 Anna Olswanger lives in the Metro New York area where she heads Olswanger Literary, a boutique literary agency she founded in 2014. Her clients' books have won the Newbery Honor, Boston Globe Horn Book Nonfiction Honor, and been on The New York Times Bestseller list. Anna is the author of SHLEMIEL CROOKS, a Sydney Taylor Honor Book and PJ Library Book; GREENHORN, adapted to film and named an Audience Award Winner for Best Short Film Drama at the 2015 Memphis Jewish Film Festival; and A VISIT TO MOSCOW, a 2023 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee. A Visit to Moscow is based on the true story of Rabbi Rafael Grossman’s secret journey into the heart of the Soviet Union. What drew you personally to this story, and how did you approach adapting such a harrowing yet hopeful historical moment for readers today? Rabbi Rafael Grossman and I began collaborating on writing projects in the early 1980s. One of our first projects was a Holocaust novel with a character based on his cousin, a leader of the Jewish resistance in the Bialystok ghetto. As we planned out the storyline, Rabbi Grossman told me about an incident during a trip he made in 1965 to the Soviet Union, where he met a young boy whose parents were Holocaust survivors. The boy had never been outside the room he was born in. We included the incident in the book and got about a hundred pages in before the rabbi had to focus on other obligations. We never finished the novel, and then in 2018 Rabbi Grossman died. I hadn’t thought about the manuscript for years until his daughter sent me a box of the writings he and I had once worked on. There, in the box, were the hundred pages of the novel. I was intrigued and dug out the notes from my own files. As I read through them, I realized that along the way I had lost the thread of what had really happened and what we had come up with for the storyline. I didn’t know if I was reading fact or fiction in my notes. But what was clear to me was the message of the rabbi’s story: Each of us can make this world a better place, even if only for a few people. I knew I wanted to get the story published, but because I couldn’t separate out the facts, it wasn’t possible to publish it as nonfiction. My editor suggested that I write it as historical fiction, and that is how we went forward with A Visit to Moscow—“Adapted by Anna Olswanger from a story told by Rabbi Rafael Grossman.” The book captures both the political tension of the 1960s and the spiritual endurance of the Jewish people. How did you balance historical accuracy with emotional storytelling in bringing that atmosphere to life? Developing the book as historical fiction was one way of achieving the balance, but I also added what I hoped was an element of timelessness by imagining the adult Zev in the opening and ending. The view of the world as an extraordinary place sustained Zev as a young boy, whether in the one room in Moscow where he could only peek out the window or later, when his family was able to leave the Soviet Union and go to Israel, in the openness of the land and cities of Israel. I think for him, being alive on this earth was like being in heaven. In the opening, I imagined the adult Zev, who has just died, looking down at the area in Lebanon where he had stepped on a land mine. He sees the lush landscape—a river, haze, the ruins of a rampart. He thinks he’s looking down from heaven. And then everything starts to disappear. He can’t remember his name or who he was. He hears a voice and follows it. He sees a man (later we realize it is the fictional version of Rabbi Grossman) at his Shabbat table with his family. The man is about to tell his family the story of his meeting a young boy named Zev during a visit to Moscow in 1965. At the end, the adult Zev remembers all the events in the book, realizes he has died, and remembers he has been alive. I wrote, “He remembers being alive was like being in heaven” as a way to capture the timelessness of his story. You collaborated with illustrator Yevgenia Nayberg, herself a former Soviet Jew. How did her visual interpretation shape or deepen the narrative you originally envisioned? I feel that Yevgenia had a clear vision of the atmosphere of the story because of her own experience in the Soviet Union. In an interview just after the book came out, she said that finding the right light to set the visual mood, which she did by combining luminosity and fog, was the most satisfying part of this project for her.. She included several textless panels throughout the book to alter the pace, and noted that while the main events of the novel happened in the summer, her winter panel of snowy Moscow showed the passage of time without words. In that same interview, Yevgenia talked about the challenge of keeping the composition dynamic because there isn't much physicality in the story. The scenes are mostly limited to two to three people. However, there is internal action throughout the text, and Yevgenia said she was able to both slow down and speed up the narrative through her images and vision of the atmosphere of the story. Much of your work—from Shlemiel Crooks to Greenhorn and now A Visit to Moscow—connects the Jewish experience across generations. What continues to