Category: Meet A New Member

Welcome New Member Nancy McCabe

9/29/2023

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Nancy McCabe to the group!

I was born and grew up in Wichita, but now live in northwestern Pennsylvania, where I direct the writing program at a campus of the U. of Pittsburgh and teach in the low-residency graduate writing program at Spalding University.

I've published seven books with two more forthcoming; my most recent creative nonfiction titles are Can This Marriage Be Saved? a memoir, and From Little Houses to Litlle Women: Revisiting a Literary Childhood. Both deal with my Kansas childhood and young adulthood.

This summer I published my debut YA novel, Vaulting through Time, and my middle grade novel Fires Burning Underground (also drawing on my Kansas childhood) is due out in 2025. My website is https://www.nancymccabe.net.

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We're glad to have Nancy with us! Also check out these short videos about her books!

Little Houses to Little Women
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbL-vzvnBbg

Vaulting Through Time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCk6fu1oqzc

Following Disasters
https://vimeo.com/196031555

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Welcome New Member Robert Stewart

9/27/2023

Today we have the honor of welcoming Robert Stewart of Prairie Village to the Kansas Authors Club!

Robert Stewart's 2023 book of poems, Higher, won the 2022 Prize Americana. Other books include The Narrow Gate: Writing, Art & Values (essays, Serving House Books); Working Class (poems, Stephen F. Austin University); Outside Language: Essays (Helicon Nine Editions, finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Awards, and winner of the Thorpe Menn Award); and Plumbers (poems, BkMk Press, in revised 2nd edition).

He won a National Magazine Award for editing from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and served for many years as editor-in-chief of New Letters magazine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

He founded Midwest Poets Series in 1983 and directed the series for 36 years, on behalf of Rockhurst University in Kansas City; the series featured readings by four nationally prominent writers per year.

Welcome, Robert!

Welcome New Member Conlan Murphy

8/26/2023

This is a picture of my desk where I just finished a collection of stories about Bigfoot.

Today we welcome Conlan Murphy of Lawrence to District 2 and to the Kansas Authors Club.

My name is Conlan Murphy under the pen name Connlyn Sinclair. I write children’s fantasy stories. My book of fairy tales based on the works of Francis James Child is currently being published by Anamcara Press, I also am teaching myself to write detective stories for adults.

Welcome New Member Peggy Phillips

8/8/2023

Today we welcome Peggy M. Phillips of Valley Center to District 5 and to the Kansas Authors Club.

Peggy M. Phillips is an author writing in the Christian Fiction-Metaphysical genre. Peggy debuted her first work of fiction in November 2022 with the poignant and powerful epistolary novella, “Letters to the Little Flower The Gift of Spiritual Companionship with St. Therese of Lisieux.”

Born in Wichita, KS, United States, Peggy grew up in a large Catholic family in a small Kansas town. Formerly a staff writer for the Salina Journal, Peggy is a Registered Nurse who works in mental health services. Her Catholic formation, along with her healthcare vocation, inform her writing. In her free time, Peggy enjoys hiking the beautiful nature trails of Kansas, watching Kansas sunrises and sunsets, and spending time with her family.

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Welcome New Member K.L. Barron

7/8/2023

Welcome, K.L. Barron to District 4 and to the Kansas Authors Club!

I am a writer of place: poetry and prose. My prize-winning fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction has been published in New Letters, The Bennington Review, Little Balkans Review, terrain.org, ChickenBones (Library of Congress), among others, and in several anthologies. I earned an MFA from Bennington in 2005 and have taught writing and literature at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas for nearly 20 years. I live and write in the Flint Hills.
My debut novel Thirst came out in November from Sea Crow Press.

Welcome, Karen!

Welcome New Member Joyce Hilliard Stotts

7/8/2023

Above is the front cover of Joyce Stotts' children’s picture book, Suzette Crick-ette’, which she wrote and illustrated. It is available on Amazon in print and digital formats.

Welcome, Joyce Hilliard Stotts to District 3 (Cottonwood Falls) and to the Kansas Authors Club.

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Joyce Hilliard Stotts grew up in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties, graduated from Emporia State in 1970, and taught junior/senior high school English and Social Studies in Topeka area schools. Her husband, Gary, served under six Kansas governors as State of Kansas Budget Director, and Secretary of both Transportation and Corrections departments.

