Judith Starkston has spent too much time reading about and exploring the remains of the ancient world. Early on she went so far as to get degrees in Classics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cornell. She writes historical fantasy set in the Bronze Age of the Greeks and Hittites. Her five novels bring women to the fore—whether the Trojan War captive Briseis or a remarkable Hittite queen whom history forgot, even though she ruled over one of the greatest empires of the ancient world.

Judith lives in Davis, California with her husband and a rambunctious garden.

Website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter)

PodMatch a service for podcasters

The Iliad, Homer

A Thousand Ships, Natalie Haynes

Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

Medea, Elisha Quin, Play by Euripides

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Author N. K. Jamisin

Clytemnestra wife of Agamemnon, Aeschylus

Star Trek

Lilith, Nikki Marmery

The Chalice and the Blade, Riane Eisler

Unesco World Heritage sites in Turkey, Hattusha and more

Author Naomi Novak, The Termeraire series (9 books beginning with Her Majesty’s Dragon)

Author George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones series (5 books)

Tyler Schwanke is a writer and a filmmaker. He holds an MFA from Hamline University, and his short stories have been widely published. He is also a graduate of the New York Film Academy and Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he was awarded a Minnesota Film and TV Grant. Several of his award-winning short films have played at festivals across the country. Tyler lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and their dog. Breaking In is his debut novel.

Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), YouTube

Goosebumps books

Author John Grisham

Jurassic Park Michael Crichton

The Shining Stephen King

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson

The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins

Breaking In Tyler Schwanke

Working Girl (1988)

Author Diana Gabaldon, The Outlander Series

Author Julia Quinn, The Bridgerton Series

Me Too Movement The phrase originally used on social media starting in 2006

Midsommar (2019)

The Marvels (2023)

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Alpha Bette is Jennifer’s first novel. She put much of her personal and professional life experience into writing it, having been a family therapist, divorce mediator, Broadway and Off-Broadway producer, musical book writer, screenwriter & producer and screenwriting teacher. She co-wrote and produced the films Family Blues and Boundary Waters (in production) as well as wrote the book of two musicals that are streaming online: Marry Harry, a full-length musical, and Cockroaches & Cologne, a short musical. She is a proud board member of New York Stage and Film, The Peace Studio, and 18by Vote. She is married with five children and many grandchildren—great source material!

Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Alpha Bette Jennifer Manocherian

Suffs, Broadway Musical book, music and lyrics by Shaina Taub. Still running

Don’t Call Me Pig: A Javelina Story, Conrad J Storad, Illustrated by Beth Neely

The Peace Studio

18by Vote

Karen Moran is an artist and healer who uses art for healing.

Born into a family of artists, she became a painter and poet and also developed a career as a psychologist. For 30 years, Karen helped people find images and words to express unconscious feelings and memories, and then work with these images to heal their wounds and build their lives.

Since retiring, Karen has published Forever Tourmaline and completed a decades-long project of archiving the artwork of her family.

A mother and grandmother, she lives with her husband and their dogs and cats in the mountains where she grew up.

Karen L Moran’s Website, Forever Tourmaline website

Pacifica Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California

Archetypal Psychology

Writing for Your Life: Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds, Deena Metzger

Jay Watson and Kyle Wiltshire met in college and soon watched every single Highlander movie together on VHS. They have been the closest of friends for over twenty-five years and still talk nearly every day. They have committed their adult lives to cultivating stories and caring for people.

Jay Watson bio

Jay is passionate about speaking and writing. He has built a disc golf course, saw Garth Brooks in 1993, and takes pictures with fish. His hair started going gray at twenty, and he still loves Will Smith.

Kyle Wiltshire

Kyle has seen U2 in concert eleven times. He tries to paint like Bob Ross and enjoys talking about Star Wars. He loves pop culture and prides himself on being able to name the year any movie from the 1980s or ’90s was released.

