a nationally recognized leader in real estate training and consulting. The Lipsey Company also has an international presence through its London-based joint venture, Kingsley Lipsey Morgan.
Mike Lipsey has developed numerous real-estate courses, including Presentations That Win and Financial Literacy. He also offers training products, both in audio and on DVD, and has written several books, including Digitizing Real Estate and the Practical Guide to Owning Real Estate. In addition to appearing on the Financial News Network, Mr. Lipsey has also published numerous articles in NACORE's Corporate Real Estate Executive and SIOR's Professional Report, among others.
Mike Lipsey maintains a busy speaking schedule, traveling the country conducting workshops and lectures. He currently resides in Florida with his wife, Lottie, and is the father of three sons.
When not creating art, Lisette can be found reading, doing fun do-it-yourself projects, creating paper crafts, or listening to her favorite bands. She lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and works in the field of graphic and web design.
Bill Little holds a basketball free-throw record—857 free throws made in one hour. It's no accident. Granted, he has natural athletic ability, but just as importantly, he applies a mental technique of visualization when he shoots hoops. Little has shared this technique—the practice in which an individual imagines himself achieving a particular goal—in his professional career as a minister, counselor, and teacher to help audiences as diverse as cancer patients, professional athletes, church congregations, and business organizations.
His first and longest-running credit is as senior pastor of Christ Memorial Baptist Church in St. Louis, where Little has served since 1959. He arrived there freshly graduated from East Texas Baptist College in Marshall, Texas, with a bachelor of arts in history. Since then, he has earned a master of theology degree from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, a master of science degree in education from Southern Illinois University, and a doctor of philosophy degree in counseling from Washington University in St. Louis.
Little has served as an oncology counselor at St. Louis hospitals and was a regular guest media counselor for seventeen years on KMOX Radio, a CBS radio affiliate in St. Louis. Making history as the first psychologist to be officially employed by a major league baseball team, Little served as sports psychologist and drug counselor for the St. Louis Cardinals and Seattle Mariners baseball teams in the early 1980s.
An active speaker, Little has lectured for the brewmeisters of Anheuser-Busch, project managers and administrators for Associated General Contractors of America, and numerous sales staffs, the largest of which was the Million Dollar Round Table at Radio City Music Hall, where he captivated a crowd of over five thousand participants. He has led conferences on alcoholism, marriage and family relations, stress, communications, management, and motivation. East Texas Baptist University recognized him with the J. Wesley Smith Award as the outstanding alumnus for 2004.
A native of Gideon, Missouri, Bill Little now resides in St. Louis. He writes poetry for his own enjoyment, with over three thousand unpublished pieces to his credit. He enjoys studying languages and continues to play basketball competitively in local, state, and national tournaments. He revels in his role as husband to Teresa Gay, father of four, grandfather, and great-grandfather.
Linda Little Wolf was born and raised on Long Island, New York, and currently resides in Ocala, Florida. An enthusiastic collector of Native American art and artifacts for the past two decades, Ms. Little Wolf enjoys sharing her proud heritage of Cherokee and Lakota, Sioux through her equine presentations and her writing.
Linda Little Wolf's ancestors shared their lives with the horse, and this author's life is no different. She has become one of the foremost educators and lecturers on Plains Indian culture, history, folklore, art, and horsemanship. She often performs demonstrations with her horses, Enough Stuff and Wakawacipi (Spirit Dancer).
As a published author, Ms. Little Wolf has directed her educational efforts toward today's youth. She nurtures minds, generates curiosity, and teaches life lessons through her writing. In Visions of the Buffalo People, Ms. Little Wolf provides a realistic understanding of the Native Americans of the Great Plains. She explores their spirituality and domestic life and provides examples of Indian crafts to help youth experience that vanished culture. Linda Little Wolf presents the legend of Sunka Wakan, the Great Spirit Horse, as an exciting tale of life on the Great Plains, retold especially for young readers in Great Spirit Horse.
Click here to see Linda Little Wolf at the Royal Canadian Winter Fair.
Dick Locher is a nationally syndicated artist whose cartoons have been reprinted in Life, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Harvard Law Review, National Review, The Congressional Record and in hundreds of newspapers throughout the world. His ability to capture the absurdities of life through political cartooning resulted in his winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1983. News of Locher's award came just five days short of his 10th anniversary with the Chicago Tribune, where his work has appeared on the Tribune's editorial and op-ed pages since April 23, 1973.
In March 1983, he took over drawing the Dick Tracy comic strip. (His first experience drawing Dick Tracy came as Chester Gould's assistant from 1957 to 1961.) Later, he assisted with suggestions for Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy movie, which was released in June 1990. After the release of the Dick Tracy movie, Locher found himself involved in extensive PR for the film and appeared on such nationwide TV programs as “20/20,” “Entertainment Tonight,” and “Good Morning America.” He appeared on local Chicago TV news programs and was interviewed by numerous magazines, newspapers, and radio personalities nationwide.
Besides producing his editorial cartoon and the art for the Dick Tracy strip on a daily basis, Locher has a number of books to his credit, including Dick Locher Draws Fire (1979), Send in the Clowns (1982), Vote For Me (1988), and Which One Is the None of the Above Button? (1992). In 1985 he collaborated with Michael Kilian for Flying Can Be Fun. In 1990 he worked with Max Collins on The Dick Tracy Casebook and in 1991 on Dick Tracy's Fiendish Foes.
In addition to the Pulitzer in 1983, Locher received top honors from Sigma Delta Chi, Society of Professional Journalists, the U.S. Industrial Council's Dragon Slayer Award, and the distinguished Health Journalism Award. In both 1983 and 1984, he won first place in the Overseas Press Club competition.
In 1985 Locher again won the Distinguished Health Journalism Award for the fifth consecutive year. He won that award again in 1992. In 1985, 1990, 1991, and 1992, he also won The Peter Lisagor Award for excellence in journalism awarded by the Headliner Club of the Sigma Delta Chi.
Locher was among a select group of cartoonists to lunch with President Ronald Reagan at the White House in May 1986. In November he also won the World-wide Population Institute's competition for Best Cartoonist of 1986. In 1987, Dick won the prestigious John Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Award. In 1990 the Free Press Association awarded Dick an honorable mention for outstanding journalism in support of liberty in their Mencken awards.
Prior to joining the Chicago Tribune, he was president of his sales-promotion agency and has been a painter, art director, sculptor, and inventor. Locher studied art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and the Art Center of Los Angeles. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot and aircraft designer. Locher and his wife Mary live in the suburban Chicago area. Their son, Steve, and their daughter, Jana, and their families also live there.
Richard A. Loederer was born on March 26, 1894, in Vienna, Austria. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna as well as the Schule Reimann in Berlin. After moving to New York, Mr. Loederer participated in the Works Progress Administration. His projects included painting murals in restaurants, such as the Blue Ribbon Restaurant in New York City and Stoll's Tavern in Troy, New York.
Mr. Loederer illustrated several books in the 1930s and 1940s. Originally published in German in 1932, Voodoo Fire in Haiti contained not only his distinctive woodcuts, but also his own account of his long sojourn on that then-mysterious island.
Eventually Richard A. Loederer returned to Vienna, where he died in March 1981.
During her career, she wrote more than forty articles about Vienna, ranging from old Viennese humor to Austrian birdwatching. Some of the topics about which Lopez wrote include Austrian automobiles, holidays, customs, and Mark Twain’s visit to Vienna.
Lopez died on September 13, 2003.
Doreen Lorenzetti is a freelance artist with more than twenty years experience, serving as an illustrator, private art instructor, textile designer, and art therapist. Through her freelance business, she has worked for a variety of clients, including American Airlines, designing art for childrens books, company logos and posters, instruction manuals, advertisements, and maps. Her work has also appeared in newspapers and magazines.
Ranging in age from nine to ninety, her student clientele is varied, and she gives lessons at elementary schools and senior citizens centers. Further demonstrating her versatility as an artist, Lorenzetti designs and executes murals for homes or businesses and designs jewelry.
Lorenzetti holds a bachelors degree in art from Monmouth University and is a member of the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators. She resides in Hillsborough, New Jersey.
Julie Donaldson Lowenthal, formerly a registered nurse at Candler Hospital, is a public-relations specialist for Johnny Harris Restaurant, one of the most successful eateries in the low-country region. Lowenthal, whose family has been part of the restaurant since its founding in 1924, works with her husband, Bernard, to help her father run the family business, Donaldson Enterprises, a restaurant-holding company.
After pursuing a bachelor of science degree at the University of Georgia, Lowenthal studied nursing at Armstrong Atlantic State University. When she is not helping to run the restaurant, she enjoys cooking, reading, gardening, boating, and photography. She and her husband live with three of their four children at The Landings on Skidaway Island, Georgia.
During America's Golden Age of radio, which lasted from the mid-1930s to 1950, Fred Lowery reigned as the blind king of whistlers. Lowery first discovered his unique talent when classmates at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin convinced him to perform for bird whistler Ernest Nichols. Nichols prophesied that “someday Freddy will be the world's greatest whistler.”
