MEMBER'S BIO
Ruben Colon
Born in New York City, Ruben Colon attended public schools. After serving overseas with the U.S. Army, he attended and graduated from Fordham University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pharmacy. While studying full time, he married his wife, Hilda. They have two sons. After graduation, he worked in the South Bronx and Black Harlem both as employee and employer. His stories evolved from those experiences—good and bad. He has two published novels—Clarissa, and Painted Eyes. The latter is termed “exceptional” by the traditional publishing house, PublishAmerica.
Dick Miller
Dick Miller was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. A Lutheran minister for 38 years, he served as Pastor of congregations in Connecticut and New Jersey, and Senior Pastor of a large multi-staffed church in Florida before retiring in 2001. Dick has made presentations on book-related topics to students, church groups, seniors and civic organizations, and is available for speaking engagements.
This is his first published work of historical fiction. Dick lives in Florida with his wife, Donna. He has two sons, one in North Carolina and the other in Florida. Dick and Donna have six grandchildren. Dick has published his first book - The Boxcar Kid --- Get Free Sample and More Data at
Carol Kennedy
Dr. Carol Kennedy has authored three books: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PARENTING FROM A TO Z, SO HELP ME GOD, now in its fourth printing. You’ll find practical parenting tips as well as literacy games for the whole family. THE FIFTEEN MINUTE GUIDE TO PARENTING complements the A-Z book, and is a Christian workbook. THE GRIEF MONSTER carries the reader on a journey, as Dr. Carol shares gripping moments as she struggled with her ‘monster’ when her sister was killed. In progress is the fourth book, ONLY GOD CAN UNSCRAMBLE EGGS. Dr. Carol speaks to schools, churches, ladies groups and conventions. To find out more please visit www.drcarolkennedy.com. She is also in the speakers’ bureau of www.faccs.org
Pat Booth-Lynch
Pat Booth Lynch considers her life a true adventure. She’s discovered the joy of traveling to exotic places, engaged in a rewarding corporate career, developed talents that have expanded her horizons, raised a talented daughter, Kyle, and has been married to a dynamo of a husband Jack, who has made the journey seem like a trip to a candy store. Currently, while living in Florida, she’s involved in writing thriller novels, namely Blood Pearls and Blood Image as well as short stories that have won awards, some of which are highlighted in an anthology titled, Tales to tease the senses. When she’s not pounding our provocative stories or managing her Ease-on Apparel Corporation, you’ll find her traveling to those far away places with the strange sounding names in search of that next adventure. Books:
Blood Pearls (A Tale of Intrigue, Romance and Murder)
Blood Image (Tale Of Murder And An Ultimate Betrayal)
Tales to Tease the Senses
Maynard Poland
Maynard D. Poland, a retired physician and avid sailor who has published sailing adventures in addition to medical articles, teaches Medical Terminology and Anatomy & Physiology at Edison College in Ft. Myers. He is a member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association of Southwest Florida and writes a column on creative nonfiction for GCWA at www.gulfwriters.org.
In August, he self-published a book through BookSurge, a division of Amazon.com. The book, On Wings of Trust, is the memoir (as told to him) of a female pilot, a work of creative non-fiction. The writing and publishing included consideration of aspects of libel, including consultation with a libel attorney and purchase of libel insurance. Check out more about that book at http://www.amazon.com
This memoir is the true story of Carole Leigh's struggle to become a Navy, then a commercial pilot. Along the way, Carole overcame severe gender bias, faced bogus threats of court-martial, and endured imposition of needlessly dangerous pilot training maneuvers. Among her Navy adventures are anecdotes about physical fitness and wilderness training, tracking Russian submarines, fatal episodes involving fellow pilots, and surviving an attempted kidnapping into white slavery in Dakar, Senegal. Also included is an incident when Carole was Captain of a commercial aircraft that had two emergencies, threatening the lives of 114 passengers and crew. She subsequently discovered neglected maintenance as the cause, a betrayal of the trust pilots must have in the maintenance of their aircraft. Her story is a tale of challenge and adventure that will interest and entertain anyone who has been on an airplane.
