Charles H. Bertram

Born in 1936 in East St. Louis, Illinois, Charlie worked as a carpenter while in high school and also served in The Army National Guard. He joined the US Air Force and was stationed in Denver where he took writing classes at the University of Colorado. He worked his way through Southern Illinois University as a photographer, graduating with a B.S. in communications, a minor in education, another in parks and recreation, and a third in photography. He was employed for two years as a recreation director in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where he met and married Janice Bunting, a music teacher from Honesdale, PA. With help from Welcome House, the agency set up by the writer, Pearl Buck, Charlie and Janice adopted three children. Two are Amerasians from Korea, and one a Cree Indian from Canada. While teaching special education, Charlie started an apple orchard and a fruit farm. In 2001, he sold his Pennsylvania orchard and moved to Ormond Beach, Florida. The first story he ever sent out was “The Pine Tree,” published in the Army Times. Along with many short, humorous pieces and op-eds, he published the article “The Environmental Mousetrap” many times, and even today it generates e-mail questions. His recent book Chipped Beef on Toast, S.O.S., a collection of twenty short stories, is available from Infinity Publishing.

Audrey Cooke

A native New Yorker from Westchester County, Audrey holds degrees from Marymount College, Laval University, Catholic University, and the Breadloaf School of English. A former college dean, high school principal, and teacher of French and English, she pursued postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the Universities of Strasbourg and Dijon. Many prominent writers have been her mentors, including Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Gwendolyn Brooks, Carolyn Kizer and Richard Howard. Her own poems have captured over sixty awards. She’s the author of two chapbooks of poems, Poetic Justice and Fondle the Yellow, Bite on the Green; two one-act plays, Dialogues with a Moonlighting Muse and Cousin Teddy; a radio play, The Reindeer Rebellion, and a collection of essays on poetry, Poetic License. Cousin Teddy and The Reindeer Rebellion won awards at the Southeastern Writers’ Conference, St. Simon’s Island. The short story, “Pressure in Paradise,” won first prize in the 2002 Grandmother Earth/Florida Awards Contest. Dr. Cooke was a keynote speaker at the 2001 Convention of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Since taking up residence in Daytona Beach ten years ago, she has presented to various groups over forty poetry workshops, readings and lectures.

Vincent G. DeCampo

Born in Yonkers, NY, Vincent grew up in Washington, D.C. and in surrounding suburbs in Maryland. To date, he has written six short stories, three novels, as well as a book of poems. Vincent is currently hard at work finishing two mystery novels. He became interested in writing while attending writing classes at the University of Maryland, but had to wait until retirement to get started. Living now in Ormond by the Sea, Florida, he writes on average six hours a day, still finding the time for walking the beach, playing music, collecting old recordings and doing some volunteer work. Vincent explains: “The many moods of the sea stir the imagination, yielding an eternity of story ideas.”

Rollene Gannett

Rollene Gannett is a retired high school and college teacher of English, speech and creative writing. A native of Michigan, Rollene attended the University of Michigan, Barry University (FL), and the University of Miami. She received two NEH grants: one for study at the University of Virginia; the other for an independent study of William Faulkner at the University of Mississippi. She has published a young adult novel, Flying Wheels (Scholastic Press) as well as several literary short stories in magazines such as the Carolina Quarterly, along with many articles. Rollene loves books and literature, and revels in language: words, connotations and sounds. She is currently working on several young adult books and adult short stories. A member of the Ormond Writers’ League since 1997, she has served as secretary, vice-president and president, and is now contributing her expertise as one of the editors of this anthology.

Sheryl Pascal Gormley

Born in Washington, D.C., Sheryl lived most of her life there, or in its suburbs, with the exception of a few years in Whiteville, NC. The daughter of a writer and an artist, Sheryl has worked in oils, acrylics, and several other mediums, the most recent being watercolor. She is also an accomplished photographer. At the age of ten, she published a four-line verse in the Washington Times Herald for the payment of one dollar. Since then much of her writing has been non-fiction, directed to trade magazines. Four novels and two children’s picture books are now in the works. A driving force is that her daddy would be so happy to see that one of his daughters has a passion for writing. Flower gardening, inspired by a trip to the butterfly conservatory in Niagara Falls, Canada, is one of her hobbies. Throughout the warm months of the year, her back yard is filled with dozens of varieties of butterflies. Sheryl is animated and has a sense of humor, and as current president of the Ormond Writers’ League, runs meetings with a casual observance of Robert’s Rules of Order.

Veronica (Ronnie) Helen Hart

Veronica (Ronnie) Helen Hart was born in New York. Her first piece of creative writing, at the age of ten, resulted in suspension from school for three days. She learned her lesson and, by the time she was twelve, she'd changed her writing style and won first place for a play she wrote for a talent contest at Girl Scout Camp. After that she had to put away her writing aspirations in order to face "real" life for the next thirty years.

For the past fifteen years she has been the president of Murder Mysteries on Call, Inc. She has written ten murder mystery plays and one musical, plus five educational mysteries for schools, short stories and articles, many published. In 2004, her show, Murder in Morocco - the Musical, received seven outstanding achievement awards from the Theater Association of New York State including for outstanding original script and lyrics and costume design. She has performed with Daytona Playhouse where she will be directing in 2006, and her musical will be presented. Her books include "Casino Girl" and "Shadow House" as yet unpublished, but in the process!