Six generations of the Stotts family were land owners, and pioneered in the cattle, business and banking enterprises in the Flint Hills.

After traveling to all the contiguous United States and earning a second degree from Kansas University, Joyce was an Instructional Designer for Fligh tSafety International in Wichita.

She settled in Florida near her daughter and family with whom she is now a partner in Spice of the Harbor, an online and brick/mortar spice shop in downtown Safety Harbor, Florida.

In 2023 she completed renovation of two buildings in downtown Cottonwood Falls to be used as a vacation home and leased commercial space.

Her writing includes two children’s picture books, a novella, family genealogies and several short stories published in the Dunedin Writers Anthologies. Currently she is at work on an historical novel set in 1850’s bleeding Kansas era, which is based on the lives of her family of
Kansas pioneers. She plans to publish Rodantha’s Road in 2024.

Welcome, Joyce Stotts!

Welcome New Member Ciri George

6/20/2023

Today we welcome Ciri George, of White City, to District 4 and to the Kansas Authors Club!

I was born and raised in Emporia Kansas, and later lived in California and Florida for many years. I've been back "home" in Kansas for over 20 years on a little farm outside of White City.

I lived a bit of a wild life according to my friends, and they always told me I should write a book about it, so I did back in 2016.

I won a contest with my publisher shortly after that, and had to produce a book in 12 days, so I wrote a short mystery. They were available on Amazon, but only on kindle now. I have attached pics of the covers.

The "Quirky Life" cover has a pic of my last motorcycle, and the "Gazing Ball" cover is a pic I took out in my yard, then made up a quick story about it.

Looking forward to meeting more members and writing more books!

Welcome, Ciri!

Welcome New Members Laura Lee Washburn & Roland E. Sodowsky

6/16/2023

Today, we welcome new KAC and District 3 members from Pittsburg, Laura Lee Washburn and Roland E. Sodowsky.

Editor-in-Chief of The Coop, Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as TheNewVerse.News, Carolina Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Sun, and Valparaiso Review. Harbor Review’s chapbook prize is named in her honor. Her most recent book of poems, The Book of Stolen Images, can be purchased from Meadowlark Books.

Roland Sodowsky grew up on a small ranch in western Oklahoma. He has three degrees from Oklahoma State University and studied Old High German as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany. He has taught linguistics, literature, and creative writing at OSU, the University of Calabar in Nigeria, the University of Texas, Sul Ross State University, and Missouri State University. He has published poetry, short stories, or novellas in Atlantic Monthly, American Literary Review, Glimmer Train, Midwest Quarterly, and many other literary magazines. His collection of short stories, Things We Lose (U. Missouri Pr), won the Associated Writing Programs’ Award for Short Fiction. He received the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Short Fiction Award for Interim in the Desert (TCU Pr), the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines-General Electric Award for fiction, and has been a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award. Now retired from Missouri State, he and his wife, the poet Laura Lee Washburn, live in Pittsburg, Kansas when he, his brother, and his son are not engaged in a continuing battle with the mesquites and cedars on their family homestead.

Welcome New Member Robert Cory

5/18/2023

Today, we welcome Robert Cory of Wichita to District 5 and to the Kansas Authors Club.

Robert Cory is a poet, playwright, and novelist who lives in Kansas. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Kansas State University. German language studies at the Benedict Institüt in Düsseldorf, Germany, and study/travel in Germany and Austria through the auspices of the Kansas University Summer Language Institute. Post-graduate work (playwriting) at Wichita State University. He wrote a full-length screenplay, A Hole in the Ocean, for DK Productions in Kansas City, Missouri, and was a contract beta reader of unsolicited manuscripts for Sheed & Ward in KC, MO. His work has appeared in the I-70 Review, Kansas Poems & Poets, Kansas Time + Place, An Anthology of Heartland Poetry (Little Balkans Press 2017), The Eunoia Review, vox poetica, Poets Against War, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and The Catalonian Review. In 2013, his poem Exodus: revisited was awarded first place in the Kansas Writers Association free verse competition. His play ‘The Truth About Chance’ was performed at The Purple Masque Theatre at Kansas State University and Marymount College in Salina. He’s authored two full-length plays, Char in a Barrel and Confessions of a Las Vegas Cocktail Waitress, that are available at Stageplays.com, and three one-acts. Most recently, he has published three works: Small Worlds - a chapbook of poems, prose, and creative non-fiction / From the Land of Too Little or Too Much - a novel / and They Say the Storm Will Pass - selected Kansas prose, poetry, creative non-fiction, and memoirs. He retired from a 39-year commercial real estate career in 2012.