CAROL DEFRANK
I am a non-fiction writer that has been published in hundreds of articles over a 25 year period. My profession before moving to Southwest Florida was advertising.
My byline has appeared in GulfShore Business, Naples Daily News, The News Press and the Fort Myers Magazine, The Business Journal, Parent Magazine, Senior News, The Vindicator as well as many other publications
During my writing tenure I was commissioned to write a coffee-table book titled Visions of the Valley. I have written hundreds of newsletters, brochures and advertisements for newspaper, radio and television. I have written and disseminated a seminar that teaches small business owners how to handle their own marketing and advertising.
A Cum Laude graduate of Youngstown State University with a Bachelors Degree in business/communication and a minor in journalism, I attend writing workshops and seminars to hone my skills .
Contact Carol: cjdassociates@aol.com
RICHARD GEORGIAN
Mr. Georgian is self employed, and since 1994 has conducted research in American Tent Shows (1892 -1921), and the American Communist Party (1919-1927). He is working on a non-fiction manuscript; Buffalo Bill’s Deceit, the Cossacks Curse, a history of Georgian, Gurian riders in American wild west shows. He is developing; Red Mill Crossing, an historical novel about Buffalo Bill’s wild west exhibition set in 1901. He is continuing his research for a biography of the life and times of Alexis E. Georgian. Mr. Georgian from 1984 to 1994 was a senior systems analyst with Validity Corporation. He was a program manager, technical writer, training department head, instructor, and organized the corporation’s trade shows. Mr. Georgian from 1962 to 1984 was in the United States Navy and specialized in communication system
BILL PHELPS
Born in Norwalk, Ct in 1954 and lived there until 1964. Moved to Warwick, Rhode Island until he graduated from High School. Served in the United States Air Force from 1973-1993. He's been around the world a couple of times and has lived in Germany, Turkey, Thailand, the Philippine Islands and other fun places like Omaha.
Bill has mined his experiences as a former intelligence analyst and foreign operative during his twenty years in the military to create prose and poetry that speaks with sensitivity to aspects unique to veterans of the Viet Nam era. He is currently working on some fiction pieces derived from his military and intelligence experience. Not your usual spy stuff, but the dangerous, unglamorous, brutal and essentially pointless power politics of the 70’s and 80’s. They will encompass three novels
JERI MAGG
Jeri, a freelance writer for the past fifteen year, has written interview, health, travel, history and art pieces for local, regional and national magazines and newspapers. Recent articles have appeared in The National Cowboy Hall of Fame Magazine, Persimmon Hill, Transitions Abroad, Mature Lifestyles, Ft. Myers News Press, Sanibel Island Sun, Sanibel Islander and Ft. Myers Magazine. She has produced newsletters and designed and maintains the GCWA and Sanibel Historical Village and Museum websites. Currently she is working on a nonfiction book "Historical Sites of Sanibel and Captiva Islands." She is a resident of Sanibel Island, Florida for the past 26 years, and a founding member of the Gulf Coast Writers Association.
Contact Jeri: jerimagg@comcast.net
JAN NIEMAN
Hi, you’ve reached the GCWA board member with no credentials. It’s a mystery how I came to be elected Secretary without publishing a doggone thing. I could have simply been attending meetings for their entertainment value. Perhaps the board position of "Blubbering Idiot" had not yet been filled.
However, now that I’ve been a member of GCWA for a year and picked the brains of more experienced members on "what not to do," I’ve begun submitting my stuff to unaware publishers who appear happy to fill up their pages. Two profiles and one story have appeared in the Jamaica Bay’s Newspaper and another story in my church’s newsletter. One day, money will exchange hands.
Oh, yes, I’ve also entered the Florida Writers Assoc. book contest with my manuscript "Going to the Dogs: Tails of a Mobile Pet Groomer." I attempted to view my twenty-one years of operating that miserable business in a humorous light. Some chapters zing and others I labored over to find one speck of humor!