Only a few years later, Lowery became famous at the Texas Redbird working at his first radio job in Dallas. Three years later, he moved to New York City and eventually got his break working for Vincent Lopez. He later worked for Horace Heidt.
Lowery always took pains to avoid capitalizing on his handicap and lived his life free of self-pity or bitterness. In the 1960s and 1970s, he began performing only religious melodies and traded nightclubs for churches. In 1984, after recording five religious albums, Lowery passed away in Jacksonville, Texas, at the age of seventy-five.
Eldon Lux incorporates his history of cattle and horse raising and his knowledge gained working in the livestock industry in his art. Lux’s education in livestock selection and anatomy inspire him to create “images that accurately document the life and tradition of the ranching way of life.” In addition to his commissioned work, he worked with Walt Disney Imagineering as a staff extension in the character façade in plaster department.
His art is displayed in private collections nationally and abroad. A charter member of the Cowboy Artists Association of Florida, Lux raises registered Quarter Horses with his wife. He is a member of the Silver Spurs Riding Club, the Florida Cracker Cattle Association, and the Osceola County Wagon Train and Trail Ride Association. Lux has had careers as a saddle maker, blacksmith, freelance artist, and operator of a custom leather business. At one time he owned a cattle ranch and registered livestock sales.
Born and raised on a ranch, Lux graduation from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in animal science. As a college student, he was president of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Rodeo Association and judged livestock for the Future Farmers of America 4-H. He has worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Disney California Adventure, and Tokyo DisneySea in Tokyo, Japan. He lives in Kenansville, Florida.
Freelance illustrator and painter Alison Davis Lyne creates beautiful and realistic images while living on her farm. With extensive experience illustrating children’s books, she enjoys the process of using pictures to add a new dimension to the story. Lyne illustrated the magazine cover for American Small Farm for two years and continues to work on spot illustrations and greeting cards. Guided by her love of history, she seeks opportunities to produce colorful and exciting versions of past events.
Lyne is the proud portrait artist for the Kentucky Commission on Women’s exhibit entitled Kentucky Women Remembered. Her fourteen portraits are permanently on display at the State Capitol. A member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, she frequently connects with other artists through her online blog.
Working alongside her sculptor husband, Lyne spends much of her time developing and refining her artistic skills. She lives with her husband and dozens of farm animals in rural Kentucky.
L. Lloyd MacDonald, raised in the Big Bend Country of West Texas, has always been fascinated by Texas history. A well-respected attorney and writer, he served two years of active duty in the United States Air Force, based in Austin, Texas. Upon release from service, he soon became a successful lawyer, working as partner in two firms before opening his own as sole practitioner.
He devoted much time to community service, serving as chairman of the advisory board of the Salvation Army, president of the Rotary Club, member of the Midland Masonic Lodge, and counselor for Boy Scouts of America.
After a long career of penning legal pleadings, appellate briefs, and case summaries, MacDonald decided to document what had captivated his attention all along—a history of Tejanos, or Texans of Hispanic or Latin-American descent, in the Texas Revolution.
MacDonald graduated with a BBA and LLB from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In his spare time, he writes poetry, an occupation nurtured in high school, and handcrafts leather. He lives in Midland, Texas with his wife.
Hailing from a small town in Michigan, Heather Macht’s family moved to Florida soon after she was born, seeking the warmer climate. When Macht was a child, her father would make up stories and draw cartoons to amuse her and her two brothers. She attributes her artistic creativity to these special times from her childhood. Macht’s imagination continued to develop, and she wrote her first book—about skate-boarding dinosaurs who wore sunglasses—in the third grade.
Following her creative instincts, Macht attended Florida State College at Jacksonville and earned her associate of arts degree in fine arts. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the North Eastern SCBWI Critique Group. In order to support her goals, Macht has held jobs in various industries, including information technology. In these fields she earned numerous awards for her hard work and skill. With support and encouragement from her husband, Macht left these jobs behind in pursuit of her true dream, being a writer.
This full-time mom spends her days writing and taking care of her son, Hunter, her inspiration for completing this book. Macht, her husband, and her son reside in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Hunter has a dinosaur-themed room.
Charles Maclean is a writer, lecturer, historian, and renowned whisky expert. In fact, the BBC World Service has called him, “Scotland's foremost whisky writer.” He conducts lectures and master classes about whisky and has written numerous books on the subject. He also regularly contributes to journals in Britain, the United States, Canada, and the Netherlands. Mr. Maclean is the fouding editor of Whisky Magazine and a novelist. His novels include The Watcher, The Silence, and Wolf Children. He contributed to Romantic Scotland in which he traces the roots of Romanticism and explains the movement's relationship to Scotland. His other regional historical works include: St. Kilda: Island on the Edge of the World, Scottish Country and Scottish Toasts and Graces.
Mr. Maclean has degrees in art history and law. He is a visiting lecturer to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, a member of various local Scottish organizations promoting Scottish culture and legacy, and an honorary fellow at several universities. He lives near Edinburgh with his wife and three sons.
Mr. Maclean's Clans and Tartans gives information on how to trace Scottish ancestry and where to locate helpful records. He profiles many Highland clans, complete with color illustrations of their respective tartans. Clan lands, slogans, and plant badges are also listed. The historical background of clans is also detailed; Buchanan, Campbell, Macdonald, Robertson, and Stewart are but a few of the Highland clans whose histories are profiled in Clans and Tartans.
Texas native Cheryl MacLennanis a consultant and an independent contractor who practices event and special-assignment photography. Although she also has experience in marketing and sales, photography has always been her main focus. From travel to portrait photography, MacLennans career of capturing the perfect image spans two decades. Her work has been featured in solo shows and group exhibits across the country.
In addition to serving as a docent at the Institute of Texan Cultures and volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, MacLennan has recorded more than twenty-five humanitarian missions for Starkey Hearing Foundation. She created photographic coffee-table books for the nonprofits fundraising efforts. MacLennan graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, with a double major in photojournalism and dance. She lives in Carrollton, Texas.
A lifelong writer of various genres, Carolyn Macy never tried to publish her work before Hawaiian Night Before Christmas. Since Clement C. Moore's ’Twas the Night Before Christmas is one of her favorite children's stories, she would read different versions of the classic tale to her classes, and particularly enjoyed the versions involving the Southern, and Southeastern, rich culture. Unsuccessful in her search of such a book celebrating the tropical island of Hawaii, she finally started to write and illustrate her own—a much more successful enterprise! Macy dedicates her book to the children who delight in tales about Christmas, but she thinks that the innocence of childhood is not necessary to be moved by the magic of Christmas.
Macy and her husband, John, always wanted to share with their children the passion for discovery. In order to give them a better understanding of people and cultures outside their home, they traveled each summer to a new place throughout the United States. Their goal was to visit all fifty states by the time the children graduated from school. The last state they visited was Hawaii, where Macy found the inspiration for her book.
Upon graduating as valedictorian from Tyron High School, Macy won the state scholastic contest in Oklahoma history. She earned a bachelor of science degree in commercial art and biology, with a minor in chemistry, from the University of Central Oklahoma. She continued her brilliant academic route with a secondary education certification in science, a K-12 certification in art, and a master of natural science degree, which lead her to receive a scholarship from the National Science Foundation. She taught science, art, and gifted children for thirty-five years in several Oklahoma public-school systems.
Macy never tires of discovering and learning, and since her retirement from teaching, her spare time is spent between her eclectic hobbies, including traveling, genealogy, cooking, cake decorating, sewing, and music. Macy and her husband divide their time between Hawaii and their native Oklahoma.
A Roman Catholic priest since 1977, Father Maestri, a devout student of the Bible, recognizes the lessons to be learned from many of the famous and infamous women who appear in Scripture. Maestri presents twenty-four portraits for the reader to ponder: courage and cowardice; grace and sin; hope and despair; failure and the power to
begin anew.
A prolific writer, he is a regular columnist for the Clarion Herald, the Catholic newspaper for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He also authors the column, “Scripture Comes Alive,” which is syndicated in more than 2,000 newspapers nationwide.
Father Maestri is also the author of more than twenty books and ten audio-and video- cassettes. Additionally, he contributes articles to numerous publications including Pastoral Life, San Francisco Theological Review, the Family, Child & Family, the Priest, and New Catholic World.
Currently, he is professor of philosophy and director of spiritual formation at Saint Joseph Seminary College in Covington, Louisiana, where he is also the director of athletics and physical fitness Additionally, he coaches girls' basketball, softball, and tennis at Dominican High School in New Orleans.
The American musical and the “poets of Tin Pan Alley” also captivate Father Maestri. He directs, produces, and hosts an annual musical program at St. Joseph Seminary College.
Born in 1946 in New Orleans but raised in Hawaii and California, John T. Magill has worked at The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) since 1982, when he was first hired as a picture cataloguer. He currently serves as a THNOC curator.
Over the past decade, he has been responsible for numerous THNOC exhibitions, including Pelican’s Eye: Views of New Orleans (a history of the city through bird's eye views); From Bank to Shore (neighborhood growth in New Orleans); This Vast Land (the early French period in New Orleans); The Long Weekend (the arts and the French Quarter in the 1920s); and A Mystical Bal Masque (a history of the artistic design of the Mystic Club Carnival ball).
