Debbie Jackson

Debbie Jackson is a devoted educator. She is active in a local homeschool support group, and offers her services as both a writing and math tutor to local homeschool students. Having spent many years as a homeschooling mom and local homeschool support group leader, Debbie is now finding the time to branch out into other areas. She is a co-owner of Live & Learn Press which specializes in lapbooks and unit studies. This keeps her actively researching and writing a good deal of the time, and that's exactly how she likes it! Debbie is also on the Board of Directors of the local Friends of the Library where she spends a great deal of time working. The current initiative is to build a branch in an area of the county that is without library access. It is a very exciting prospect to be involved in building a library where one has never been.

Debbie lives with her husband, their daughter, one husky, and two cocker spaniels in central North Carolina. She spends the lion's share of her time in her home office which is being slowly redecorated with a beach theme to remind her of the vacations she and her family share at Myrtle Beach, SC.

Elizabeth Jones

Elizabeth Jones is a writer and illustrator. She and her husband live on a small farm in Mill Run, PA. Liz has always wanted to be a writer and illustrator. She has also always loved children. As a teen, she babysat for fifteen local families, and volunteered summers at a center for children with developmental delays. She attended the University of Pittsburgh, where she had the opportunity to coach middle school children on public speaking during her freshman year. She published her first poem in Pig Iron Press during her undergraduate years, and won numerous poetry awards, including an honorable mention in the Academy of American Poets Prize. She majored in psychology, philosophy, and English writing. In 1990, she received a BA and a BS from the College of Arts and Sciences, and a BPhil from the University Honors College. She earned a master’s degree in social work at Pitt, and worked for 7 years at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. During this time she also took classes in a doctoral program in anthropology. She continued to write stories, and encouraged her clients to write as part of their therapy. When her daughter was born in 1999, Liz became a stay-at-home mom, and has never looked back.

On their farm, Liz and her family have delivered lambs, hand-sheared sheep, and kept bees. They have counted as part of their household 12 cats, two dogs, various poultry, rabbits, a horse, a donkey, and a peacock. Liz has learned to paddle a whitewater kayak, and to take small children hiking and camping (and enjoy the process!). She plays classical cello, and sings and plays the fiddle in a bluegrass band. She is teaching her kids to play music, and they are all learning clogging together.

Liz tries to bring her life experiences into her writing when possible. She is a member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and has recently had articles and artwork accepted for publication in Kid: Time Magazine and Highlights. She also attends a twice-a-month writing group in Pittsburgh. She feels that good writing is a lifelong learning process, and enjoys helping others to find and strengthen their voices.

Lisa Kaufman

Lisa Kaufman tussles nightly with tortured copy as a news editor for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in picturesque Pittsburgh, Pa. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor’s in English literature with honors (with a specialization in creative writing) from Oberlin College in Ohio. She has been a reporter, columnist and editor for daily newspapers in California and Pennsylvania for more than 20 years. She and her family live in the same messy brick house she grew up in on the edge of a deciduous wood in southwestern Pennsylvania.

MJ Keatts

MJ Keatts is a mother of three, a preschool teacher, and an award-winning editor with more than 10 years of experience. She began writing and editing at James Madison University as a reporter and then the features editor of her college newspaper. After graduating college, she became a reporter on Capitol Hill for health care and child protection newsletter organizations. She later became an editor for an award-winning community association newsletter and compiled and edited several books on the operations of community associations. Not only does she take great pride in her own work, but she also thoroughly enjoys teaching others how to write effectively. Mrs. Keatts believes that writing is an invaluable skill that every child and adult must possess in today's world; therefore, she is currently developing a proofreading and an editing course for a Richmond, Virginia community college. Mrs. Keatts' love of writing and zest for learning will enable her to coach and challenge your child to new heights through the written word.