My writing is improving. I know, because my daughter, when editing my stuff, is finding fewer errors (or perhaps she’s just getting bored). My one single fear is that my previous careers (with the dog grooming exception), have each lasted a mere seven years. Although those will provide me with plenty of ammunition for stories, I hope this career will survive the seven year itch.
Patricia B. Janda
My interest in writing goes back to childhood days in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1942, at the age of ten, I was impressed by a movie newsreel account of General James H. (Jimmy) Doolittle’s crucial bombing mission over Tokyo in World War 11. That evening I composed a poem about him and my grandmother mailed it to the War Department in Washington. A short time later, the general responded. He said my poem "was indeed inspiring"…and he would take it with him and go on to victory. Those words, and the rest of his letter, gave me the encouragement to pursue writing. Continuing to write poems and short stories, later I joined the high school newspaper and yearbook staff.
In 1977, my husband and I and our sons moved to Spencer, Iowa, where I got a job working in the Activity Department in a nursing home. It was there that I had the opportunity to start a monthly newsletter for the residents. Not knowing how to type, I wrote the copy in long hand and the Activity Director typed it. The Lantern continues to this day. In 1983, I was again working at a nursing home, this time in Topeka, Kansas. A resident wanted to improve his English and asked me if I had any books on grammar. I searched my home and found an old workbook from college days in 1951. One exercise had never been turned in. A question on the page asked, "What do you really want to be?" I had written, "I want to be a writer." Realizing then just how long this love of writing went back, I decided to really pursue my desire to write.
Enrolling at Washburn University, I took all the Creative Writing and Writer's Seminar courses available. I joined Kansas Authors Club and eventually my poem, Wayward Boy, was selected for their yearbook. It remains on file at the university library. I was now writing poems and stories for the classes and initiated a newsletter for the Newcomers Club, writing in long hand and my friend typed it. When she moved out of town, I was forced to learn to type. Unable to attend the typing classes offered at the time, I bought a $3.00 instruction book, sat at my kitchen table for hours at a time, and
typed on my son's manual typewriter with a grocery bag on my head (so I couldn't peek at the keys!). In one week, I could type – very, very slowly, but accurately. A column called Personally with Pat for the Topeka Weekly Review came next. The pay was ten dollars a week, but I had a byline with my picture!
My first check ever for writing was $50.00 (for five columns). That made me a ‘professional writer!’ Taking the coveted check to the bank, I suddenly snatched it back from the teller before she could cash it. I just couldn’t let it go. Hurrying over to a Xerox machine, I made a copy to keep forever and finally cashed the check.The tiny Sherwood Gazette periodical hired me for a 300-word piece and paid the unbelievable salary of $20.00 a month!
My poem for the newsletter Compassionate Friends was published on the front-page and circulated in several states. In Topeka, Kansas, all my dreams came true. Perhaps I was going to be a writer after all. Another transfer, and we were in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Joining a writers' club, I began submitting non-fiction manuscripts to the big magazines. I learned the hard way that you do not send a story about the elderly to Redbook, which caters to 18 to 40 year olds; finding the right market is key.
My 300-word piece to Reader's Digest came back so fast, it almost made my head spin. Later I learned they receive 50,000 unsolicited manuscripts a year. I'm sure mine never had a chance. Little by little, I was discovering the trials and tribulations a writer must go through. From White Bear Lake we relocated to Florida. While working at the Seven Lakes Association, I had the opportunity to write stories for their seasonal Seven Laker newspaper. Besides my regular column about the residents called At the Pavilion, I wrote more than one hundred additional non-fiction articles over an 11-year period.
In October 2001, Gulf Coast Writers Association came into my life. Since then several of my articles have been published in the club's Anthology and five pieces have appeared so far in Ft. Myers Magazine. My association with Gulf Coast Writers has been extremely gratifying. The members' encouragement, assistance and caring help me more than I can ever say. Looking back over the years, I smile when I think of General Jimmy Doolittle’s kind words, as well as that gentleman in Topeka, Kansas who wanted a book on grammar. Because of them, I realized that, "Yes, I want to be a writer."