Mr. Magill has also written extensively for The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly, New Orleans Magazine, Louisiana Cultural Vistas magazine, and Gambit Weekly. He has contributed to several books published by or associated with THNOC, most recently Charting Louisiana: Five Hundred Years of Maps (2003), which received several awards, including Book of the Year from the Louisiana Library Association, Louisiana Endowment for the Arts, and the Gulf Coast Historical Association.
A graduate of the University of New Orleans, where he earned both his bachelor and master of arts degrees in history, Mr. Magill lectures regularly about various aspects of New Orleans life and history, including urban growth, neighborhood histories, Mardi Gras, and more. He lives in New Orleans.
Maidment devoted his career to developing his understanding of humanity and communication. A professor of educational management at the College of William & Mary for nearly twenty-five years, Maidment has written several eminent books for Pelican, including Tuning In: A Guide to Effective Listening, Straight Talk: A Guide to Saying More with Less, and Write It Right: A Guide to Better Messages. Robert’s Rules of Disorder, perhaps his most notable work, took twenty years of thorough observation and research before being written in only a few brief weeks. Each of these thoughtful guides details specific ways to overcome communication barriers for a more efficient lifestyle and how interaction between individuals is key to a stable and positive environment.
Throughout his career, Maidment has received praise for his work in communications studies from notable sources such as the American School Board Journal. He currently resides in Boca Raton, Florida, where he spends his time gardening and enjoying retirement.
The late Paul and Lee Malone collaborated on several books on the Louisiana area. Mr. Malone (d.1993) was a critically acclaimed portrait photographer, often considered to be a master in his field. To each of the books, he contributed photographs, and Mrs. Malone (d.2007) provided historical information. Together, they created eight masterful books depicting the true beauty behind many of Louisiana’s historic sites. Paul Malone Photography Studio in New Orleans was owned and managed by the Malones.
The late Paul and Lee Malone collaborated on several books on the Louisiana area. Mr. Malone (d.1993) was a critically acclaimed portrait photographer, often considered to be a master in his field. To each of the books, he contributed photographs, and Mrs. Malone (d.2007) provided historical information. Together, they created eight masterful books depicting the true beauty behind many of Louisiana’s historic sites. Paul Malone Photography Studio in New Orleans was owned and managed by the Malones.
From pre-school to high school, in public, private, and charter schools, Gina Marie Mammano teaches students the delight of language. She enjoys holding creative workshops, which help children and adults create their own stories to share.
Mammano is a teacher, storyteller, and poet. She earned a residency with Oregon State University’s Trillium Project in 2014 and 2015. She was also awarded a Summer Institute grant from the Collegeville Institute at St. John’s College in 2001. In 2016, she won first place taking home the Poetry Matters Literary Prize. Her work, which includes both poetry and prose, is published frequently.
Mammano lives on Washington’s Whidbey Island.
Anthony V. Margavio is a scholar in residence in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Southeastern Louisiana University. He is the author of dozens of scholarly and creative publications, and his articles have appeared in a wide variety of journals including Sociological Perspectives, Italian Americana, and Southeast Louisiana Historical Association Papers.
Margavio worked as an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Orleans for more than two decades, where he also served as an advisor in the General Studies Program. He has studied and written about race, ethnicity, and cultural identity particularly in Louisiana since the 1970s, and at the request of the Italian American Federation, he constructed and analyzed a survey of a national sample of Italian Americans in 1988.
After earning a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of New Orleans (formerly Louisiana State University in New Orleans), Margavio went on to earn a PhD in sociology from Louisiana State University. Before joining the faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University, he served as an associate professor in the sociology departments of Louisiana's Loyola University in New Orleans and Nicholls State University in Thibodaux. The father of eight grown children, Margavio lives in Covington, Louisiana.
Illustrator and designer Julia Marshall was raised on a horse farm in western Kentucky. She attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in illustration. Marshall has illustrated three other children’s books and interior spreads for nola baby & family magazine and Charleston Magazine. She has created posters and programs for local events and productions and has designed textiles for children’s clothing sold at Orient Expressed.
When she is not drawing or illustrating stories, Marshall enjoys sewing costumes, gardening, cooking, and playing piano accompaniment for a children’s musical-theater program. She lives with her husband, Dylan, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“If there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it just may be the personal property of local public-house owners Molly and McGuire.”
—Southern Host of Pensacola
“The best pub in the South, maybe the nation."
—Robert Tolf, Florida Trend
McGuire and Molly Martin opened McGuire’s Irish Pub in Pensacola, Florida, in 1977. Since then, the pub has moved locations, increased in size, and gained an international following thanks to the dedication and hard work of its owners. The Martins opened a second location in Destin, Florida, in 1996.
At first, the Martins did not even have a phone in their home because they only left the pub to sleep. The rest of those long, early days consisted of many hours of hard work and the wearing of many hats. When McGuire wasn’t in the kitchen, he was keeping the books. Molly kept busy doing a little bit of everything, including something she had never done before: waitressing.
When Molly earned her first dollar tip, she began a McGuire’s tradition that has evolved into the stuff of legend. She signed that dollar and hung it on the wall. Today, McGuire’s counts more than one million dollar bills, all signed and donated by patrons, on its walls and ceilings! The prosperity of McGuire’s Irish Pub has been simply phenomenal. Its cuisine, microbrewery, and wine cellar have all earned awards. This success is not surprising, however, after taking a closer look at the couple who started it all.
Both Molly and McGuire have Irish blood running through their veins. As if that’s not enough, McGuire’s grandmother ran an Irish saloon in Philadelphia, and his father owned a steakhouse in south New Jersey. Obviously, he learned more than a wee bit from his relatives. Molly, on the other hand, has always had an outgoing, social nature, and she exudes a typical Irish warmth. Her lovely singing voice has also provided live entertainment at McGuire’s on many a night, with emotional renditions of classics including “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.”
McGuire's Irish Pub Cookbook is yet another dream come true for this Celtic couple blessed with the luck of the Irish.
New Orleans native Elsie B. Martinez is an author and journalist who has written for such publications as Tulanes Hullabaloo, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and the New Orleans States-Item. An experienced presenter, she has conducted writing workshops for several organizations, including the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators.
Martinez has volunteered at the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Tulane University Womens Association, and the Milne Home School for Girls. A member of the Catholic Book Store board of directors, she is also involved with the Louisiana Engineering Society Auxiliary and the Tulane Catholic Center.
Martinez graduated from Tulanes Newcomb College, where she earned a BA in sociology. She was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Sigma Sigma. She is a lifelong resident of New Orleans, Louisiana.
Janeen Mason is active in arts and culture in her community and around the state. She is a member of the Florida Arts Council, the Children's Book Council, and PictureBookArtists.org. She chairs the Public Art Advisory Board and is the illustrator coordinator for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Florida Region. She has been a curator for many national art exhibits at the Arts Council's Courthouse Cultural Center, and she has served for many years on the Exhibits Committee there. Ms. Mason writes and illustrates from her home studio near the ocean that she loves in Stuart, Florida.
—Bronson Van Wyck, event consultant and designer,
Van Wyck & Van Wyck, New York, New York
Susan Mason has built a legendary business catering in Savannah, Georgia, and many points beyond. Known for her creative and imaginative meals, she has catered parties for Southern aristocracy in the most exclusive private homes and social clubs, on airplanes, in cemeteries, on movie sets, and in secret hideaways for the rich and famous. Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, once said that the most romantic gift her husband ever gave her was a private birthday dinner arranged by Mason on a yacht off the Georgia coast. Other clients include Bill Cosby, Wynton Marsalis, and Clint Eastwood.
Susan Mason's Silver Service includes entertaining stories and hilarious tales about her life as a caterer, more than eighty recipes, fully illustrated, useful, and imaginative tips for creating stunning dishes and table settings, and quotes from celebrity clients.
Ms. Mason, who grew up in Dothan, Alabama, credits her success to three things: top-quality ingredients, abundant spreads, and elegant presentation. Her cooking has been highlighted in two previous cookbooks and featured in numerous magazines, including Elle Décor, Veranda, Southern Accents, Savannah Magazine, GQ, Panache, and Saveur.
In addition to serving as the second executive director of the Preservation Resource Center, she held the position of executive director of the Gallier House Museum for more than fifteen years. Masson has also worked as a consultant for such organizations as the Historic New Orleans Collection, the University of Pennsylvania, Destrehan Plantation, Neal Auction Company, and Save Our Cemeteries. She was an organizer of a cultural tourism symposium with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Masson was a board officer of the Friends of the Cabildo, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation, and Save Our Cemeteries, and she has served as president of the Vieux Carr Property Owners, Residents, and Associates and French Quarter Festivals, Inc. She is a member of the City Planning Commissions Master Plan Committee, the Accessions Committee of the Louisiana State Museum, and the Orleans Parish Landmarks Commission. Masson graduated from Newcomb College, where she majored in anthropology, and holds an MA in art history from Tulane University. She also attended Attingham Park Summer School, a noted study course in the architecture and arts of English country houses, and Loyola Universitys Institute of Politics. Masson lives in a restored 1805 Creole cottage in the Vieux Carr.