draw you back to these stories of faith, resilience, and identity? I think that what all three books have in common, and what draws me to them, is the element of hiddenness. In Shlemiel Crooks, there is a talking horse that no one hears but who saves Reb Elias’ shipment of Passover wine from robbers. In Greenhorn there is the little box with its secret contents that the young Holocaust survivor won’t let out of his sight. And in A Visit to Moscow, there is the hidden child Zev. I asked Rabbi Grossman what Zev was like, and he told me that he never played, but he loved to imagine things. “What are shuls like in America?” he asked Rabbi Grossman. “What’s a Torah like? What do children do?” Rabbi Grossman said Zev showed no resentment at having never been outside his parents’ apartment. Rabbi Grossman thought it was because of the incredible love his parents showed him. He told me that it didn’t make what they did right, but it did make for an emotionally healthy child, one who had been hidden from the influence of the communist government. The book has been recognized by the Eisner Awards and praised for its haunting simplicity. What conversations do you hope A Visit to Moscow will spark among readers—especially those unfamiliar with the “spiritual Holocaust” faced by Soviet Jews? I hope that the book will raise discussions about the risks that Jews have taken throughout history to preserve their religious ideals. I would like readers to consider the ideals that would be important enough for them to take risks for. I would also like them to think about the meaning of the line, “He remembers being alive was like being in heaven,” and how they might conceive of this world, with all its pain and imperfections, as being like heaven. And, I would like them to consider the epigraph of A Visit to Moscow, “Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world” and ask themselves if they could imagine a time when they could apply that epigraph to their own life. Website: https://www.olswanger.com/
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 Patricia Leavy, PhD is novelist, sociologist, and arts advocate (formerly Associate Professor of Sociology, Founding Director of Gender Studies and Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology at Stonehill College). She is widely considered the world's most visible proponent of arts-based research, which merges the arts and sciences. Patricia has published over 50 books, nonfiction and fiction, and her work has been translated into numerous languages. She has received over 100 book awards. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2016 Mogul, a global women’s empowerment network, named her an “Influencer.” In 2018, she was honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the State University of New York at New Paltz established the “Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice.” In recent years, her passion has turned to penning romance novels. What inspired you to write The Artist Academic, and how does it reflect your own experiences as both a scholar and an artist? The question I’m most frequently asked is: “How did you do it?” The question can mean slightly different things. How did you go from academic to commercial novelist? How did you develop an audience in two worlds? How did you find success as a free agent? I tend to think people are really asking: How did you build the career and life you wanted, and how might I do the same? I wrote this book as an attempt to answer that question. In the book, I talk about my experiences as both an academic and as a novelist, reviewing the “messy gut checks” that led to “turning points” which ultimately enabled me to build the life I wanted to live. Were there pivotal moments in your academic career that made you realize the need to merge scholarship with creativity? I had what was considered an enviable academic career—early tenure, promotion, a long cv filled with publications—and yet I felt unfulfilled. It didn’t seem like my work mattered beyond my own job security. This persistent nagging feeling spurred many moments when I questioned the traditional system of producing academic scholarship. The reality is that most academic scholarship is completely inaccessible to the public. It circulates in expensive, jargon-filled, highly specialized academic journals which are housed in universities. Journal articles are poorly read within the academy too. For the most part, no one wants to read this stuff. Yet a lot of academic scholarship is centered on interesting topics that people care about. So I felt there had to be a different way to do and share this work for those of us who wish to speak to the many, not the few. I started dabbling with creative approaches to research, such as using poetry and literary writing. I never looked back. How did your early experiences in academia shape the perspective you share in this book? We live in a world in which we compare our insides to others’ outsides. For example, social media is generally people’s highlight reels. It’s not a reflection of the totality of their lives. Yet we can look at the good things happening to someone else or their pretty pictures and compare it to our own lives, often feeling badly, like