SMALL WORLDS - a chapbook of poetry, prose, and creative non-fiction. Eclectic free verse.

FROM THE LAND OF TOO LITTLE OR TOO MUCH - This debut novel is an engaging, uplifting meld of three genres. Coming-of-age: literally, a novel of education and formation. Historical: set in the past, it combines a blend of research and creativity. Literary: character-driven with social commentary and reflections on humanity.From the Land is about small-town America. Except for wind turbine farms and cell towers, rural Kansas is much the same today as it was in 1970, the year protagonist Jacob (Jake) Book comes of age. His hometown, the fictitious Waltsburg, Kansas, Ormestrong County, lies nestled in the Flint Hills surrounded by a boundless prairie landscape. Shy, naïve, twenty-three-year-old Jake is a jack-of-all-trades, hardworking but without apparent direction or ambition until he encounters a young woman in a peach orchard in Nowata County, Oklahoma. A Korean War orphan adopted and raised by a well-to-do family; Kim becomes the catalyst for Jake’s maturation. The novel chronicles a period in the life of a young man as he transitions from post-adolescent plodding through life to young adult with a sense of direction and purpose.

I took eight years off from retirement to write this novel. I am a grinder. I write like I eat, in my own good time. My wife would tell you that had I been invited to The Last Supper; I would just now be spooning my first bites of dessert. (Good luck trying to find Waltsburg and Ormestrong County on a Kansas road map.)

THEY SAY THE STORM WILL PASS - selected prose, poems, creative non-fiction, and memoirs that are all Kansas related.

Welcome New Member Onalee Nicklin

4/17/2023

It's a pleasure to introduce Onalee Nicklin. She's a member of District 2.

From Onalee Nicklin:

I live in the woods, by a creek, in between Olpe and Madison, with my husband and a couple of cats. I have written and illustrated a children's picture book (To Hide a Hazelnut) that was recently published by Meadowlark Press. That gave me the courage to undertake writing a novel. It's called Wild Wood Rose and is loosely based on the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. I hope to get it published, but I'm sure it still needs some tweaking. As I learn more about the craft of writing, I plan to write more kids books and novels.

Editor's Note: Onalee Nicklin also received a KANSAS NOTABLE AWARD in 2022 as the illustrator for the children's book "Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet" written by Mandy Kern.

Welcome New Member Bill Sampson

4/16/2023

Today we have the honor of welcoming Bill Sampson of Lawrence. He is part of District 2.

Here's Bill:

I am a retired lawyer and, in effect, have written my entire life. Most of this was been legal writing, including many articles for professional journals and one book about trial advocacy--Kansas Trial Handbook, published by Thomson/West. But I have written for other journals, I write letters to the editor, I write letters to our Congressional representatives and to Governor Kelly, and I write birthday letters to our grandchildren, among other things.

Most recently, I wrote a novel, Wheat Fields . As much as anything, it’s about KU basketball, tracking a young man from Salina as he moves to Lawrence for his senior year of high school and then joins the KU team the next year. But it’s also about academic life at KU, about why the folks at KU “hate” Missouri, and about a brilliant young woman from Tehran who comes to KU to study petroleum engineering—Farieh Bukhari. Richie Armstrong, the young basketball star, becomes infatuated with Farieh and the book deals with their relationship, as well.

Flint Hills Publishing published it at the end of 2022, and the book is available on Amazon in both paperback and hardcover editions. The website is:

www.billsampson-author.com
Along with an excerpt from the book, information about book signings, and excerpts from the blurbs published with the novel, the website includes a short biographical statement.

Welcome to our club of Kansas authors, Bill!

Welcome New Members Peter and Hanni Hamel

3/22/2023

Today we welcome New Members Peter and Hanni Hamel of Germany. Peter is a co-author (with Gary Park) of The Learjet History:Beginnings, Innovations and Utilization.