An avid history buff and devoted writer, S. Carlisle May is fascinated by the sites and history of World War II. Through the National WWII Museum’s travel program, May followed the United States victors’ path from England to Normandy and into Germany. Separate from that trip, May visited Malta and Sicily, Italy, following in the footsteps of the Allies. May is a member of the Main Street Writers group and the Georgia Baptist Convention’s disaster relief program.
May, an active member of the Auburn Alumni Association, graduated with a bachelor of science in political science and minors in history and literature. She worked at the East Alabama Medical Center in medical records; assisted the Bartow County School system as a high school substitute teacher; wrote articles for USAA Magazine, Auburn magazine, Transplant Chronicles, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Daily Tribune News; and wrote two other books.
Since her son Nick received a heart transplant at twenty-three months old, May has been a dedicated advocate of organ donation and transplantation, speaking to civic, church, and school groups and on radio and television. May is a founding member of the Congenital Heart Public Health Consortium and a member of Lifelink’s Georgia Speaker’s Bureau, along with several other transplant-related groups. For her book about her experiences with her son, Nick’s New Heart: The True Story of Love, Strength, and Courage, she was nominated for the 2008 Georgia Book of the Year award.
A frequent traveler, May has visited forty-nine of the fifty states and took her four teenagers backpacking through Europe in 2001, traveling through several countries, including Wales and Germany. In her spare time, May enjoys spending time with her family, reading, watching James Bond movies, working with her church, and skiing. She and her husband, Andy, live in Cartersville, Georgia, and they have four grown children: Drew, Mary Beth, Zach, and Nick.
Jim McCafferty was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1954, and grew up in Methodist parsonages throughout the northern part of the Magnolia State. In all, he has called eleven Mississippi towns home at one time or another. He currently lives in Ridgeland with his wife, Malinda, and children, Bess and Jack.
Besides his award-winning work as an outdoors and travel writer and photographer, Mr. McCafferty is a lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi. A former full-time, free-lance writer, in 1989 McCafferty was awarded first place in the Southeast Outdoor Press Association's Excellence in Craft Competition, Weekly Newspaper Column Division and second place in the Outdoor Press Association of America Writing Contest, Environment and Conservation Category, Magazine Division. His pieces have appeared in such magazines as Outdoor Life and Field & Stream.
An avid hunter and fisherman, McCafferty, when not in his office, can frequently be found among the South's woods and streams. his first book, Holt and the Teddy Bear, as first published in 1991 and has been followed up in 1993 with Holt and the Cowboys.
“Kerri’s work is lush with natural light that makes the images sensual and rich, and transforms the places she photographs into poems.”
“One of the great photojournalists of America.”
By the age of fifteen, Kerri McCaffety had already worked for a small-town newspaper and won numerous awards for her poetry. At Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, she majored in both photography and creative writing. She then moved to New Orleans to attend Tulane University’s Newcomb College. There she earned a degree in anthropology with a concentration in ethnographic documentary, going on to photograph people and their environs in Europe, Central Africa, and Haiti.
Her first publication, Obituary Cocktail: The Great Saloons of New Orleans¸ was named Book of the Year by the New Orleans Gulf South Booksellers Association. The same group named McCaffety Author for the Year for 1998. She went on to receive the 1999 Gold Lowell Thomas Award from the Society of American Travel Writers and was named one of New Orleans Magazine’s People to Watch that same year. Her works have earned her Gold and Silver Benjamin Franklin Awards, an Alpha award, and two Silver Independent Publisher Book Awards, among other accolades.
McCaffety’s writing and photojournalism have appeared in such publications as Oxford American, Town and Country, Historic Traveler, Colonial Homes, Southern Accents, Travel + Leisure, Metropolitan Home, and Louisiana Cultural Vistas. In 2007 and 2008, McCaffety served as features editor for Louisiana Homes and Gardens Magazine. She continues her award-winning work documenting the architectural and cultural history of her adoptive city of New Orleans.
Born the son of a police officer in Tallahassee, Florida, Jon McCarthy began his public service as an active-duty member of the United States Coast Guard. After leaving the military, he entered the world of emergency medical services and has worked for twenty years as a paramedic. McCarthy was one of sixteen medics chosen to be on the TLC program Paramedics. He became one of the cocreators of the New Orleans EMS Field Training Officer (FTO) program and served as the lead FTO for five years.
As an ardent comic book fan, McCarthy cocreated and wrote the first issue of the comic book Hungry for Stink. McCarthy is also the author of the children’s book Goodbye Bad Dreams. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, Suzanne, his two sons, Logan and Gryphon, and a multitude of dogs and cats.
Busy single mom Tiffany McCauley has motivated thousands by creating clean eating recipes that use healthy, unprocessed ingredients. Her journey in clean eating began after a decline in her own health following the birth of her son. McCauley realized that clean eating isn’t complicated: for most of human history, food wasn’t packed with additives or preservatives. It was a simple, fundamental life change that let McCauley reclaim her health and energy.
An avid blogger, McCauley turned to the familiar medium to chronicle her progress and share her own recipes. Since its inception in 2009, The Gracious Pantry blog has inspired tens of thousands of readers to make healthy eating decisions in their own lives without sacrificing flavor. McCauley has since turned The Gracious Pantry into a full-time career and is the author of several popular cookbooks.
McCauley graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising with a degree in fashion design. A former massage therapist, she began cooking with her grandmother as a child and refined her skills as an au pair in Germany. When she’s not in the kitchen, McCauley enjoys playing the piano and riding her bike. She lives with her son in Sebastopol, California.
Alexander McConduit is a writer, entrepreneur, and native of New Orleans, Louisiana. McConduit is very active in his community and was named one of Gambit’s 40 Under 40 in 2012. He has a reputation for writing children’s books and reading to students at schools, libraries, and festivals across the state. McConduit especially enjoys helping people realize their potential and motivating them to follow their dreams.
In 2012, McConduit founded Big Boot Books and self-published his first book. The same year, he was recognized for founding a youth publishing program called W.R.I.T.E.—Write, Read, and Illustrate to Educate—through which he helps students write, illustrate, and publish their own books using print-on-demand technologies.
In 2013, McConduit was selected as an honorary board member of First Book—Greater New Orleans, an organization that provides new books to children in need. His latest project is a reward-based crowdfunding platform called FundDat, designed for projects created in or about New Orleans. McConduit has been featured in various media outlets, including MSN.com, WDSU, WWL, WGNO, NOLA38, Gambit, New Orleans CityBusiness, and the Thibodaux (LA) Daily Comet.
McConduit is a graduate of St. Augustine High School and Loyola University New Orleans. The nephew of Pelican author Denise Walter McConduit, he lives in New Orleans.
A New Orleans native, Denise McConduit was born to a very large family. The fourth of thirteen children, she regularly entertained her younger siblings with stories. Early on, she learned that she loved reading and drawing, art and dancing, and—not surprisingly—writing.
McConduit began writing poetry as a child. Her first magazine article was published in 1982, when she wrote “Youth Job Opportunities” for Black New Orleans magazine. She has since had articles published in Essence magazine and poems published in the New Orleans Tribune magazine. Two of her poems are on display in the New Orleans Riverwalk's Book of Legends. McConduit still keeps active in the poetry world and serves as secretary for the board of directors of the New Orleans Poetry Forum. She writes a weekly column for the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the recovery of her neighborhood after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
McConduit graduated from the University of New Orleans with a degree in English. She has four children: Crishelle, Monique, Erika, and D.J. It was her youngest child's real-life experience with the Zulu parade that gave her the idea to write her first book, D.J. and the Zulu Parade.
Preserving cultural traditions through family stories is important to McConduit. She learned those values as a child, and it is what she wishes to pass on in her writing. New Orleans is well known for having a rich supply of customs and traditions, and McConduit captures the city's flavor and puts it in context for children. She feels that culturally rich children's books are essential, as it is important that kids see themselves in literature. McConduit advises aspiring young authors to capture and preserve the funny or unique characters in their families by writing about them. She is a frequent speaker and is involved in community efforts to preserve and celebrate the region's rich heritage.
Brian Wanamaker McCréight, also known as the Lowcountry Liar, is a musician, playwright, licensed tour guide, storyteller, and author of several collections of folktales. From the amphitheater of Pompeii to Broadway to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, McCréight’s unique storytelling abilities have graced stages around the world. During his renowned tours back home in South Carolina, he takes intrepid tourists to cemeteries, haunted sites, and a slew of historical locations, all while keeping everyone on the edge of their seats with his recounting of famous and little-known history and shocking local lore.
McCréight performs throughout South Carolina at schools, theaters, cultural events, festivals, churches, and corporate locations. He conducts workshops and school residencies on storytelling and puppetry throughout the state and has been showcased on radio, television, and even film. He has been called “positively Carolina” by WCBD-TV Charleston, and the South Carolina State Museum has said that his “storytelling is magical.”
