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Joseph Barron
Joseph Barron is a graduate of Fordham University School of Social Work. He currently lives in Florida with his family. Mr. Barron was a clinical psychotherapist in New York and California.
Robert D. Crosson (deceased)
Born in Brooklyn, Bob spent his childhood traveling between the city and upstate New York. After restoring his childhood home upstate,
he and his wife Maureen settled there to raise their children. Bob spent most of his working life as the manager of various grocery
stores. His favorite position was in the produce department where he could combine his love of gardening and cooking with his work.
After a spinal cord injury forced him into semi-retirement, his love of children and education led him to a fulfilling career as school-bus
driver. His sense of humor and his positive attitude touched the lives of many children. When diagnosed with cancer, he approached it with
the same positive attitude, seeing it as an opportunity to pursue his lifelong dream of writing mystery stories. Bob’s mysteries, noted
for their ironic twists and their examples of poetic justice, are modeled after the writings of Alfred Hitchcock, whom Bob views as one
of the greatest storytellers of all time. When Bob isn’t writing, he enjoys woodworking, cooking, delving into computer technology,
or just spending time with his family.
Herbert A. Gold
Herbert A. Gold was born in Eschwege, Germany, six years before the Nazi party took power in that country. In 1937, ten-year-old Herb and
his family immigrated to the US, settling first in Nashville, Tennessee, then in Chicago. In 1944, after graduating high school, Herb joined
the US Navy; the knowledge of air-conditioning and central heating that he acquired there enabled him to head a contracting company for more
than forty-five years. Twice a widower, Herb has a son, Loren, and a daughter, Holly, from his first marriage. Boating, fishing, and writing
are his main interests, and he is active in a number of associations: the War Veterans, the ACCA, yacht clubs, the US Power Squadron,
the North Carolina Writers’ Network, the Authors’ Guild, and the Ormond Writers’ League. After living in Hallandale and Ft. Lauderdale,
Florida, he moved to Ormond Beach, but he and his wife, Betty, still summer in North Carolina. His novels, The Rainbow,
a mystery-romance, and The Diamonds of Medina, a tale of adventure and suspense, are available online through America House.
He has published as well two other books: The Shot, a personal memoir, chronicling the destruction of families by the Nazis,
as seen through eyes of a ten-year-old boy, and The Joke, a humorous compilation.
John R. Herman
A retired geophysicist and Renaissance man, John is a 1960 graduate of the American University, Washington, D.C. He took post-graduate
training in physics at Boston University and at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway. During his career, he published more
than fifty scientific papers and two technical books. His book Sun, Weather, and Climate raised a storm of controversy in
the meteorological and climatological communities and was translated into Russian and Chinese. He is also an amateur historian,
a poet, an artist, and a musician. His historical articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, the
DAR Magazine and the Lowell Sun, (MA). Some of his poems were published in newspapers in Anchorage, Alaska, and one of
his oil paintings was featured in the Melbourne Today newspaper (FL). He played violin in the Long Bay Symphony Orchestra
of Myrtle Beach, SC, in the Melbourne Community Orchestra, and now plays second violin in the DBCC Civic Orchestra of
Daytona Beach. John resides in Ormond by the Sea with his wife Helen and is currently working on his memoirs,
The Metamorphosis of a Geophysicist. He is currently the vice-president of OWLs, and has been a member for more than a year.
Dorothy Jessop
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Dorothy grew up in Toronto, Canada, returning to the States to attend Wheaton College. Fresh out of
college, she married a young doctor, and later, with their two small children in tow, they embarked on a journey through the
Middle East, eventually living for four years in an isolated city in Iran. While her husband headed the American Hospital there,
Dorothy studied Persian, established a baby clinic, and taught English in government schools. Upon returning to America, she and her
three children settled in New York City where she lived for almost four decades. As a single mother, she worked first as a spokesperson for a
fashion conglomerate, often writing the script for her appearances. Later, she owned and operated a successful business. Memories of
intrigue, hardship and discovery, her recollections of the Iran years lingered however. Desirous of getting them down on paper, she enrolled
in creative writing courses at Columbia University. Dorothy now lives in Ormond Beach with her second husband, George, a cartoonist and
illustrator. She continues to write short stories and work on a novel about the Middle East.