From Peter:

It is a great pleasure and honor to being accepted as a new member of the Kansas Author Club. Although I am an engineer in Aeronautics for decades, I started loving airplanes from my very early years in the city of Hamburg.

After my career with the Technical University Braunschweig, the Hamburger Flugzeugbau (formerly Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm and now Airbus) and finally for another thirty years as director of the Institute of Flight Systems Technologies of the German Aerospace Research Center in Braunschweig, I decided to share my aeronautical engineering experience to the following generation. So, I authored and edited the book “In-Flight Simulators and Fly-by-Wire/Light Demonstrators” (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-53997-3).

Since then, I published and authored together with my transatlantic colleague and dear friend Gary Park the book “The Learjet History” (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-06031-1) which was widely welcomed not only in the Wichita environment.

I would like to attach a photo of my wife Hanni and I, taken in a holiday mood (see enclosure). Hanni gave me the patience and care I needed for my peace of mind while writing the two books.

Thank you again for welcoming us.

Best regards

Peter

The Hamels will be part of District 5.

website: https://learjethistory.com/

Welcome New Members Gary & Judy Park

3/12/2023

Today, we welcome Gary & Judy Park to the Kansas Authors Club. They are Wichitans and part of District 5.

Gary co-authored The Learjet History.

The Learjet History
Beginnings, Innovations and Utilization
Authors: Peter G. Hamel , Gary D. Park

This book offers a unique, comprehensive retrospective on the Learjet aircraft, from the establishment by Bill Lear in the sixties, to its slow demise in 2021. It accompanies readers on a unique journey through the configuration changes, and advanced technological applications that have transformed business jets and their market in the last sixty years. Important insights are given into numerous patents and innovations that have shaped the development of new technologies and aerodynamic improvements such as the winglet. Furthermore, this book presents many special missions carried out by the Learjet family, such as VIP, business and ambulance flights, research and military projects, and the use of Learjet in aerobatics, as well as aerial photography and cinematography. With a great number of original photographs and drawings, interesting events, stories and anecdotes, this book provides today's aeronautical and systems engineers and test pilots with an invaluable source of information and inspiration. Yet, it also offers a compelling reading to students, professionals and scientists in the aerospace field as well as to curious readers with a general interest in aeronautics.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-06031-1

website: https://learjethistory.com/

Welcome New Member Marie Asner

3/12/2023

We welcome Marie Asner of Overland Park to District 2 and to the Kansas Authors Club!

M.A. Asner is an entertainment reviewer, poet, and journalist. Her reviews are on www.tollbooth.org. She is a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle. Marie is a past member of Kansas Arts on Tour, and currently a member of the Missouri State Poetry Society. In 2022, Marie’s poems were published in Calliope, Grist, Pegasus, The Rockford Review, and Distilled Lives, Volume 6. In January 2023, Marie was a Zoom guest speaker of the Rockford Writers Guild on the topic of film and book reviewing.

Welcome New Member Linda Cook

1/18/2023

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Linda Cook of Manhattan to D-4 and the Kansas Authors Club.

Hello, my name is Linda Cook and I recently retired from a 45-year career in the communications and public affairs profession.

I’m a native Kansan, a Kansas State University Wildcat with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Beaver with a master’s in business administration. I spent most of my career at General Motors in Detroit, MI., where I oversaw communications and public affairs.

About 10 years ago, I returned to Kansas to be closer to family and cap off my career as chief of staff and director of community relations at K-State.

My early writing career included reporting for a weekly newspaper, writing articles for local magazines and creating advertising copy. As my career advanced, my writing included executive speeches, news releases, newsletters, brochures, video scripts and web content.

I look forward to engaging in the many opportunities offered through the Kansas Authors Club and focusing my future writing on fiction and nonfiction, including short stories and a book or two.
Welcome, Linda!

Books by New Member Steve Linder

1/2/2023

Welcome, Steve Linder, to Kansas Authors Club!

Steven Linder lives in Wichita, Kansas and writes novels of western history, adventure, and suspense.

SHATTERED WORLD, a suspense novel available in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon.

ISBN 9798352812 631

LOST CREEK, a western novel available in Kindle and Paperback on Amazon.