Maureen Klock

Maureen Klock has always loved words. At age 7, she wrote her first essay about “aardvarks” because she wanted to start at the beginning of the alphabet and write her way through the dictionary. Since that time, Maureen has received an Honorable Mention in the national Scholastic Art & Writing Competition; studied theater at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England; earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from Harpur College at the State University of New York at Binghamton; and taught Composition and Literature courses to adults and bridge students at her local community college. Over the last 20 years, Maureen has written award-winning advertising, some of which has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, USA Today, Metropolitan Home and Publishers Weekly. Maureen labors over the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle, revels in the riches of her local libraries and concocts challenging games for the family guinea pig. But the moments she enjoys most are those she spends with her teenage daughter.

Jennifer Simmons Kuzbary

Jennifer first saw her words in newsprint at age seven when The Arlington Journal published one of her poems in its "Poet's Corner" feature. A few years later, while other students were suffering through forced and torturous sentence diagramming in high school English, delighted herself with the rhythm and motion of sentence structure, happily dissecting and labeling each part for her favorite teacher. In college, she chose English Composition as a major and minored in journalism. After graduating from University of North Texas in 1984 (then, NTSU), she held various positions but mostly she worked as a computer software technical writer, for ten years. She has written various articles and newsletters related to home education and has taught a creative writing class.

Lindsey Leite

Lindsey was born and raised in South Africa to Scottish immigrant parents, before moving to London with her husband ten years ago. They now live in North Kent with their new, baby daughter, Juliana, and two Burmilla cats called Gizmo and Gremlin.

Lindsey has been working as a freelance writer and journalist for over five years and before that had a variety of jobs including Recruitment Consultant, Account Manager and Veterinary assistant. She also worked in a theatre for many years where she was variously Box Office Manager, Front of House Manager, a dresser and she even had a walk-on role in one of the shows!

At school Lindsey loved English and was editor and contributor on school magazines. She was active in the drama club and was awarded prizes for acting and directing. She has done a Toastmasters course and loves writing speeches and debating. With her skills as a recruiter, Lindsey often helps people prepare their resume and covering letter to try and clinch an interview.

When she isn’t busy being Mom, Lindsey writes for a range of magazines and newspapers where opinion pieces and humour are her speciality. Some of her work has been translated into Dutch for syndication in a magazine in Holland.

She has also written a highly successful series of radio advertising jingles for a clothing store in South Africa and Botswana and has written a series of IT user guides for a bespoke software system (not the most riveting job in the world!).

A keen reader, Lindsey is fond of Alexander McCall Smith’s books about Botswana (The Ladies’ Number One Detective Agency Series) and Scotland (44 Scotland Street, Love Over Scotland etc.), both places with which she can identify. She also enjoys crime writing (James Paterson, Michael Connelly) and historical non-fiction.

Ginger Lockamy

Ginger graduated from Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC in 1998 with a B.A. in English and minors in Secondary Education and Psychology. She taught public school for five years, working mostly with 9th graders. After her daughter was born in January of 2003, Ginger decided to stay at home full-time. Ginger started teaching English-related classes to homeschoolers in the area, which helped financially and also allowed Ginger to keep doing what she enjoyed, teaching. She is in her 4th year of teaching English classes for homeschoolers in SC, and she has taught such subjects as research, grammar, composition, poetry, Shakespeare, literary analysis, and mythology. In December of 2004, she received her Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina. Hiking, reading, and scrapbooking are also ways that Ginger enjoys passing time.

Susan Lyttek

Susan Lyttek, an award winning writer, has always loved to write, but didn’t arrive at the profession in the typical manner. Graduating with a B.A. in International Economics and an M.A. in Management and Supervision she plunged into business and government consulting. In this environment, she discovered a knack for writing tests, interviews and other measurement tools. Soon, that became the focus of her career—reigniting her love for the written word. She began to spend her nights freelancing with “fun” writing including short stories, poems, articles and cards. Finally, in 1995, she quit the 9-5 work world to stay home, write and raise her then 14-month son. Since preschool she has homeschooled two sons as well as continuing to freelance. She has also developed and taught writing classes to her local homeschool groups. Married to her childhood sweetheart, Gary, since 1983, Susan Lyttek loves to share her commitment to students and her fascination with the written word.