Barbara Rockwell is happily retired, a reluctant activist, library volunteer, cook and grandmother. She is the author of Boiling Frogs, Intel vs. the Village. She lives in Placitas, New Mexico with her husband of 45 years.

Bernadette began writing while involved in the Women’s Movement in the 1970s. Initially writing women’s poetry, she later published several articles on the Women’s Movement and wrote several feature articles for newspapers. After many moves—three in Ohio, two in Connecticut, four in Massachusetts, two in California, and one in New York—she and her husband Jim are now retired in Palm Coast, Florida. Bernadette has three grown children—a son who is an attorney in international law at den Hague, Netherlands; a son who is a high school geology and environmental studies teacher in New York City Public Schools; and a daughter who is a family practice physician in Monterey Bay, California. She and her husband have six grandchildren.

Conceived in Montana, Beverly was the first baby born in a lumberjack hospital in Laona, Wisconsin, moved to Illinois at three months, already born under a wandering star. She had an epiphany at age 13 to stimulate her further need and lust for travel. She joined the Foreign Service at age 27 and never looked back. Well, that is, until now! Herein are remembrances of postings in Tunisia, Vietnam, Washington, Panama, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Brazil and Australia, along with stateside detours in her career to Chicago and Iowa City.

Gathering credits for a Bachelor of Arts was haphazard as itchy feet prompted her to yet another adventure. She finally attained that degree 20 years after it could have been on her list of accomplishments. After Australia she was in a hiatus awaiting a diplomatic visa for Nicaragua because of US interference in the Iran/Contra affair. After almost ten months of waiting, a TDY to Panama after our invasion there, she reluctantly retired in August 1990. She has lived over 25 years in the Land of Enchantment.

Michigan was the birthplace of Billy. When he reached two years old, his parents moved their family to Utah to be with their relatives. After 12 years they moved once again, this time it was to southern California. The year was 1964. It was an incredible time for our country and the various activities of that day. Billy was sure to see life in a very different way. And indeed he did!!

My dear departed husband accomplished so much. He was an erudite scholar, a B-17 pilot, a war hero, a prisoner of war, a Phi Beta Kappa from Berkeley, recipient of the French Legion of Honor, a father of three, a grandfather of five, an attorney, a diplomat, a loving husband. He lived 92-1/2 years, which gave him plenty of time to write about all of these achievements Instead of concentrating on his very intriguing past, Ed spent much of his life reliving the most poignant, rewarding year or two of his life becoming a pilot, being a pilot, being shot down in WWII, and returning to that crash site in France. For over fifty years he was constantly rewriting his war memoir, inserting other people's memories, other people's poetry, until he made of it a seamless web, and was certainly confusing for a curious reader. I have just sat down to reread his final war memoir, and am resolved to attempt to write a basic straightforward one for a universe he attempted to reach. He departed this mortal coil on October 22, 2016. He had tried to reach out with his story but it was never ending. I endeavor to put something into a tidy book in his name, eliminating other people's war stories and stick with his alone, or those with whom he shared the experience. Beverly LaVigne Ledbetter

Ellen T Leeds, AKA Ellen Kaplowitz, grew up in New Jersey and now resides in Florida. She taught reading to adults, in a public vocational school in Miami, for over 30 years. She has always treasured books, writing, crafting, singing, and people. She lives with her husband Zooey and their two dogs. Their son and daughter-in-law live close by. Family is Ellen’s number one love.

Several of her short stories appear in the books the Red Bikini and Beyond My Window.

Bob's Diner is Ellen's first novel.

Life has been good to Jeanne-Marie in many ways. She enjoyed many learning opportunities and endeavors. Early on she helped start a family painting and decorating business with her two sons and another partner. She started another business selling and installing roofing and siding throughout Rockland County. In New York, she obtained a real estate license. In Florida, she obtained a Series 7 license to sell stocks and bonds. She edited the monthly newsletter of the Adirondack Hiking Club; the hiking trip to Ireland was fantastic. The many courses in art, interior design and architectural studies, through Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY, Parsons School of Design and NYU sharpened her skills. Painting workshops in the US and Europe enhanced her focus. Over the years, she traveled throughout the US, Italy and France broadening her perspective about life and art. Creativity and art have sustained her, writing her latest challenge. Jeanne-Marie remains inquisitive and open to life, even in her older years.

Joann was born and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio, and liked writing short stories and numerous poems for others to read. Two hours after graduating from high school, she moved to Michigan to be with her husband, Bo, who was serving in the Air Force.

Moving to Arizona in 1979 as a young mother of three, Joann went to work in the school district in the Special Education department while completing her Bachelor’s Degree. She earned her Master’s Degree from Northern Arizona University while teaching elementary education.

After over twenty years working in the educational field and living over forty years in Arizona, she retired and now resides in Florida with her husband and two little dogs, Charlie Brown and Lucy.

Joann has been married for over fifty years, has three grown children and is a grandmother to seven.

Judy Fink Mercer was born in New York and grew up in Queens. She has since lived in Greenwich Village; Columbus, Ohio; Miami, Florida and now in Greensboro, North Carolina. She received a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Ohio State University at the age of forty-two. She has traveled extensively – across Europe, to Tunisia, and to remote areas of Patagonia in the 1970s. After her husband, John, died in 1987, she moved back to Miami to be closer to family. There, she attended years of writing classes and had eight short, personal stories published in “Tropic,” the Miami Herald’s now defunct Sunday Magazine. In Greensboro, she spent many years taking watercolor classes, and her paintings adorn all her walls. She has a daughter, Jane, and two teenage grandchildren who live in England.

Regine Rayevsky Fisher was born in Moscow, U.S.S.R., where she received the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts degrees in both music and literature. Upon emigrating to the United States, she entered Columbia University’s School of the Arts Writing Program, receiving an M.F.A. in 1993. She began to write in English in the late 1980’s and has written plays, poetry, song lyrics, and short stories. Regine has taught piano, voice, and Russian language and literature, including most recently at the University of Miami. She has been published in various literary magazines, and one of her short stories won an award from Columbia University that led to her reading it at the KGB Club in downtown New York. Her latest work consists of two collections of short stories entitled Dance Me to the End of Love, Volumes 1 and 2. She lives in Miami with her husband, children, and a small dog named Gemma.

Ted was born and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio but has since lived and worked a total of twenty-seven years abroad--in Brazil, Costa Rica, Portugal, Thailand, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Mozambique. His first overseas experience was as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. After that, he was the Director of the Boston University International Student Office. In overseas postings, he worked as a high school English teacher, school principal, school counselor, and director of a university placement office. He and his wife Leslie live in Coral Gables/Miami, Florida, and have three adult children.