ISBN 9798361190584

Visit Steve's Author Page on Amazon

Welcome New Member Samantha Morrison

12/15/2022

Today we welcome Samantha Morrison of Topeka (D-1)to the Kansas Authors Club!

Samantha shared a little bit about herself.

I am thrilled to be a part of the group. I have been writing all of my life, it seems, but am not published. I am hoping 2023 is the year. I enjoy writing poetry and short stories. I look forward to participating in the many events KAC hosts and meeting the wonderful people involved as well.

Welcome, Samantha!

Welcome new member Jeanette Carter

12/1/2022

Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Jeanette Carter of Wichita to the Kansas Authors Club and to District 5.

Hello to all! My name is Jeanette Carter, and I am a retired school psychologist.

I have always enjoyed writing and was a reporter for my college newspaper staff.

I have stacks of humorous stories I have written about my family, friends, as well as my musings on life. I write in the style of Erma Bombeck.

I am looking forward to becoming acquainted with you all!

Welcome, Jeanette Carter!

Welcome New Member Rachel Anne Jones

11/11/2022

Another new member! We welcome Rachel Anne Jones of Cottonwood Falls (District 4).

We've asked Rachel to tell us a bit about herself.

I write Young Adult fiction and adult fiction. I live in the Flint Hills of Kansas. My husband and I have lived in Cottonwood Falls for 21 years, and we’ve raised three children here.

My published works are YA contemporary romance and YA contemporary romantic suspense. I have one published adult light holiday romance as well. I am published with a traditional publisher out of Minnesota, Fire & Ice Publishing for Young Adult and Melange Satin imprint for adult.

I have one self-published YA fiction work titled “Black and White” that was released in 2019. Since that time, I have released seven traditionally published works of fiction and per contracts signed, plan to release seven more traditionally published works between now and December 2023.

I work FT as a nurse at a health department in Chase County. I feel very fortunate to work in the community where I live. I thoroughly enjoy writing as a hobby and devote at least two hours each day to writing. I used to be a medical transcriptionist and so the volume is not difficult for me. Finding the right words is the challenge.

I enjoy writing fiction, but attempt to address social issues as well in my writing. I also enjoy writing poetry. One of my poems, “The Art of Preserving” was published in a Field Journal from Symphony in the Flint Hills: Volume XIV/2022/weather.

I am currently working on an adult romantic suspense story as well as a work of fiction about a family coming together for Thanksgiving after being divided by traumatic life events and the current issues that plague today’s social climate.

facebook.com/RachelAnneJonesAuthor

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/rachel-anne-jones

Welcome New Member Debra Hodge

11/11/2022

We are pleased to welcome Debra Hodge of Great Bend (District 6) to the Kansas Authors Club.

We asked Debra to tell us a little about herself.

I grew up in Kansas and after spending my adult life in Northern California, I relocated back to Great Bend upon retirement from a corporate position to be closer to my family.

Under my pen name, D.L. Winter, I just published my first fiction novel in September (through IngramSpark). The title, Alistur the Magnificent, is for readers of all ages who enjoy fantasy quests.

I do not have a website set up yet, but it’s on my “To Do” list. However, the book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Alistur is a 14-year-old wizard in the medieval Kingdom of Fleurbania. The story details one week of blunders and chaos while he is preparing for the most important event in his young life - sprinkled with wit and wisdom throughout. (I have started work on the draft for the next book in the series.)

Welcome, Debra!

<<Previous

Welcome New Member Nancy McCabe

Welcome New Member Robert Stewart

Welcome New Member Conlan Murphy

Welcome New Member Peggy Phillips

Welcome New Member K.L. Barron

Welcome New Member Joyce Hilliard Stotts

Welcome New Member Ciri George

Welcome New Members Laura Lee Washburn & Roland E. Sodowsky

Welcome New Member Robert Cory

Welcome New Member Onalee Nicklin

Welcome New Member Bill Sampson

Welcome New Members Peter and Hanni Hamel

Welcome New Members Gary & Judy Park

Welcome New Member Marie Asner

Welcome New Member Linda Cook

Books by New Member Steve Linder

Welcome New Member Samantha Morrison

Welcome new member Jeanette Carter

Welcome New Member Rachel Anne Jones

Welcome New Member Debra Hodge

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