Listed on the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Roster of Approved Artists, he was the storyteller-in-residence for the Charleston County Public Library from 1994 to 2005. Jack tales, tall tales, noodleheads, and ghost stories are among the yarns he spins (often accompanied by his percussion instruments and sound effects) as a featured performer at Charleston’s annual Piccolo Spoleto Festival and the MOJA Arts Festival, among many others. He has also been both a producer and performer with the acclaimed Storytelling Troupe of Charleston and the Backporch Storytellers.
McCréight calls Charleston, South Carolina, home and can be seen around town in his signature black top hat and green vest combo with a rapt audience gathered around him.
Since 1991, Tom McDermott has performed for more than fifty thousand children and adults each year, singing motivational songs and weaving hilarious and heartfelt stories that inspire creativity and critical thinking in all who listen. Hoping to spread his passion for tales and tunes onto the next generation, he created Keep the Beat, a performance-based program that teaches children rhythmic skills using everyday items.
Earning his MDiv from Brite Divinity School and his BA from the University of Texas at Austin, McDermott first delivered his stories from the pulpit as a Methodist minister. His love of storytelling grew, and he decided to pursue a life as a modern minstrel, incorporating a guitar, ukulele, hurdy gurdy, theremin, bodhran, lyre, flute, and drums into his word-based performances. McDermott travels across the country, performing at festivals, schools, and corporate events, where he often leads drum circles and workshops to encourage team building.
For his masterful performances, McDermott was awarded first place in the National Irish Storytelling Contest and the John Henry Faulk Award for excellence and contributions in storytelling. He is the former president of the Tejas Storytelling Association and is a member of the National Storytelling Network. McDermott has been published in Storytelling Magazine and has released two CDs of his songs and stories. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
In his free time, McDermott enjoys cycling and co-leads the 11:11 Celebration at his church. He lives with his wife and sons in Fort Worth, Texas.
Elvin McDonald's love of gardening began at age three, and by age fourteen, he was a published author and founder of The Gesneriad Society, formerly known as the American Gloxinia and Gesneriad Society. A resident of West De Moines, Iowa, McDonald fell in love with Savannah's gardens while on assignment for Traditional Home magazine.
His passion for gardening has translated into a career. In addition to publishing numerous gardening books, including Better Homes and Gardens: Successful Rose Gardening and Old-Fashioned Roses, McDonald has also worked as senior editor for Traditional Home and as gardens and outdoor living deputy editor for Better Homes and Gardens magazine. He was also the primary consultant for the Emmy-winning television series Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn.
Small Gardens of Savannah and Thereabouts features full-color photographs from over thirty gardens. Readers are led on a personal tour of each garden and given tips and techniques on how they can improve their own gardens. Also included are a planting schedule and recommendations on specific plant varieties for Southern gardens.
Elvin McDonald received the Chicago Horticultural Society's Hutchinson Medal for lifetime achievement and was accepted into the Garden Writers Association Hall of Fame after nomination by his peers. In addition to designing public and private gardens, McDonald also tours as a lecturer and is a Smithsonian Study Tour leader.
Ronnie McDowell is a musician of international renown. A fixture of country music since his 1977 breakthrough hit “The King Is Gone,” McDowell may be best known for his songs “Older Women” and “You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation,” which each reached #1 on national country charts. He has recorded more than twenty studio albums in his career, and continues to tour to with his band the Rhythm Kings.
McDowell has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Grand Ole Opry and Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Having been heavily influenced and inspired by Elvis from the start of his career, McDowell sang thirty-six songs on the soundtrack of Elvis, a Dick Clark-produced television movie. His voice can also be heard on numerous other Elvis-centered television tributes, such as Elvis Meets Nixon, Elvis and the Beauty Queen, and Elvis and Me.
When not touring or making new music, Ronnie enjoys painting—he has a large collection of Elvis paintings. He lives in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Author and essayist Warren L. McFerran began his career working as a feature writer and contributing editor for the New American, a journal committed to topics of social, political, and economic interests. He has published numerous articles on historical events, politics, and current affairs and served as the national director of Tax Reform Immediately (TRIM). Dedicated to the American dream of prosperity, McFerran writes to generate increased awareness and appreciation for the Constitution of the United States.
In addition to working as a journalist, McFerran is a senior software engineer for an Orlando-based firm. The author of three books, he attended Tulane University, where he was designated a Tulane Scholar. He graduated summa cum laude from Orlando College with a BS in computer science. Raised mostly in Meridian, Mississippi, McFerran was born in Peru, Indiana. He resides in Sanford, Florida with his wife, Susan.
Alan McGillivray is a retired artist and architect who holds degrees from Tulane School of Architecture and Maryland Institute College of Art. He has worked with his wife for over twenty years integrating the arts with public health. The death of his wife’s father and grandmother from the devastating disease inspired his involvement in public health and Alzheimer’s advocacy.
McGillivray has received various awards and grants for public health campaigns, which incorporate the arts with public health and social justice. He believes in the healing power of humor and the need to remove the stigma associated with diseases, such as HIV and Alzheimer’s.
He lives in New Orleans with his wife Kathleen Welch.
Bernie McGovern is passionate about the state of Florida and one can witness this through the Florida Almanac: 2007-2008, the latest edition in the annual series that has been published since 1975.
Bernie McGovern was born in Brooklyn, New York, but is a resident of Florida. He began his writing career at age sixteen, when he sold his first piece to what he calls “a little 5,000-watt magazine in Fresno.” That was all it took to convince Mr. McGovern that his life was destined for radio, television, and print media. After shedding his Brooklyn accent and being coached to speak Standard English, McGovern spent sixteen years on Championship Wrestling from Florida and has written and produced several network and syndicated specials.
In addition to his eighth edition of Florida Almanac, McGovern has edited the Louisiana Almanac, also published by Pelican. He is currently employed in specialty public relations and contributes to the popular Web page Fencing.net.
With more than twenty years of experience as an illustrator, Liz McGrath has designed images for magazines, newspapers, annual reports, stock art, and greeting cards. Her freehand illustrations are vibrant with color and beautiful in their simplicity. She often uses markers for a base and colored pencil for detail and texture and does not rely on computer assistance for her illustration techniques. In addition to providing designs for numerous publications, she coauthored and illustrated a bilingual childrens book, which was published in 2004. She has been hooked on the childrens book market ever since.
Almost an entirely self-taught artist, McGrath earned an associate of art degree with a major in graphic design from Mount Ida College in Newton, Massachusetts. After earning her degree, she worked as an art director for a lifestyle magazine until she became a freelance illustrator. McGrath, in addition to creating childrens books, works part time at a local glass gallery. She enjoys spending time on the beaches of her home in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband and two daughters.
Lt. Col. Tom C. McKenney is a retired infantry officer and parachutist in the United States Marine Corps, having served in Korea and Vietnam. An advocate for American prisoners of war, McKenney has appeared on CBS radio, the 700 Club, Fox News, the Today Show, and CBS Morning News to discuss veterans' issues and his experiences overseas. McKenney's own war stories are featured in the book Spite House: The Last Secret of the War in Vietnam, by former 60 Minutes producer Monika Jensen-Stevenson, and the rights to his life story have been purchased by Columbia Pictures.
An experienced author, McKenney has contributed articles to Guideposts, American Legion Magazine, Military magazine, The Journal of Naval History, and Leatherneck magazine. He has published several books on a variety of topics including Christian living and investigating the Clinton administration. His new book, Jack Hinson's One-Man War, marks the culmination of fifteen years of research into a piece of American history that has been lost for more than a century.
Lieutenant Colonel McKenney earned a joint BS/AB degree from the University of Kentucky and went on to earn a MA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served as an instructor in biological sciences at Paducah Community College and the University of South Carolina. He lives on a farm near Marion, Kentucky with his wife, Marty.
“I tend to be drawn to intricate black and white pieces of art, whether they are photographs, pen and ink, or beautiful zentangle pieces. That complex style seemed to fit the Celtic world for this book, but I also find inspiration everywhere from fabric to music to architecture.”
—Mara McKnight
Designer and illustrator Mara McKnight received her bachelor of arts in communication from DeSales University in Pennsylvania. She went on to study fine art and graphic design at Kutztown University. Since graduation, McKnight has worked on a visual-design team for JCPenney Company. In addition, she works as a freelance artist, commissioned by the Institute for Laser and Aesthetic Medicine in Doylestown, Pennsylvania; the Tipp Hill Music Festival in Syracuse, New York; and other clients.
McKnight is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She and her husband, Seamus, a research and developmental chemist, live in Warrington, Pennsylvania.
Connie McLennan is a freelance artist with experience in advertising, set design, and publishing. She has received various gold awards from the Sacramento Advertising Club, and silver and bronze awards from the San Francisco Society of Illustrators. Along with creating on-air graphics for local television networks, her advertising clients include Bell Atlantic, J.C. Penney, and Kaiser Permanente.
Though advertising and television have brought McLennan great success, her art credits are not confined to the corporate world. McLennan is the illustrator of eight children's books, and her illustrations for The Cupboard and Blue-Butterfly Day appeared in Highlights for Children magazine. With her newest book, Scottish Alphabet, McLennan gets a chance to display her intricate style through the realistic portrayals of Scottish themes.