we don’t measure up. The same thing can be true in our professional lives. Our careers may look enviable to the outside, but on the inside, we may be unfulfilled. So, I wanted to pull the curtain back. The truth is that in many ways I had a wonderful early career in academia and that’s certainly how it looked on paper. But it’s the difference between looking good and feeling good. I wanted to show people that even if something looks good to everyone else, if it doesn’t feel good to you, it’s okay to make a change. In the end, there’s nothing better than finding your true calling and living your purpose. Can you describe a moment when you felt tension between the expectations of academia and your artistic ambitions? When I first began writing novels, I was working with academic publishers. I positioned my work as “social fiction”—fiction grounded in scholarly concerns. The publishers I worked with wanted all kinds of supplemental material to accompany each novel. For example prefaces and afterwords where the process and citations were made clear, discussion questions linking the novel to social science themes, and so on. Some even wanted long subtitles listing the “academic” themes in the novels, although I successfully resisted that demand. There came a time when my novels started to be read more outside the academy. General readers hated the “extra” material. They did not want to be told what to think about a novel they were reading. I knew they were right. Academics are taught to detail every aspect of their research, including their process and how they’re influenced by others. Art doesn’t work the same way. Novels should not have footnotes. You need to let the art stand on its own and allow people to interpret it as they will. What were the biggest obstacles you faced in balancing your scholarly work with creative projects, and how did you overcome them? Often in life, we are our own biggest obstacle, and this was true for me. First, I needed to let go of fears about what people might think and the rejection and criticism I might face. The truth is if there’s no critique it doesn’t mean work was well received, it more likely means it wasn’t received at all. Any work that finds an audience beyond our immediate friends and peers will face some criticism. That’s part of the process. I needed to stop trying to please everyone. It’s a losing battle anyway. So I worked on my own mindset, got clear about the intentions behind my work, and stopped making compromises to make it more palatable to others. How have gender or institutional biases influenced your journey, and how do you address these challenges in your book? Like many, I’ve dealt with biases and other roadblocks in both the academy and the publishing industry. Learning to navigate those obstacles, and sometimes bad players, has been an important part of my story so I didn’t shy away from recounting a few examples. These weren’t fun experiences, and neither was writing about them, but I felt it would be a disservice to readers to exclude some of these harsh realities. My hope is that by sharing my experiences it prevents others from having to do the same, and at a minimum gives them some tools and strategies if they do face these challenges. It’s also important that people know they are not alone. I’ve had bad experiences and still found success and personal happiness. Others can do the same. Did writing The Artist Academic uncover any unexpected insights about yourself or your career path? Absolutely. Writing is always a great way to reflect and connect the dots. There are things we don’t really notice when they happen because they don’t seem that remarkable, but in hindsight we can see their significance. For example, I never really thought about how many people in my early life set me on a path. My maternal grandmother who made up magical stories, my high school friends who loved to talk about philosophy, the artists I met in graduate school. There are some people, books, and films I always remembered as major influences, but really, there were many more and they played a bigger role than I realized. I also noticed how many times in my career something that felt like a horrible setback led to something much better. During the lived experience, it didn’t always feel that way, but in writing the book I could see how each step back led to many forward. That was a happy surprise. For scholars who feel “stuck” in traditional academic roles, what first steps would you recommend to start embracing their creative side? Try experimenting, without expectations. Take interview research and try to write a poem. Take ethnographic research and write a short story. Just begin where you are with whatever you have. There are writing activities at the end of The Artist Academic that are a great place to start. One is to write a letter to yourself about your career as it is and as you wish it to be. Get honest. What do you really want your career to look and feel like? What would it take to get there? The suggestions at the end of the book are designed to help you identify “messy gut checks” in your own career, which inevitably put you on the path to turning points. How can academics create space for creativity while meeting