SANDRA McCLINTON
Sandra McClinton, author of Lyrical Aviators: Traveling America's Airways in a Small Plane, was born in the cotton mill town of Sycamore, Alabama. She attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama before transferring to Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she earned a bachelor's degree in Mathematics.
McClinton has worked at a number of jobs where she has gained valuable experiences for her writing. She taught Algebra in junior high schools before she switched to computer programming. Most of her career has been spent as a software engineer for NASA, the Army and Newport News Shipbuilding.
McClinton fell in love with flying and spent a year at the Garner Airport in Windsor, Virginia, learning how to fly sailplanes and crew for the Tidewater Soaring Society. She soloed in a Schweizer 2-33. She has been part owner of a Cessna 150 and a Cessna Cutlass 172-RG. She has been active in several aviation organizations, including the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society. McClinton and her husband have put more than 300,000 miles on their Cessna, traveling to remote places like Alaska and exotic places like the Caribbean.
In addition to the nonfiction book, Lyrical Aviators (published by Whistling Swan Press in 2000), McClinton has written several articles and poems in flying magazines. "Blue Water to Baja Mar" was published in Plane & Pilot and Air Race Classic 2002 was published in the International Women Pilots magazine. She is a poet as well as a writer and is a member of The Poetry Society of Virginia. Some of her poems were published in The Poetry Society of Virginia 80th Anniversary Anthology of Poems.
McClinton and her husband find a lot of material for her writing when they island hop in the Caribbean and fly the harrowing passes of Alaska. She lives in Cape Coral, Florida, with her husband.
JANE KENNEDY SUTTON
For years, moving around the globe with my husband and daughter, I considered myself a 'professional tourist.' While living in Taiwan, Korea, England, the Netherlands, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, I had the chance to explore many other places. Now that I’m back in the states, I'm an occasional tourist and full time writer.
I’ve had several articles published in the AWAR Forum magazine in Rome. I’ve won a short story contest and received an honorable mention for best first chapter of a novel.
ArcheBooks published my first novel, The Ride. It was released 2008 and is available from the publisher, ArcheBooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other internet markets. Local bookstores will be able to order it if you don't see it on their shelves by providing them with ISBN-10: 1-59507-193-8 or ISBN-13: 978-159507-193-4 numbers.
Please visit my blog, http://janekennedysutton.blogspot.com/, my web site, http://janesutton.com/, or read my short story at http://www.authorsden.com/janesutton.
You can contact me at janekennedysutton@gmail.com
JOYCE VOET
Joyce Voet is a retired teacher and librarian from Holland, Michigan, who writes for fun while spending six months in Florida each year and participating in a writing group called "Wordsmiths" at Siesta Bay R.V. Resort on Summerlin Road in Ft. Myers. She was a poetry contest winner in the 2007 writing contest for GCWA.
Mary Beth Lundgren
Mary Beth Lundgren has belonged to Gulf Coast Writers for six years. She especially loves to write for children, and is the author of two picture books—the award-winning Seven Scary Monsters, and We Sing the City, and teen novel, Love, Sara, a Junior Library Guild selection. Her stories, poems, and articles have been published in anthologies and magazines for children: Spider, Cricket, Pockets, and My Friend, she’s also published articles, memoirs, and essays in anthologies, newspapers, and magazines for adults. For three years, she tutored students at Project: LEARN, an adult literacy program in Cleveland, OH, which published her award-winning, restricted-vocabulary book about computers. Since moving to Florida in 1999, she’s been a member of the Florida Native Plant Society, and put together the monthly newsletter of the local FNPS chapter for a year. She lives in "The Cape" with husband, Ted, a computer consultant, and three gorgeous and loving black cats.