Barbara C. Kamholtz

A native of Brooklyn, Barbara remained there with her family through World War II while attending public school. Her interest in writing began as a child when she started composing short stories and poems. She went to college in Long Island where she majored in Business Administration. During her working years, she continued to write and edit articles for private trade and technical schools. She joined a local Long Island writers group, an experience that helped her to develop technique. She retired in 1991 as President and C. E. O. of a private trade and technical school in New York. Wanting to get away from the snow and the cold, she and her husband Robert moved from Long Island to Ormond Beach in 2000. She still spends time writing and continues to participate in the writers’ group activities. Barbara is currently working on a number of short stories and suspense novels. As one of the editors of our anthology, she has generously offered her time and skill to the Ormond Writers’ League.

Robert Kamholtz

A native of Brooklyn, Robert graduated from a trade and technical school there. He began his engineering studies at The New York Institute of Arts and Sciences, completing his education after serving in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. As an engineer, he wrote technical specifications and operating instructions for specialized security electronic devices and systems and developed an interest in writing. In the 1980s, while living on Long Island, he attended local writers’ groups and was inspired to go on to short stories and poems while beginning work on two novels. Many of his articles and essays were published in local newspapers. Robert retired in 1991; in 2000 he and Barbara, his bride of almost 50 years, moved to Ormond Beach to be near their children and grandchildren. He is a certified Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor and has written a comprehensive Firearms Training Manual for Public and Private Police Personnel, which he hopes will be used for training recruits at police academies. He is the current treasurer of the Ormond Writers’ League. His hobbies are traveling, woodworking and teaching firearms’ courses. He’s still writing short stories and novels and hopes to finish a children’s book this year.

Gloria Koehler

Gloria is native Californian. She moved to the opposite coast, Virginia, in 1970, by way of Europe, where she lived and worked for 3 years in Frankfurt, Germany. She met her second husband in Washington, D.C. When he retired, she quit work, and they moved to Palm Coast, Florida.

She has an AA degree in Business and worked for 30 years, in engineering/construction companies. Prior to moving to Florida in 1985, she ended her ten year stint with the US Government. Her career was topped off as a major negotiator for the US Army on the largest computer contract ever awarded by the military, until then, $650 million. At that time she hadn't a clue how to work one of those mysterious things (computers), only the regulations and Government guidelines on how to buy them. EDS was the eventual winner of the contract, and Ross Perot, EDS's owner offered her a job. Although tempting, of course it would have been unethical to accept.

She has spent the past ten years writing a novel titled Scruffy Brown Shoes (with run down heels). Her credentials for writing novels, is writing Government contract clauses, which have little plot but much importance.

Gloria and Donna Pudick have formed Park-East Literary Agency which has been in business since January 4, 2005. They have many clients, a number of whom have written manuscripts Park-East has placed with major publishing houses. Gloria says "Donna is the brains and I am the brawn."

Julie Eberhart Painter

Julie Eberhart Painter was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and educated at Moore Institute of Art, Science and Industry. She married one of her high school sweethearts and moved to Philadelphia. From there the family relocated to Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia and eventually Florida. They have lived in Port Orange seventeen years.

In 1974, before her travels took her to the South Pacific and Julie learned that Goren doesn't rhyme with scorn, her first published poem, a versifier, won honors in the New Zealand Bridge Magazine. Duplicate bridge and volunteering occupied her time until she returned to her first love, writing. More than 300 humorous, motivational or how-to-write published essays, three published books and many short stories later, Julie has returned to poetry.

In her nine years of OWLs membership she has held three of the four offices; none involved numbers!

Christine Raffini

Born in Wisconsin and educated in a convent school there, Christine spent many years studying in Europe—first in Paris, France, then in Perugia, Italy, where she met her husband, Franco. While raising their son, Alexander, she attended a number of universities, ultimately earning a Ph.D at Penn State. Recipient of an NEH grant at Duke University, she also studied creative writing under Nobel laureate, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and the short-story writer, Lester Goran. She taught French and Italian literature at Penn State and at the Universities of Texas and Miami. Until recently, she resided in Mexico City where she worked in four languages as translator and interpreter. She has published many articles and two books: one on the underlying numerical pattern found in a collection of French poetry (Summa Publications); the other on the ways in which the Italian Renaissance synthesis of Platonic, Christian and courtly love influenced thought and behavior in the centuries that followed (Peter Lang). She has published poetry, and has completed two novels as well as the translation of a book by the French author, Jacques Lacarričre. She is working on a third novel, Fear no Evil, set in the south of France during WWII.

On October 8, 2003, the Accent section of the Daytona Beach News-Journal initiated its annual Scary Story Contest with a staff-written Chapter 1, inviting readers to complete the story. The reaction was tremendous. There were 341 entries-each with a unique twist-from readers ranging in age from 8 to 82, divided into three groups: Youth (8-12); Teen (13-19); and Adult (over 20). Christine Raffini, editor of our current anthology, was the winner in the Adult Category.

Ann Waris aka/Katy Clovis

Ann grew up on a farm in Alabama and is well acquainted with the voice of the country people she writes about. Influenced by her grandmother's tales of the early twentieth century, she enjoys writing about the early south.

She received her early writer's training from Wheaton Christian College, in Illinois, and has taken courses in creative writing from local colleges in Leesburg, Florida and her current place of residence, Daytona Beach, Florida.

For many years, as a single mother, she put her writing on hold thinking she had no time for it. Later she wrote free lance articles for a Leesburg newspaper and for six years was editor and publisher of a periodical on recovery for Alcoholics Anonymous.