McLennan is a lifelong California resident. She attended the Academy of Art College University in San Francisco, and received her bachelor's degree in journalism from California State University. She is a member of the Picture Book Artists Association and the North West Air Force Artist Association. She donated her first painting to the U.S. Air Force Art Collection. McLennan is also a founding member of the Outreach Alliance for Special Education Services, a parent advocacy group for children with special needs.
Gwen McLin is writer with a finely tuned sense of history, literature, and music. When she co-authored her latest book with country music superstar Lee Greenwood, she was able to apply her talents to creating a work that tells the story of a contemporary hero. More than that, she reaches into the past four decades of American culture with poignant reverence.
Writing about musicians is not uncharted territory for McLin Her doctoral dissertation from the University of Florida is entitled “An Interpretive Analysis of the Poetry of Paul Simon.” It is her analytical approach to her study of Greenwood's music and how it reflects the changing sentiments of a country that make God Bless the U.S.A. a captivating read.
McLin is a resident of Florida and has taught history at the high school level as well as literature, composition, and journalism at the college level. A former chairman of the Florida Endowment for the Humanities, she was a lecturer for the Florida Teachers of English and moderator for the Florida Teachers of English. She is co-organizer and past president of the Leesburg Child Development Center for underpriviledged preschoolers.
She has always had a strong interest in political matters. In 1971, she embarked on a personal mission to track down information on American POWs and MIAs from the North Vietnamese government. More recently, McLin has successfully campaigned on behalf of Florida's governor Lawton Chiles and senator Bob Graham.
For more than a decade, Gwen McLin has been a personal friend of Lee Greenwood. Since first meeting him in 1981, she has seen the rise of his career from the vantage point of being a behind-the-scenes observer.
Margaret McManis is a children's author and seasoned librarian with more than thirty years' experience in school libraries in and around the Houston area. She is a frequent guest lecturer who has appeared at the Sam Houston State University Bluebonnet Book Festival, the Austin Book Festival, and in public schools, museums, libraries, and bookstores to talk about Texas history and introduce children to the legendary Texas philanthropist, Ima Hogg. She is the author of the first children's picture book about Ima Hogg, Ima and the Great Texas Ostrich Race, and she revisits this historical character in The Wild Texas Stampede!, her first title with Pelican. An active writer, she has contributed articles to Image Magazine, School Library Media Activities Monthly, and That! Texas Magazine.
McManis earned a bachelor's degree in library science from Sam Houston State University in 1970 and went on to earn a MFA in creative writing for children and young adults from Vermont College in Montpelier, Vermont. She is a member of the Writers' League of Texas, the Texas Historical Association, the Texas Library Association, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators in Houston.
A student advisor at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas, McManis also enjoys presenting Ima Hogg tea parties, spending time with her family and dog, and researching and writing about historical Texas characters. She lives in Conroe, Texas.
Keven McQueen teaches composition and world literature in the department of English and theatre at Eastern Kentucky University. He has written more than ten books in such genres as true crime and mystery, with a focus on Kentucky or Indiana history.
McQueen has spoken about historical crime and similar topics before the Kentucky Historical Society and has also made appearances at the annual Kentucky Book Fair and the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. In addition to serving as a tour guide at White Hall, the mansion of emancipationist Cassius Clay, McQueen was once an archivist at the Berea College library and a watchman at a funeral home.
After receiving his BA from Berea College, he earned an MA in English from Eastern Kentucky University and is listed in Who’s Who in America. A member of the Madison County Historical Society, he lives in Berea, Kentucky.
The concept of the lawyer cum novelist has received much more attention in recent years with the success of the likes of John Grisham. But add to those ranks another new face from the legal community, D. J. (Daniel John) Meador, author of two novels, Unforgotten and His Father's House.
Publishers Weekly praised His Father's House, saying, “Meador's suspenseful debut novel ingeniously melds adventure, Cold War politics, a love story, and a search for roots.” It has been optioned by SouthernWay Productions for motion picture adaptation.
Meador, the James Monroe Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School, has been selected director of a Senate commission to study the appellate court system. He will work with retired Supreme Court Justice Byron White on the project. Coincidentally, Unforgotten, Meador's new novel, revolves around John Winston, a Birmingham, Alabama, lawyer, whose life is changed forever when he is offered a seat on a federal court of appeals. But will it change for the better . . . or for the worse.
In his novels, Meador draws on his personal experiences and knowledge. Formerly, he was an assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice and dean of the School of Law at the University of Alabama.
A graduate of Harvard Law School (LL.M), he has written ten books specifically for scholarly legal subjects. The titles range from studies of the executive branch to bibliographies on supreme court justices to treatises on the East German legal system. His professional associations read like a top-ten list of legal organizations including the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute, the American Society of Legal History, and the Fulbright Association.
Daniel J. Meador has been recognized by his colleagues in both teaching and law for his outstanding work. Among honors he has received are the University of Virgina's Thomas Jefferson Award, the American Judicature Society's Justice Award, and the American College of Trial Lawyers' Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award.
Joe Meador is the president and CEO of Grand Entertainment Group, which includes an artist management company, six publishing companies, and a music and film production company. With more than three decades of experience in the entertainment industry, Meador's expertise covers a wide spectrum. Artist management and music publishing and production are only a few facets of his vast knowledge.
Meador has enjoyed an illustrious career in music. He has toured across the country with famous musicians such as Ricky Nelson and Frankie Valli, managed Ronnie McDowell and Hank Williams, and has written songs for George Strait and Jerry Lee Lewis. He is a member of the Country Music Association and the American Federation of Musicians.
When away from his busy career, he enjoys playing the guitar, banjo, and fiddle. He lives with his wife in Nashville, Tennessee.
A photographer, freelance writer, and speaker, Keith Weldon Medley focuses his research and pursuits on the great city of New Orleans and its African American communities. Medley is the two-time recipient of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ Publishing Initiative Grant. He is a native of New Orleans and holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and sociology from Southern University at New Orleans. He attended St. Augustine High School in the Treme neighborhood.
Medley speaks publicly at numerous historical, cultural, and commemorative gatherings. He was a guest lecturer at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art for an exhibit entitled New Orleans Free People of Color and their Legacy. He gave the closing remarks at the 52nd Anniversary Symposium that commemorated the Little Rock Nine students and was the lecturer for the 150th anniversary celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation in New Orleans.
Medley’s articles can be found in numerous publications, including the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Smithsonian, American Legacy, Historic Preservation, Southern Exposure Magazine, New Orleans Tribune, and others. He has appeared on several radio shows to discuss his articles and research, including NPR’s Weekend Edition and BBC’s How the World Got Mixed Up. His photographs have been featured in American Poetry Review and Welcome. Medley previously served as a tour guide, introducing visitors to the history, culture, and hidden gems of the city he calls home.
Medley lives, writes, and researches the city where he grew up and the city he loves: New Orleans. He is a proud member of several local organizations, including the local chapter of Friends of Amistad, Friends of New Orleans Cemeteries, Preservation Resource Center, and Friends of Bishop Perry Middle School.
Michael Mele has pursued his interests of teaching, theatre, and travel for many years. He graduated from Syracuse University, where he majored in mathematics, education, and psychology. He received his master of education from Harvard and taught mathematics for a number of years. His desire to perform motivated him to leave his teaching position to become a full-time dancer in New York City. He later spent much of his dancing career in Michigan and New Hampshire.
Eventually, his passion for travel took him to Italy, where he found his inspiration for A Gift for the Contessa. The book is based in part on people Mele met in Italy, while the places named in the book actually exist. Mele's theatrical flair comes through in this book as he describes the people and places he encountered. Children's Literature described the story as “a magical fairy tale set in Italy with a happy ending.”
Mele currently lives in New York City. He continues his association with Italy as the director of Il Chiostro di Toscana, an annual artists' retreat that is held in Italy. He also wrote Irish Lace, a chronicle of his Irish ancestors.
Lisa Merkle comes from a large family who fostered her love of reading. She is a graduate of Mount Carmel Academy in New Orleans and received a BS in exercise physiology from the University of New Orleans. After marrying her husband, Merkle moved to Texas, where she worked as a fitness specialist for a corporate wellness center. Through reading with her children, Merkle rediscovered her childhood ambition to write books and her love for children’s literature.
Wanting her children to enjoy the same cultural experiences she grew up with, Merkle and her family returned to New Orleans in 2009. She considers many of her cherished childhood memories to be unique to New Orleans, including “Breakfast with Santa” at Masion Blanche department store, streetcar birthday parties, trips to Café Du Monde, and eating Popeyes fried chicken with king cakes on Mardi Gras Day.
Participating in a preschool co-op gave Merkle the opportunity to connect with young children, and she frequently based her lesson plans and activities around the books she read to the class. Besides writing, she loves cooking, running, teaching, painting, reading, and traveling. She lives with her husband and three children in Slidell, Louisiana.
Ellen C. Merrill was an accomplished research-writer and former professor at Dillard University fascinated with the impact the German culture had upon the development of New Orleans. She worked for several years as the curator of education for the Historic New Orleans Collection. During this time she completed research related to the German heritage on the city and state with materials not available to the public.