STEVE RUEDIGER
Steve Ruediger, 67, is a retired newspaper reporter and stockbroker. He has worked at The Miami Herald, the Tampa Tribune, the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, and the Fort Myers News-Press. He has a BA in international relations from American University in Washington, D.C. and wrote for Congressional Quarterly. He is a member of Mensa, the high IQ society. Contacting Steve Ruediger: e-mail: sruediger@aol.com; cellphone: 239-443-9008; mailing address: 5670 Riverside Dr., Cape Coral, Fl. 33904.
Steve Ruediger is currently rewriting his two novels. First drafts of both novels were completed. Steve would rather wait to submit for publication then take the chance of publishing something mediocre. For more information on the novels go to Steve’s website at www.stevetheauthor.com
Robert Dean Bair
The Cloisters of Canterbury, a political suspense novel, is scheduled to be released by ArcheBooks in July 2006. Robert Dean Bair tells the story of courage exhibited by a group of ordinary people with deep convictions, honor, patriotism, and integrity. They risk their lives to fight corruption, treason and murder during the months leading to the end of World War II and thereafter.
President Harry S. Truman has concerns about the United States intelligence organizations, military contract fraud and information leaks from within the government. This covert group of ordinary citizens, who are not part of the government, share the president's concerns about the effectiveness of the government’s intelligence organizations and gather information from many points of the world for the President of the United States and certain members of Congress. The group is also determined to locate any Nazis wanted for war crimes that have escaped from Europe and return them for trial. Murder, fraud, identity theft, leaks in the government, and concerns about the intelligence community are rampant, not unlike the world today.
Timothy M. Jacobs
Tim Jacobs has been writing since grade school. He currently has four books published: Goodspeed's Folly: The Life of William Henry Goodspeed and his Opera House denotes the history of the Goodspeed Opera House of East Haddam, Connecticut. Milestones & Memories: The History of the St. George Parish Community Church is the history of the first Catholic church to front a town green in the State of Connecticut. The Seeding of a Rose is poetry written during high school and a few years afterwards. Basic Tips & Information on Research, Writing and Self Publishing is a text reference used in a class he taught back in Connecticut.
He is the publisher and editor of Patriots of the American Revolution, a quarterly magazine devoted to the Patriots that fought for our freedom. Visit www.patriotsar.com for more information.
Tim is a member and newsletter editor for the Caloosa Fort Myers Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He is also a member of Connecticut Society of Genealogists and the American Historian Association.
He was a reporter for the Valley Courier and The Beacon (to local shoreline papers in Connecticut) prior to relocating to Fort Myers. Currently Tim is also working on a collection of strange tales from the shoreline area of Connecticut, and just began research on Fort Myers businessman Harvie E. Heitman, who built many of the buildings along First Street downtown. Tim can be reached at jacobs1776@yahoo.com.
Christina Fez-Barringten
Christina is a designer, sculptress, painter, illustrator and writer.
Recently Christina illustrated her children's book "The little Fisherman" with drawings which she created on her computer.
She has written narratives, proposals, prospectus and composed and designed the Fez-Barringten website.
She recently completed her E-book called “Legend,” with text by Barie Fez-Barringten. It is published by “Ladybug,” a California publisher.
Her collage giclees of 1968 pop-art fashion were recently on exhibit at the Naples Press Club book fair and The Gallery in Cape Coral. In addition, Christina has written a short story, which was published by CFADT, called “The Holy spirit and I.” She is now working on a book about the Holy Spirit.
Christina was born in Leipzig, Germany. She founded the Leipzig Evangelical Ministerial Association. She is an ordained minister of the Gospel Crusade Ministerial Fellowship. She holds a bachelor of theology. She also was the co-founder of the ICI School in Saudi Arabia where she missioned for nearly twenty years.
She and her husband Barie founded the Laboratories for Metaphoric Environments in New York City. In addition, she and her husband were co-founders of the first Earth Day when the secretary of the United Nations, U-Thant, proclaimed Earth Day as an International holiday.
At the same time her sculptures and paintings were on exhibit and represented by several art galleries in New York, Germany and Saudi Arabia. In 1986 she had a major one woman show of her acrylic Paintings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Her sculptures were acquired by David Rockefeller and acrylics by executives of Shell and Exxon.
