author spotlight

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Point of View: Living Small

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living small - fingers with tiny bricks - deposit photos

I am living small. I have pulled my little world around me like a warm, comfortable blanket, snuggling into it on the rug by the fireplace, my eyes reflecting the bright sparkling of the flames. I have closed the blinds and locked the doors. A steady stream of music – songs I know and love – fills the room like the protective voices of angels. I am tending my garden, although the time for gardens should long since have passed. I am checking in on my loved ones, offering emotional care packages, hand holding, and shared remorse. I am spending … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Denise Tanaka

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Denise Tanaka

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Denise B. Tanaka has a lifelong passion for writing stories of magical beings and faraway worlds. Her father inspired a love of art with his landscape paintings, portraits, and photography. Her mother inspired a love of books by reading aloud The Gingerbread Man and Mrs. Tittlemouse, so from a very young age Denise believed that cookies run away and mice can talk. She is sometimes sidetracked by nonfiction biography and true crime … Read more

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Point of View: “On your left.”

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On Your Left

Everything seemed fine, until the bottom fell out. That’s what’s so hard about this. Or one of the things, at least. It seemed so sudden… like the ground we thought was firm underfoot suddenly gave way, leaving us scrambling to hold onto the crumbling edges over a yawning sink hole that had been eaten away in the Earth right below us. I was ready for Harris to win even bigger than the polls projected. There were many signs that her opponent had overplayed his hand, that he was in free-fall, that late-breaking voters were breaking for her. I was also … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Jurgen “JoJo” Appelo

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Jurgen "JoJo" Appelo

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: As an author, speaker, and entrepreneur, Jurgen Appelo travels the world to share inspiring stories about people and organizations. Slightly anarchistic, autistic, and eccentric, he happily adopted the nickname “jojo” when it was given to him at the age of sixteen. He calls himself a creative networker, but sometimes he’s a writer, speaker, trainer, entrepreneur, designer, manager, blogger, reader, dreamer, runner, freethinker, or … Dutch guy. He wrote several best-selling nonfiction books … Read more

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Point of View: My Life is Still Political

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vote buttons - deposit photos

I originally wrote this column on the day after President Joe Biden exited the presidential race. At that time, we didn’t know yet that Kamala Harris would be the nominee. All we knew was that we’d been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to change things, to shake up a race that until then seemed to be inevitably going in one direction. In the days that followed, Harris consolidated her support and jumped into the race with an agility, grace, and joy that few of us suspected she possessed. As the race progressed, she spread a message of optimism, while her opponents … Read more

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Point of View: Standing Up for Trans Folks

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transgender heart - deposit photos

A few years ago, when the fight for transgender rights and recognition was just gaining steam, one of my older friends from a generation before mine came to me and Mark and said that she just didn’t understand what “the whole transgender thing” was about. I think she asked us because, as a gay couple, she figured we would know, and that we were a safe space where she wouldn’t risk alienating a trans friend or loved one. We sat down with her and explained it as best as we were able – to be clear here, I am not … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Shawna Reppert

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Shawna Reppert

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Shawna Reppert, an award-winning author of fantasy and steampunk, is proud of keeping readers up all night and making them miss work deadlines. Her fiction asks questions for which there are no easy answers, while at the same time taking the reader on a fine adventure that grips them heart and soul and keeps them turning pages until the very end. She shares her home with a tri-color Corgi named Mr Darcy … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Matthew Phillion

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Matthew Phillion

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Matthew Phillion is the author of the Indestructibles, a YA superhero novel series, its spinoff Echo and the Sea, and the Dungeon Crawlers novella series. He is a member of the Salem Athenaeum’s writers committee and was the lead writer for the opioid awareness education stage play Stories of Substance. A former filmmaker, Matthew wrote and directed the feature film Certainly Never, an indie romantic dramedy, and is a journalist and writer with a … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Christiane Knight

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Christiane Knight

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Christiane Knight [she/they] is an artist, musician, writer, and author of the contemporary fantasy series Stories of the Eleriannan. A former club and FM radio DJ, Christiane’s love of dark subculture and music infuses her work. They write hopeful, magical stories set in the Fae infused version of their already quirky hometown, Baltimore MD. She’s a lifelong enthusiast of faerie, folktales, forests and fauna, especially combined in copious amounts with all-black clothing … Read more

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Point of View: Living in a Fantasy

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heartstopper cast

We live in consequential times. In just over four weeks, folks here in the US will be asked to choose a new President, in an election that will have serious ramifications for the future of my country, and for the world. Whichever way it goes. War is exploding in the tinderbox of the Middle East. Hurricanes are appearing and expanding to maximum destructive levels in less than a day. And one of the places we used to get respite – spending time on social media with our friends – has been twisted into a soul-devouring, money-making psychotic hole. So what’s … Read more