institutional demands and deadlines? It’s always challenging balancing the demands on our time. I’m a huge believer in creating a writing discipline (or artistic discipline). Carve out specific time in your schedule for creativity—whether that’s daily, a couple times a week, or whatever works. No scrolling, emails, etc. during that time. Use every minute of it—even if that’s staring at a blank screen and thinking. Consider that time sacred. If you had a meeting with someone else you would show up. Show up for yourself. Don’t break promises to yourself. You discuss building a public creative voice—what strategies or practices do you suggest for those new to this process? Learning to write for or speak to different audiences is a great skill. I suggest starting by writing a blog or op-ed. You don’t need to publish it. It’s practice for learning how to take your ideas and share them with a public audience. I spent a lot of time on this, and it really paid off in more ways than I could have imagined. Doing a practice interview is another strategy. If you have a creative work such as a novel, play, or collection of visual art, or a literary nonfiction project such as a memoir, write down some interview questions someone might ask you about the work and answer them. It’s a great way to get comfortable speaking about your work in public, and again, there’s no pressure, it’s just for practice. Website: https://patricialeavy.com
Faceboook: www.facebook.com/WomenWhoWrite Instagram: www.instagram.com/patricialeavy X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/PatriciaLeavy Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Artist-Academic-Literary-Scholar/dp/1737862441/  Donna Dalton is an educator with 40 years of school experience. Donna currently lives in Manakin Sabot, Virginia, with her husband, Bob. She is a mother and grandmother who loves to travel. When retired, she wrote her first book, Two Mice at the Eiffel Tower, based on a visit to Paris over 25 years ago. Donna has built upon her travel experiences to write her second book in the Two Mice travel series, Two Mice in London. Since then, she has written her third book, Two Mice in New York: A Holiday Adventure, her fourth book, Two Mice on Safari, her fifth book, Two Mice in Ireland, and her sixth book, Two Mice in Italy. Her newest book, Two Mice in the Bahamas, was written during her 2024 travels to the Bahamas with her family, Robbie, Ellen, Tyler, and Kinsley. What inspired you to create Azura and Afrodille, two French mice, as the stars of this holiday adventure in New York City? I held onto an idea for a children’s book for over twenty-five years. It all started with a trip to Paris with my family. As my husband and I were taking a break from tours and visiting sights, we took a minute to sit on the bench by the Eiffel Tower to take in the magnificence of this structure. My eyes quickly caught something moving by my feet. After further investigation, I quickly realized tiny grey mice were in the greenery by our feet, nibbling on leftovers from tourists. I certainly was not expecting to see mice by the Eiffel Tower. This unexpected sight sparked inspiration, and I turned to my husband and enthusiastically claimed, “I’m going to write a book someday about the mice at the Eiffel Tower!” Keeping that idea in my head for decades, I could never abandon that silly thought. Once I retired, I started to write my first children’s book, Two Mice at the Eiffel Tower. Afrodille and Azura became my two inquisitive French mice looking for a way to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower with their friend Madame Bella. While writing this fictional story, I aimed to educate children about Paris, France, and the Eiffel Tower while they enjoyed the narrative. The plot for the two mice to reach the top of the tower involves 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and cultural awareness. My website features various activities that align with the skills of teachers and their students as they explore this title and a series of Two Mice children’s books. My two French mice have continued to travel to London, New York (during the holidays), Africa, Ireland, Italy, and the Bahamas. The story beautifully weaves in major holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve. Why was it important for you to highlight multiple celebrations in one children’s book? I want readers to learn all about the cities where my two French mice visit - the geography, major tourist attractions, food, and the culture. New York, for me, was also a celebration of the holidays from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's Eve. I wanted children to experience the Macy's Day Parade, the Rockefeller Christmas Tree, the nativity scene near Central Park, the world's largest Menorah in Central Park, and the ball dropping at New Year's. in Times Square. As a former educator, how did your teaching experience influence the way you shaped this story for young readers? Retiring after 40 years as an educator left a void in my heart, a longing to stay connected with students. Born and raised in Richmond, my career in Henrico County and Chesterfield County was always about local students and their successes. But what next