She began her teaching career as a professor at Dillard University. There, along with teaching, she learned the art of grant writing. She received several grants from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, enabling her to complete her manuscript.
Germans of Louisiana is the first unified published study of the influence the German people made on the state of Louisiana and its inhabitants. Beginning with the French and Spanish colonial periods and working through the post-Civil War period, this book covers the heritage those German settlers left behind.
Merrill attended William and Mary College and Newcomb College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1957. She then spent three years in Europe at the University of Heidelberg, where she earned a diploma from the School of Translators and Interpreters. She returned to the States to obtain her Ph.D. in German language and literature from Tulane University. Her research and education, enabled her to write the first comprehensive study of the history of German culture in South Louisiana.
Merrill, whose passion for travel led her to every continent except Antarctica, passed away in July of 2017. She is survived by her husband of many years who still resides in New Orleans.
In the preface of Follow Another Star, a collection of Jim Metcalf's poems and commentaries compiled posthumously by his wife, Mary Ann, she writes that her husband "died believing what he lived and what he wrote."
Phil Johnson, assistant general manager of WWL-TV in New Orleans, where Metcalf worked, agrees. "Jim Metcalf was an uncommon man," Johnson said. "He saw things differently than most people. . . . He was infatuated with words. He loved the language. He used it well."
Metcalf, a native Texan who held degrees from North Texas State University, honed his broadcasting and writing skills at WAI-TV in San Antonio prior to moving to New Orleans, where he would reach the pinnacle of his professional and poetic life.
At the time of his death in 1977, Jim Metcalf was widely acclaimed as one of the brightest new stars in the poetry world. He was also the writer, producer, and host of the top-rated New Orleans television program, A Sunday Journal. His work earned him many accolades, including the distinguished Peabody Award for broadcasting. In 1998, Metcalf was posthumously inducted into the New Orleans Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
Please let me see it
all as one . . .
And let it embrace me
and take my breath
and close my eyes
and bid me
soft farewell.
—from "Soft Farewell,"
Please to Begin
Gary Metivier, the tenth in a family of twelve children, grew up in Oklahoma. A shy boy, Metivier found an outlet in drama class, where he quickly excelled. Drama fueled a passion for journalism, which inspired him to become a news anchor. With twenty years of experience under his belt, Metivier has reported on a variety of topics ranging from politics to economics to health news to crime. Metivier has received numerous honors and awards, including two Emmy nominations, seven first-place Iowa Associated Press awards, and four Illinois Associated Press awards.
Metivier graduated from the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s in liberal studies. He went on to earn his master’s in children’s writing at Hamline University in 2014. As an anchor for the NBC affiliate KWQC-TV6 in Davenport, Iowa, he acts as newsroom leader to help develop and produce stories. He also makes personal appearances at community events and serves as a host or moderator for special programming.
His coverage of the departures and homecomings of soldiers inspired Metivier to write books about how families were affected by this conflict. “My books are my way of giving back through the funds we raise, to the issues we highlight,” he says. “I love to be part of something that can inspire the next generation to use their talents to make a difference.” Metivier has earned the MoonBeam Award and a Mom’s Choice Award for his children’s stories.
Metivier resides in Iowa with his wife, two sons, and two dogs.
A freelance illustrator, David Miles has worked as a game designer and a page-layout designer. His design clients have included major companies such as Nickelodeon, Disney, Warner Brothers, and Scholastic.
Miles earned his bachelors degree in illustration from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he received many distinctions such as the Albert Gold Prize for drawing, the Society of Illustrators Matching Grant Award, and the Illustration Faculty Award, among others. He also holds an associates degree in fine arts from Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor.
A runner, biker, geocacher, and potter, Miles lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with his wife and their dress-wearing dachshund.
A native Texan, Erin Hicks Miller is a cook more than twenty years in the making and a self-proclaimed food junkie. From 1991 to 1998, she owned and operated Pepes Mexican Cafe, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas, that sparked her interest in the locavore movement. Her work at Pepes earned her a Top 40 Under 40 Award from the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce.
While food is her passion, Millers undertakings are diverse. She employs herself as an author and entrepreneur, with past experience as a realtor, interior designer, and some dabbling with gemology. She runs an advertising and production agency and breeds Thoroughbreds with her husband on their ranch in Encino, Texas. Among other community organizations, she belongs to the Greater Houston Restaurant Association. Miller and her husband divide their time between their ranch in Encino and their homes in Corpus Christi and Houston.
Loretta Miller was born and raised in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. She graduated from St. John's University with a bachelor's degree in English, and then went on to teach high-school English before turning to journalism as a career. While living in upstate New York, she served as reporter and editor for two weekly newspapers. Ms. Miller was then awarded a journalism fellowship in Asian studies at the University of Hawaii. Following her fellowship, she went to work for the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, and was soon promoted to food editor.
In 1997, at the urging of her husband, she retired and began traveling extensively in Mexico. When Miller settled in the Yucatan, she discovered a cuisine very different from mainland Mexican cooking and set out to learn as much as possible about it. She worked with an experienced cook of Mayan ancestry, who taught her technique, patience, and respect for fresh ingredients.
Through research and testing, Loretta Miller compiled a number of regional favorites and decided to share the collection with other English-speaking cooks who might enjoy a little culinary adventure from the land of the Mayas. A Yucatan Kitchen: Regional Recipes from Mexico's Mundo Maya contains a variety of recipes ranging from drinks to dessert, with every course in between. Since Mayan food is rich with history, Miller offers a short insight into the origins of the cuisine, which helps the reader understand the dish's roots and its importance in daily and ceremonial life. Neither the first or last word on Yucatan cooking, Ms. Miller aims to engage her reader in culinary experimentation and to provide insight into the rich culture of the Yucatan.
After leveraging his lifelong passion for doodling and writing into a successful career, Joe Milligan realized that the key to a happy life is to be yourself. His mission to engage in life-enriching activities was largely inspired by his father, a jack-of-all-trades hobbyist who explored passions for woodworking, piano, writing, and art, all while supporting his family. By doing what he loves most, Milligan has enjoyed a career in concept generation and product development.
Milligan received a bachelor of science degree in marketing and management from LaSalle University in Philadelphia and has worked as marketing director at Fleer Corp, Marvel Entertainment’s confectionary subsidiary. He is the executive vice president of Fun Sweets LLC, a leading manufacturer of packaged cotton candy. This opportunity has allowed him to work with clients such as Disney, which keeps him close to the world of storytelling.
Originally from Philadelphia, Milligan lives in Pembroke Pines, Florida, with his family.
A longtime lover of good music, Allison Miner came to New Orleans in 1967. This love was evident at a young age, when her school reports always seemed to be about singers, like Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Within two years of living in New Orleans, Miner helped to lay the foundation for Jazz Fest. Along with Quint Davis, she actively pursued musicians to perform at the first festival.
Through the years, Allison Miner helped to shape the careers of many musicians, including New Orleans' own Professor Longhair. After working at various festivals and special events throughout the country, she returned to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1988 as coordinator of the Music Heritage Stage, a position she had created only a few years before.
“In the early days, I knew that the festival was more than music,” she said. “It was a family of hardworking people who gave their lives for what they believed.” Allison Miner died in December 1995. As she had said about many of her favorite musicians who passed away, it was much too soon.
An award-winning artist and graphic designer, Andrea Mistretta has worked in the commercial art industry since 1979. Her clients have included ABC, NBC, and Forbes Magazine, and she is the recipient of the prestigious Alberto Vargas Award, among other awards from the Society of Illustrators and the Art Directors Club. While she specializes in poster design, her work has appeared on products ranging from T-shirts and jigsaw puzzles to wine bottles and stationery.
Devoted to promoting a positive image of New Orleans and Mardi Gras, Mistretta designed tribute postage stamps depicting local Jazz favorites such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and King Oliver. She donates a portion of her proceeds of the sales from her Mardi Gras poster series and book to the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity. Mayor Sidney Barthelemy conferred the title of “Honorary Citizen” on her.
A member of her community’s historical society and an avid environmentalist, Mistretta is the founder of the Italian American Social Club and the designer of the local Veteran’s Plaza where she resides in Waldwick, New Jersey, with her husband.
Veteran food columnist and cookbook author Marlyn Monette writes for The Times in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is a frequent guest on television cooking programs. She liberally laces her recipes with amusing family stories.
Wayne C. Moore is senior staff photographer in the college photography department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He strives to capture people, architecture, and objects in their “true light,” excelling at his documentary-style oeuvre. Moore has exhibited work in numerous local and national galleries, and his photos have been published in Time, Sotheby's, Women's Wear Daily, ARTnews, Southern Living, Metropolis, Georgia Trend, the South magazine, Savannah Magazine, and Better Homes and Gardens. Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, Moore has been a resident of Savannah since the 1980s.
“One realizes soon enough that the authors know exactly what they are doing: telling the truth about the archeology and the traditions of Louisiana Indians.”
