Month: December 2024

Asha Nyr: I’m an accidental author of fantasy romance who writes to process unspeakable trauma from childhood sexual, verbal, and physical abuse. When I became disabled from medical conditions and lost my job, I focused on my DBT therapy and wrote a novel as an exposure therapy exercise. I had no intention of ever publishing, but I also didn’t want to go through the process alone. Confronting trauma is a painful and risky endeavor, so much that I had to put distance between it and myself with a medieval fantasy setting. I posted chapters online and readers came flooding in, including survivors who also said they found healing in the story. Shortly after, readers started asking for sequels and physical copies, and I realized that maybe this was how I could find meaning to my life again. Since then, in October 2021, I’ve written 11 fairly hefty novels, each one focusing on a different aspect of my trauma. I am gradually publishing them all in an attempt to restart my life and have many more books waiting for me to write them. [Brief bio comes from the website of Awesome Gang.]

Drawing upon a vast range of personal experience, travel, and distinct philosophical perspectives, Amory Patrick Blaine’s writing weaves a fascinating tale of raw discovery collected from the realms of espionage, foreign policy, mystery, and true crime. Questioning and weighing in on everything from how Western identity evolved to how AI and the IOT are changing our planet’s future economy and the cultural legacy we will pass on to the next generation of leaders. Raised in a U.S. Foreign Service family with a lifetime experience in international travel and graduate cultural study, Amory Patrick Blaine holds an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing. He attended Marine Corp OCS in Quantico, Virginia, in the 1990s, after which his military record was expunged without characterization. The complete story of American Renaissance comprises Book 1: Missions Dangerous (December 10, 2024), Book 2: An Identity Left on the Rue de la Clignancourt (2025), and Book 3: A Theocratic History of Lost Peoples & Romantics (2025), all set in Paris. American Renaissance Volumes 1, 2, and 3 were completed in several stages while the author lived in Europe and New York City.

Jen Marie Wiggins’s first book, the gifty nonfiction title Married AF: A Funny Guide for the Newlywed or Bride, was published with Sourcebooks in 2022. She has a background in advertising and public relations, and her writing has appeared in Southern Coastal Weddings, Savannah Magazine, Savannah Homes, and elsewhere. The Good Bride draws much of its inspiration from the devastation and rebuilding struggles of Mexico Beach, Florida, a place near and dear to Jen’s heart.

Lynn Santer is an internationally acclaimed film producer and best-selling author. 

Her debut novel, “Sins of Life” became the #1 selling title for its publisher and was optioned by Zygi Kamasa, involved in the “Kingsman” franchise, “Olympus has Fallen”, “The Expendables 2”. Since then, she has authored or ghosted over fifty titles. Her documentary films exposing the brutal truths behind the trophy hunting industry have received international acclaim and won at film festivals worldwide. 

Brooke Randel is a writer, editor and associate creative director in Chicago. Her memoir ALSO HERE is forthcoming from Tortoise Books. Her writing has been published in Hippocampus, Hypertext Magazine, Jewish Fiction, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is a prose editor for Chestnut Review. The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, she writes on issues of memory, trauma, family and history.

Mary E. McKnight is an avid observer of people, a teacher of young children, a co-owner of an herb garden (Split Stone Farm LLC), a painter, and a lover of cats. She lives for kindness, creativity, and her amazing daughter. Her writing is the creative expression that feeds her soul, and she enjoys writing in a variety of genres. If she wasn’t her, she would probably be the Lorax. She lives in Ellicott City, Maryland, with her partner and their tortie, Abbey Rhodes.