after retirement? The answer was a childhood dream to become a children’s writer, a new way to connect with young minds and continue the joy of teaching in a different form. New York City itself becomes a character in the book, with landmarks like Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and Central Park. How did you decide which places the mice would visit in their search for the missing star? As an author, I wanted to highlight places that I visited in New York City to share with readers. My husband surprised me one year with a trip to New York, where we witnessed the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. It was a dream come true to see this happen in real time after watching it yearly on television. As I wrote the story of the two mice visiting New York, I wanted to highlight the crucial attractions for students. One reader's grandmother told me that her granddaughter was thrilled to visit New York and experience all the attractions mentioned in the book. Two Mice in New York brings the holidays and attractions to life for students who are lucky enough to visit this magnificent city. And, for students who have not traveled yet, it gives them a taste of the extraordinary events and places that I hope they might experience one day. The book also introduces Frankie the subway rat and his “rat pack.” What role do these characters play in teaching children about friendship, teamwork, or problem-solving? Frankie is a new character who helps the two mice find a way to reach the top of the Empire State Building. Using collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking skills, Frankie and his team of rats help the two mice reach an open window in the Empire State Building. As a result of this teamwork, Frankie and the two mice become friends, joining together to light the Rockefeller Christmas Tree with its new star (spoiler alert). Website: https://www.2-mice.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/donnadalton2mice Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donnadaltontwomice Twitter: https://x.com/DonnaMcDalton Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Two-Mice-New-York-Adventure/dp/0578651467  Mary Vassallo Slinkard’s journey from the courtroom to the literary world is as compelling as the mysteries she writes. With over two decades as a successful commercial litigator, Mary honed her analytical skills and deep understanding of human nature – the perfect ingredients for crafting edge-of-your-seat suspense novels. Her debut, Her Final Gamble, is a masterful tale of death and deception, unraveling the hidden secrets of a high-society family in the Philadelphia suburbs. Spanning three decades of lies, betrayal, and intrigue, this riveting story keeps readers guessing until the very last page. But the story doesn’t end there. Fans won’t have to wait long for the sequel, as Mary’s captivating protagonist, Jacqueline Stone, returns for another thrilling adventure that promises even more danger, drama, and intrigue. Mary Vassallo Slinkard is a fresh and fearless voice in the mystery genre, delivering stories that linger long after the final chapter. Your career as a commercial litigator spanned more than two decades. How did your experiences in real courtrooms inform the creation of Jacqueline Stone, and where did you allow fiction to take over? My twenty-plus years in the courtroom shaped Jacqueline Stone in every way. I’ve been in real courtrooms, in real pressure, facing real stakes, and that experience gave me a deep understanding of how people behave when truth is on the line — the confidence, the fear, the strategy, and the emotional undercurrent you don’t always see from the outside. As a litigator, I learned something that became the heart of Jacqueline’s character: women can command a room every bit as powerfully as men, but often in completely different ways. Authenticity, intuition, empathy — those were strengths I leaned on, not weaknesses. That blend of professionalism, poise, and unapologetic femininity very much comes from my own life. Where fiction takes over is the scale — the secrets, the danger, the twists that would never fit neatly into any courtroom I’ve ever practiced in. In real life, cases unfold slowly and quietly; in fiction, I was able to amplify the drama, raise the stakes, and build a world where every character has something to hide. But Jacqueline herself? Her instincts, her flaws, her grit, and her grace — those are rooted in very real courtroom lessons. The fiction is the plot. Jacqueline Stone is both a brilliant attorney and a woman grappling with profound personal loss. How did you balance her strength and vulnerability to create a protagonist readers could root for? Jacqueline’s strength comes from the same place her vulnerability lives — her humanity. I wanted her to be a woman who could walk into a courtroom and own it with intelligence, intuition, and authenticity, but who also carries real wounds and real grief. To me, those qualities aren’t opposites; they’re inseparable. After decades as an attorney, I learned that the strongest people are often the ones who are willing to acknowledge their fears, their doubts, and their heartbreak — and still move forward. That’s who