Kitty Maiden
Wife and mother of four, Kitty was born in Virginia. She attended Virginia Intermont College where she developed her talent for painting
in oils. The family moved to Florida, and for the next 27 years, Kitty worked in the newspaper business. She took an early retirement, planning
to return to her painting, but was asked to write for a local bi-weekly newspaper. Over the years, her interest has changed from painting
to writing. As she explains: “In order to excel, it’s necessary to focus your attention, and writing is now what I like to do.” The computer was
a long-awaited tool that has helped Kitty and many others avoid the mounds and wads of paper of new story beginnings. Her book,
Troublesome Hollow, a novel of Civil War, was published by America House Book Publishers, and is available online. An act of heroism during
the War Between the States inspires the life and times of the Taylor family who live in Troublesome Hollow. As Kitty explains,
“Katy Ann Taylor’s life is fiction; the rest is history.”
Barbie Marland
Barbie Marland is a Daytona Beach native, now residing in Port Orange. When not at her laptop
creating mystery and chaos, spilling out a lover's poem or romping through a child's world,
she is at the playground of theater. Her greatest loves are that of the Arts. Writing happens
to be one of her favorites.
In the everyday world she is daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend. Then
there is her moonlighting job as a housekeeper/cook/laundress. She hopes to quit that job as
soon as her latest novel hits the best sellers list!
Barbie has been quoted as saying "I love being an OWL. The friendships I have made are priceless. Every
person brings something unique to the table and is willing to guide and share. I have truly grown
in my writing and have since accomplished my first publication."
Samantha McLaughlin
A native of St. Louis, MO, Samantha was born in the shadow of the Anheuser Busch tower. She never intentionally set out to be a comedy
writer: it just seems that she attracts peculiar situations, people and animals who are by nature truly funny. She has a background in
labor relations and spent many years at the Central Conference of Teamsters, leaving this employment before the disappearance of the “Big Boss.”
As she explains, finding employment in health care after working in labor is rather like having “leprosy” centrally featured in one’s resume.
Several of her short stories, which have been published in local newspapers and magazines, seem to have been a factor in helping a
number of these health-care companies go out of business. Since employment with both labor unions and health care organizations now
seem to be in decline, Samantha is considering volunteering her writing talents as a way of furthering the ambitions of certain
political personages.
Samuel Albert McIlrath
Born in 1965 in Warner Robbins, Georgia, Sam moved to Daytona Beach Florida in 1980. He's currently an undergraduate student majoring in history,
but still involved in hobbies that include gardening, reading, and watching the clouds go by. He has written two collections of short stories,
and one novella (unpublished). He's dedicated equally to writing, to studying, and to the worshipful reverence of the work of Sigmund Freud.
Marilyn Sapsford
After receiving a B.S. Degree in Biology from FSU in 1970, Marilyn began work as a laboratory technologist. Following a brief marriage, as
a single parent, she raised her daughter, Carla, who is now a writer and a TV producer. In 1985, Marilyn obtained her M.S. Degree in
Counseling from FSU and worked as a mental health counselor and coordinator of chemical dependency programs, spending a year on a Navajo
reservation. Before retiring in 1999, she was a Peace Corps Environmental Volunteer in Tanzania. Marilyn has traveled extensively on six continents, including life in an RV and studies in ashrams in India. Her participation in numerous New Age
and transformational workshops has given a unique perspective to her varied life. She now leads discussion groups and coordinates the Noetic
Sciences group. A novice writer, she has submitted a story for an upcoming book by Bonnie Bostrom. Poetry now occupies her creative time,
and she is the current secretary of the Ormond Writers’ League.
Wilma Shulman
Lois Stiner
A native of Morristown, New Jersey, Lois graduated from high school there, and then attended the Morris County College. She met and married
her husband, Nick, and together they raised three children. Throughout her life, Lois has enjoyed a variety of hobbies, especially
sewing, crafts, poetry and photography, along with her studies of health and nutrition. She participates in church functions and does
volunteer work for channel WCEU in the area. She wrote a humorous children’s story, “The Tooth Fairy,” to accompany her displays at
festivals and craft shows. She began a book on health and nutrition with a view to setting forth some of her original remedies. When
her husband fell ill, Lois was forced to spend all her time caring for him, and this led her to write his life story, which deals with his
involvement with the spirit world, the core of her forthcoming book, illustrated with her own photographs.
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