Barie Fez-Barringten
Currently Barie is writing articles on urbanism, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as notes for lectures to centers for lifelong learning in Lee and Collier County. In 2008, he was Design Manger for Barwa City in Qatar. He spent twenty years as an architect, business manager and project manger in Saudi Arabia. He also taught 5 years at KFU. As professor at King Faisal University he wrote over twenty monographs on metaphors and architecture, which were widely published in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, England, America, Finland and Lebanon. All his writings were based on his lecture series he gave 1968 at Yale University called “Architecture, the making of Metaphors which was then published in “Main Currents in Modern Thought.”
Earlier in Houston, Texas where he was Director of Special Projects for the Gulf Oil corporation, he wrote the polices and procedures for all of Gulf Oil’s non-oil design and construction activities which was then published by John Wiley and sons in a book called Project Manual Standards.
In Saudi Arabia he founded a chapter of the American Institute of Architects, The Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International, and he established ICI now Global University. Barie is ordained as a Minister of the Gospel by the Assemblies of God. He is a Registered Architect in the State of Florida and certified by the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. And, for three years he was a part time instructor at Edison Community College.
Born and raised in New York City, Barie is researching and writing his memoir of the first 21 years of his life called “Bronx Stardust” which includes his early years as a radio broadcaster at Pratt Institute Radio Station, which he founded while studying interior design. To support his studies at Yale University he worked as an announcer at WLAE-FM in Hartford. He earned his Masters of Architecture degree at Yale University. And, now he is a trustee of the Yale Club of Southwest Florida helping new aspiring students to apply for education of that prestigious University.
After retuning from Saudi Arabia, Barie was Plans Examiner for Lee County’s Development Services.
Also a fine artist, his pen and ink drawings, once published in his book on European Cites are now exhibited in various galleries and shops.
Since 2007 Barie has served GCWA as its' Programming Chairperson and recently has been appointed its’ Vice President. For more about his various careers, art work, building and interior designs, city plans; Please visit his website at www.bariefez-barringten.com
Lew Knickerbocker
A long military career sent Lew around the globe in assignments ranging from embassy duty to clandestine activities and special operations. Along the way, he earned advanced degrees in management, political economics, and economic forecasting. Returning to civilian life, he held a management post with a Fortune 500 corporation and later founded an international consultancy. Loss of his eyesight ended the days of poring over spreadsheets. Nowadays he dictates novels and short stories in collaboration with Fanci Shipp, his seeing eye person and editor.
Lew's first novel, That Moment of Moments, received a 4.5 star reader rating on Amazon.com. Amazon pairs it with the novels of Nicholas Sparks. Additionally, he co-authored two niche-market non-fiction works and contributed to numerous publications. He is nearing completion on an action/suspense novel entitled The Earth Endures, about an unlikely alliance between spy and spy-catcher during the overthrow of Argentine president Juan Peron. In early development is a fictional memoir entitled On the Way to the Party that follows the protagonist thoughout the world, going from New York to Nazi Berlin, Korea, Argentina back to occupied Berlin, Washington DC, Paris, and Beirut.
Back to topCharlie Diemer
Charlie Diemer was a prosecutor for over 25 years in Dakota County Minnesota. He had a dynamic courtroom presence and was involved in many exciting cases. He successfully prosecuted a politician for lying during a political campaign. According to an appellate court he convinced a jury of 12 to convict a sex offender without any evidence. Sadly, after release from prison, the offender murdered his mother.
His first novel, PEARL OF TAO was just released and in the dedication he gave credit to the Gulf coast writer’s Assn and one of its critique groups for their help. He is working on another novel as he promotes his first. To learn more about Charlie and PEARL OF TAO go to www.charliediemer.com
Book announcement
Pearl of Tao is Charlie Diemer’s first novel. It is an action adventure based on the world’s largest pearl, a religious artifact of two major world religions-Taoism and Islam. The novel is set on the beautiful white sandy beaches of Lovers Key and Palm Beach. For more information and to order, go to www.charliediemer.com