Jacqueline is. She’s brilliant and capable, but she’s also rebuilding herself after unimaginable loss. I let her be confident and competent, but also messy, scared, unsure at times — because that’s what makes her relatable. You root for her not just because she’s strong, but because she’s strong in spite of everything she’s been through. Her grit and her grace work together, and that balance is what makes her journey feel authentic and inspiring. The novel begins with Jacqueline surviving the accident that kills her husband and son. Why did you choose to begin her journey in such a devastating place, and how does that loss drive her search for redemption? I started Jacqueline’s story at the moment of her greatest heartbreak because loss has a way of stripping life down to its bare truth. When everything familiar is taken from her — her husband, her child, her sense of safety, even her belief in herself — she’s forced to confront who she is without the roles she used to hide behind. I didn’t want a protagonist who simply stepped into her power; I wanted one who earned it. Someone who had to crawl through grief, self-doubt, and guilt before she could stand again. Beginning in that devastating place gives every victory, every moment of courage, so much more weight. That loss becomes the engine behind her redemption. It drives her to find answers she once ran from. It forces her to trust instincts she stopped believing in. And it transforms her — not into a perfect person, but into a stronger, wiser, more fearless version of herself. Her journey isn’t just about solving a case. It’s about reclaiming her life. Mystery writers often rely on twists and red herrings. How does your legal background—where parsing evidence and questioning motive is paramount— shape the way you construct suspense? My legal background shapes everything about the way I build suspense. As a litigator, you learn quickly that every story has layers, every witness has an agenda, and every piece of evidence has a story it’s trying to tell — or a truth it’s trying to hide. That mindset naturally translates into how I write twists and red herrings. In a courtroom, you’re constantly asking: What makes sense? What doesn’t? Who benefits? Who’s lying by omission rather than outright? That’s exactly how I approach suspense. I construct the story the way I would build a case — placing clues in plain sight, letting motives unfold slowly, and allowing the reader to question everyone, even the people they trust. And honestly, my love of suspense thrillers is what fuels the rest. I grew up devouring books where the answers were always just out of reach, where the smallest overlooked detail turned out to be the key to everything. I wanted to bring that same sense of tension and discovery to my writing. So the twists in my novels are a mix of two worlds: the disciplined logic of a lawyer trained to dismantle a story, and the instinctive curiosity of a lifelong mystery reader who loves being surprised. A traumatized child is central to this story. What drew you to exploring justice through the eyes of someone so young and vulnerable, and what challenges did that pose for your writing? As a mother of four, I know firsthand how fierce and instinctive the drive is to protect your children. I had complicated pregnancies and serious medical scares, and we came close to losing both of my sons. That kind of fear — that raw, primal pain — stays with you. It changes you. It teaches you what it means to fight for a child with everything you have. So when I created a traumatized child in this story, I knew I was tapping into a wound I understood deeply: the terror of almost losing a child, and the lingering fear of what could happen if you do. That personal experience made the tragedy at the heart of the book feel real and powerful to me, because I’ve lived versions of that heartbreak. At the same time, I did a lot of research into trauma, especially how violence impacts children. And honestly, I could only imagine the emotional devastation of witnessing something as horrifying as your mother’s murder. It made me write with more care, more restraint, and more responsibility. The challenge was balancing authenticity with sensitivity. I wanted the child’s pain to be real, not sensationalized. I wanted readers to feel his fear and confusion, but also to see his strength and resilience. And I wanted Jacqueline — who knows grief intimately — to see herself in him, to recognize that protecting this child isn’t just her job, it’s part of her own healing. Exploring justice through the eyes of someone so young forces every adult character to confront what truly matters. It raises the stakes, heightens the emotion, and reminds us that behind every legal battle is a human life — often the most vulnerable one in the room. The book’s title, The Final Gamble, suggests high stakes both professionally and personally. What does “gamble” mean to Jacqueline—and to you as the author— within the context of this story? For Jacqueline, the “gamble” is about more than a legal strategy or a risky case. It’s about trusting herself again after her entire world has collapsed. She’s lost her husband, her child, her confidence, and at moments, even her identity. Taking