—Walker Percy on Louisiana Indian TalesElizabeth Moore knows the traditions and culture of Louisiana because that is where she was raised. Moore grew up in Louisiana, experiencing first-hand the traditions detailed in her children's books. Although she has participated in the Mardi Gras tradition since she was little, as the mother of six children, she still had the opportunity to experience the excitement of a first Mardi Gras through their eyes. This, in part, inspired the creation of Mimi's First Mardi Gras. The story details a young girl's first New Orleans Mardi Gras, complete with costumes, hot beignets, and king cake. Moore's own experiences prompted her to write about Mimi's premier Carnival thrill.
Along with Mimi's First Mardi Gras, Moore has coauthored three books with Alice Couvillon, including Mimi and Jean-Paul's Cajun Mardi Gras, Louisiana Indian Tales, and Evangeline for Children. Moore brings her strong cultural ties to her work, revealing the rich history and events that have shaped her own life.
Keeping close to her native ties, Moore attended school in her home state. She graduated from Newcomb College in New Orleans and now serves as a writer for a New Orleans newspaper. She currently resides in Covington, Louisiana.
Lynda Moreau is a professional estate liquidator, antiques dealer, and unabashed lover of all things Southern. She is an experienced genealogist and a member of many lineage and civic organizations, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy®. Moreau serves as general chairman of ways and means for the UDC.
Moreau is also the editor of Sweetly Southern: Delicious Desserts from the Sons of Confederate Veterans and The Confederate Cookbook: Family Favorites from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, both published by Pelican. Her husband is an active member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Moreau lives in Metairie, Louisiana, with her husband, two children, and two Boston terriers.
A teacher for more than twenty years, Connie Collins Morgan loves sharing stories with children. She grew up with a Cajun family in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, and the nearby bayous were a rich environment for her imaginative mind. Her childhood adventures often featured epic battles with fire-breathing alligators on the banks of rivers. Her Cajun upbringing has always been a chief inspiration for her stories. As she grew older, Morgan fell in love with writing, reading, and storytelling, leading her to pursue a career in education. She received a BA in elementary education from the University of Southwestern Louisiana and MFA in children’s literature from Hollins University. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Authors Guild. Morgan shares her love for the classroom with others. She teaches third graders in Middletown, Maryland, a state in which she has taught for more than a decade. Morgan also has worked in schools in Louisiana and Pennsylvania. From story time to the Kindergarten Café, she fills every day with excitement and energy for her students. She makes it her mission to instill in her pupils pride for their own cultural heritage and a love for reading. Though her family and career have uprooted her from Louisiana, she is still a Cajun at heart. Morgan and her husband live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia near their four grown children. She enjoys traveling to nearby Virginia, Washington, DC, and New York.
Rev. W. Meredith Morris (1867-1921) was well known for his studies of the music, dialect, and folklore of his native Wales.
Music scholar Benjamin Hebbert (St. Cross College, University of Oxford) trained as an instrument maker in London before studying as a musicologist at Leeds University, at the University of Oxford, and as a Coleman Fellow in Art History at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His particular areas of expertise are early British and Italian stringed instruments, and he is an increasingly respected authority in both Europe and the United States. His doctoral studies are directed towards an analysis of instrument making in seventeenth-century London. He has worked within the violin industry and lectures on historical aspects of instrument making to violin makers at London Metropolitan University, where he is also an honorary research fellow.
It could be said that Kitty Morse is a culinary version of the famed Indiana Jones movie character. Through books, television shows, newspaper articles, and guided tours, she has taken hundreds of people on adventures into the cuisine and culture of regions around the world. On these epicurean expeditions, she shows them the traditional gourmet sites while at the same time revealing the secrets of the time-tested, far from the mainstream, food traditions of the destination. Trading in the adventurer's tattered brown hat for an apron and the whip for a whisk, she's off to a new land of flavorful cooking with her latest book The California Farm Cookbook.
Morse's food odysseys began when she moved from her native home of Casabalanca, Morocco, to complete work on her master's degree at the University of Wisconsin. She began catering Moroccan parties, delving into a repertoire of family recipes used in diffas (Moroccan tribal feasts). For the past fifteen years she has continued this tradition with teaching, catering, and touring through her company, La Caravane, which hosts annual “adventures in food and travel” to Morocco. Her reputation as a teacher and culinary specialist has prompted requests for her to speak on Middle Eastern and North African cooking for a number of groups with appearances at the Smithsonian Institute, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the American Institute of Wine and Food.
Moving to Southern California in 1973, she began hosting and directing her own television cooking show, “Food, Etc.” Her new series, “Fresh From the Farm,” is presently airing on cable networks in San Diego County, California. It was there she took an interest in the unique harvests of the state and realized as much as the other exotic destinations she has toured, California offered a bounty of garden and ranch delights. “The American public is already well acquainted with the better-known agricultural products,” says Morse, “but a host of others still deserve to be brought to the attention of a broader range of consumers.” The California Farm Cookbook is the result of her desire to lead readers on a West Coast adventure into some familiar and unfamiliar grounds when it comes to the state's produce. It includes the recipes of the growers, ranchers, and producers themselves for a firsthand look at how these Golden State favorites should best be prepared.
The California Farm Cookbook is not Morse's only documented adventure. She is also the author of a cook's tour of Morocco, a free-lance travel and food writer for The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and writer of a regular column for Women's Times in San Diego. Her magazine articles have appeared worldwide in publications from Singapore's The Peak to Australian Gourmet Traveler to Traditional Homes Magazine to Le Journal Français d'Amerique to California Grower Magazine. She holds memberships with several notable culinary and writing associations, including the Newspaper Food Editors and Writers Association, the International Association of Culinary Professionals, and the Southern California Culinary Guild.
Everyone knows what happens the night before Christmas, but what about the night after? Jenny Jackson Moss, along with coauthor Amy Dixon, sets the record straight in Cajun Night After Christmas, illustrated by James Rice. Born in New Orleans and raised in Monroe, Louisiana, Moss attended Newcomb College of Tulane University in New Orleans, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
After finishing at Newcomb, Moss worked for two years as a social worker for Louisiana State University in the medical school’s pediatric genetics department. She then returned to graduate school, earning her master’s degree in early childhood education with an extra degree in special education.
Soon, however, Moss decided that a career change was in order. After meeting her husband, a Tulane graduate and medical student, she married and had three children. While her husband, Charley, continued with his residency, she became increasingly interested in art. Her husband set up a urology practice in Lafayette, and the family moved to their new home, where they remained for eight years. During this time, Moss began entertaining the idea of writing and illustrating children’s books.
In addition to writing, Moss continues to pursue a career in painting, designing inspirational pottery under the name the “Mustard Seed.” She lives in Sumter, South Carolina, with her husband and three children, Meredith, Andrew, and Miller.
Robert Mueller served in the U.S. Coast Guard for thirty years, earning an exceptional performance award for extreme crisis management in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Stationed in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was a captain when Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast. Under his direction as commander, the Coast Guard boat operation rescued a total of twenty-five thousand people in the storm’s aftermath, the largest and most successful rescue operation in American history. Mueller’s other military assignments included rebuilding destroyed coastal rescue stations, safety management and senior executive duties, and operations in Eastern Europe, the Far East, Alaska, Africa, and the Caribbean.
Mueller is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and received a bachelor of science in management. He later attended the U.S. Defense Intelligence College and earned a master’s degree in international affairs from the U.S. Naval War College. Today, he continues to live in New Orleans, where he is an adjunct professor at Tulane University, teaching maritime homeland security and transportation security.
As is the case with many retired Americans, Rose Mula's guilty pleasures include television sitcoms and computerized Free Cell solitaire and Hearts; but please don't envision her rocking her days away with a dainty crocheted afghan neatly tucked around her lap. Never one to shy away from a creative challenge, Mula has kicked the next phase of her life into high gear with a successful career as a writer.
Rose Mula's formal corporate experiences include duties as a public relations specialist for Sonesta International Hotels and operations manager for Chateau De Ville Productions, a New England dinner-theater chain. Mula's keen style of personal observation flourished while she honed her communication skills, writing press releases, advertising copy, brochures, A/V scripts, newsletters, and a variety of other collateral materials. Marshaling her considerable talents and expertise in the field of communications, Mula operated her own freelance copywriting agency, The Write Connection, for ten years.
Writing is her greatest motivator. She looks forward to creating something new every day just for the sheer joy of creation. Blessed with a “glass is half full/lighten up” disposition, Mula has written If These Are Laugh Lines, I'm Having Way Too Much Fun, a collection of humorous essays about the inevitability of aging, the frustrations of dealing with voice mail menus, the generation gap, challenges of the computer age, and almost everything else that annoys or gratifies us, no matter how old or young we are.
A resident of Andover for the past ten years, Mula was born and raised in Waltham, Massachusetts, and is a graduate of Boston University. She has written business and trade articles and her work has appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Yankee, Modern Maturity, The Christian Science Monitor, Readers' Digest, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Miami Herald, and more than one hundred other magazines and newspapers. She also writes a monthly column for seniorwomen.com. A confirmed day person, Mula enjoys walking, reading, dining out, movies, and theatre with friends and family. A competitive game of Scrabble relaxes her.