Website, Facebook, X, Instagram

The National Enquirer

Morgan James Publishing

PodMatch, a dating service for Podcasters

Freeman Linde Story-Power episode 103, 6/19/24, “Working for the Customer”

Will Smith, actor, producer, movie, Bright

Back to the Future

Short Circuit

The Last Star Fighter

Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi

Forest Gump

Highlander

Borat

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Lincoln

Star Wars prequels

The Clone Wars

Bad Batch

If We Were Villains, M.L. Rio

Game of Thrones

Dune

Harry Potter

I entered the Army in 1994 and spent 20 years in the military. During the 20 years I spent 68 months in deployment/combat tours. 9 months was in Bosnia and the rest was in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the Military I opened up my own company in the trucking industry. I closed it shortly after covid. Since than I have started a podcast called Spirits and Stories with Donald Dunn to highlight the struggles and the success of our veteran community and I am building a nonprofit called Heroes Voices Media Foundation to help Veterans reach their dreams while getting therapy doing it.

I have just released my first book called Echoes of War.

My podcast: www.spiritsandstoriespodcast.com

My nonprofit: www.heroesvoicemediafoundation.org

Podcast program for veterans: www.militaryunitedpodcaststreams.org

Radio Station Program for Veterans www.gunroomradio.com

Hello, I'm Karen. When I was old enough to climb the stairs into the attic of the colonial house I grew up in, I’d sit in front of the fanlight window and compose poems about the mysteries of the night—the moon, stars, and unseen planets. I still love all things mystical, magical, and provocative. My most inspired moments are still those spent in pondering and sharing ways to help individuals embrace and live their authentic selves regardless of their age or past history.

My love of language, coupled with my identity as an androgenous gay woman manifested an aspiration to delve into academic studies that married my innate passions. I’m a published author and hold a Ph.D. in comparative literature, within the context of women’s meditations regarding gender identity, sexuality, and the gendered body. (I also write queer erotica under Author Annie Moon and I have 800+ followers.)

When I’m not gazing at the night sky, writing or reading, I can be found meditating, cooking Italian specialties, or walking Rachel and Jasper, my two lab-mixed breed companions.

Karen’s Website, Facebook, Instagram

Karen’s Books

Paradise

The Yellow Braid

Books under Karen’s pen name Annie Moon

Late in Love

Daddy in Love

Saving Luca

Healing Luca

Touch

Halloween Matchmaking for Daddy

The Proposal coming out, September 20, 2024

Christmas Wedding, coming out, December 20, 2024

Poet Alex Murdock on Story-Power, Episode 96 aired on 3/13/24

Little Women Louisa May Alcott

The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway

Author, Anais Nin

Lilith Nikki Marmery

Hoopla and Libby library e-book apps

Damsel (2024) available on Netflix

Poet Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 1927 - 1979

Morgan McCarver was born and raised in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her work is inspired by her female mentors of past and present, as well as her connection to Victorian corsetry through her scoliosis journey. She received an art degree with a ceramics concentration and a double minor in art history and business in 2019 from Anderson University in Anderson, SC. McCarver had the honor of receiving the 2019 Outstanding Art Major Ceramics Award her senior year. As a 2020 701 Center for Contemporary Art prize finalist, she had the honor of being the youngest artist to ever make it that far. She is a multi-award-winning artist who recently received an Artist Support Grant to attend a national ceramics conference. She has had the honor of displaying her work in 2 solo exhibitions, “FemininiTEA” 2020 and “The Strength of a Wildflower” 2022. She recently completed a residency at Edgewood Cottage in Blowing Rock Summer 2023 and participated 2022 as well. McCarver has studios in Asheville, NC and Spartanburg, SC. Her art can be found in various galleries around the Carolinas and Tennessee. Her first book, “God the Artist: Revealing God’s Creative Side Through Pottery,” was released with Morgan James Publishing January 9, 2024.

Website, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn

Book: God the Artist: Revealing God’s Creative Side Through Pottery

Lilith, Nikki Marmery