on this case forces her to bet on the one thing she’s not sure she can rely on anymore—her own instincts. It’s the gamble of stepping back into the courtroom when she’s terrified she no longer belongs there. It’s the gamble of believing she can still protect someone when she couldn’t save the people she loved most. And it’s the gamble of letting herself feel again, knowing how devastating loss can be. For me, the “gamble” lives on a completely different level—but a real one. I took a gamble on a second career. Writing a book after spending decades in the legal world is terrifying. A novel feels like a child you send out into the world—you hope people love it, understand it, connect with it. And I took an even bigger gamble by weaving epilepsy into my protagonist’s story. Sharing something so personal, something I’ve struggled with privately, required a level of vulnerability I’d never shown publicly before. But it mattered to me. It was always my dream to write a book with a heroine who wasn’t perfect—who had flaws, fear, and a very real condition—and still rose. I wanted to take a gamble on myself. And I wanted my four children to see their mother do something brave, something completely new, something that scared her—but something she believed in anyway. If they learn anything from this book, I hope it’s that dreams don’t expire, and courage isn’t the absence of fear—it’s moving forward in spite of it. You set your work in and around the Philadelphia suburbs. How does place function in your novels—do you see the city itself as a kind of character in the story? Absolutely. Philadelphia is very much a character in my stories. It’s a place with layers — old money and new money, tradition and reinvention, grit and elegance — and those contrasts create a natural tension that’s perfect for a suspense novel. The Main Line still carries that quiet, blue-blood history, but it sits right next to neighborhoods driven by ambition, passion, and resilience. That blend is uniquely Philadelphia. I’ve lived here my entire life, except for the years I left for school in Boston, and I love this city. Its personality is loud, loyal, raw, and honest — and those qualities inevitably shape my characters. Jacqueline Stone doesn’t just live near Philadelphia; she belongs to it. Her toughness, her heart, her flaws, and her fire all come from the same place that raised me. So yes, the city itself becomes a character — one with attitude, charm, history, and an intensity that matches the emotional weight of the story. Philadelphia isn’t just the backdrop. It’s the heartbeat. Women attorneys often navigate reputational scrutiny differently than men. How much of Jacqueline’s exile from her firm echoes the real challenges you observed—or experienced—in your legal career? Thankfully, I was never exiled from my firm — Jacqueline’s exit is pure fiction in that sense — but the underlying truth is still very real. Women in the legal profession do navigate scrutiny differently. There are biases, spoken and unspoken, that shape how we’re seen, how we’re judged, and how quickly mistakes or setbacks stick to us compared to our male counterparts. What I gave Jacqueline was the emotional reality of what many women feel, even if we don’t experience it as dramatically as she does: that sense of being watched a little more closely, expected to justify our decisions a little more carefully, and having to prove ourselves in ways men often don’t. In my own career, I’ve seen women walk a much narrower tightrope — balancing authority with likability, strength with approachability, and confidence with humility. It’s an exhausting dance at times, and it absolutely informed how I wrote Jacqueline’s professional downfall and her rise back into her own power. So while I wasn’t pushed out of a firm, I understand the terrain she’s walking. Women lawyers have to navigate differently — not because we’re less capable, but because the world still evaluates us through a different lens. And giving that struggle to Jacqueline allowed me to explore both the frustration and the fierce resilience that so many women lawyers embody. Your books delve into decades of hidden betrayals and lies. What fascinates you about secrets, and why do you think readers are drawn to stories where the past refuses to stay buried? I’ve always been fascinated by human motivation. My bachelor’s degree is in psychology for a reason — I love figuring out what makes people tick. Most of us, deep down, are good people. But we all have insecurities, fears, and moments where emotion overrides logic. We make choices we would never make in a calm, rational moment. And we hide those moments, because we want the world to see the version of ourselves we’re proud of — not the one we’re afraid of. That’s what secrets are: the parts of us we’d rather never have exposed. And that tension — between who we are and who we pretend to be — is endlessly compelling. It’s messy, it’s human, and it’s relatable, even if the circumstances are extreme in a thriller. Readers are drawn to stories where the past won’t stay buried because, on some level, we all know what that feels like. We all carry memories, regrets, or choices that linger. Watching characters confront those secrets on the page gives us a safe way to explore the darker corners of human behavior — the why behind the lie, the fear behind the betrayal, and the hope that even the truth we run from can set us free. To me, that’s the heart of suspense: not just what happened, but why someone did it. And once you start pulling at that thread, you can’t stop. Jacqueline Stone returns in your next book. Without giving too much away, what can readers expect from her evolution, and how do you envision her role in shaping a series that blends legal drama with psychological suspense? Jacqueline is a different woman in the next book. In Her Final Gamble, I hinted that the car accident that killed her husband and son might not have been a simple tragedy — and in the new story, she’s forced to confront pieces of her past she’s tried very hard to avoid. Readers will learn more about her backstory, her marriage, and the emotional scars she carries. Not everything — I like unfolding her history slowly — but enough to show that grief and truth are more complicated than she ever realized. She’s still the smart, capable attorney readers rooted for, but now she’s navigating a deeper internal conflict: Does she let the possibility of revenge pull her into a darkness she may not come back from? That moral struggle is central to her evolution. She’s learning that the line between justice and vengeance isn’t always clear — and that sometimes the answers you seek come at a price. As the series grows, I see Jacqueline as the anchor for a world that blends legal drama with psychological suspense. She’s the kind of protagonist who can operate in both spaces — unraveling evidence in the courtroom while wrestling with the emotional truths that people spend years trying to bury. Her instincts, her empathy, and her own unresolved trauma make her uniquely suited to stories where the law intersects with the human psyche. So readers can expect a woman who’s tougher, more self-aware, and more willing to confront the ghosts in her life — even when doing so pushes her into dangerous territory. You’ve mentioned your love of wearing high heels—not just as a fashion choice but almost as part of your identity. How do high heels influence the way you carry yourself in the courtroom or at the writing desk, and do they symbolize something more profound for you? I’ve always genuinely loved wearing high heels. People sometimes think it’s about fashion, but for me it’s much more personal than that. When I put on heels—whether I’m walking into a courtroom, into a meeting, or even sitting at my writing desk—I feel a little stronger, a little more grounded, and honestly, a little more ready to take on the world. It isn’t the height, it’s the mindset. Heels make me feel like the most confident version of myself. They remind me to stand tall, literally and figuratively. They help me embody the woman I want to show up as—capable, poised, prepared, and unapologetically feminine. But the deeper truth is this: it’s not really about the shoes. It’s about finding that thing— whatever it is—that makes you feel unstoppable. For me, it happens to be heels. For someone else, it might be a favorite jacket, a song, a mantra, or a morning ritual. We all deserve to feel powerful in our own skin, and high heels just happen to be the little spark that helps me step fully into my strength. So yes, they’re shoes—but they’re also a reminder that confidence is something we create for ourselves. Website: https://maryvslinkard.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryvslinkard/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maryvslinkard/ Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Her-Final-Gamble-Mary-Slinkard/dp/1684428475 
Katherine Scherer was trained in counseling at Family Service and the Women's Crisis Line. Having been an active community volunteer facilitating self-improvement and parent education groups, she also served as an elementary and high school religious education teacher. She is a past protege of authors Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen. Katherine is retired as a partner in a 30-year-old family business in Milwaukee, WI.
Eileen Bodoh is involved with various Austrian cultural events in Milwaukee, WI and received the Decoration of Merit from the Republic of Austria. Eileen created a successful holistic health conference, and served as a hospice volunteer, influenced by her studies with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Both Katherine and Eileen participated in "The "Twilight Brigade/Compassion in Action" training, founded by Dannion Brinkley. Eileen is a retired Professional Legal Secretary. Katherine and Eileen are authors of "Gratitude Works: Open Your Heart to Love," a day-by-day recap of gratitude. Their past projects promoting gratitude include donating books to The I AM FOUNDATION''S MILLION BOOKS FOR KIDS CAMPAIGN in San Diego, and to women prisoners in Texas to inspire and motivate them. Together with 100 others, including Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Julian Whitaker, Katherine and Eileen were contributing authors in "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Health" published by Self Growth. As guest authors in publications, newsletters, and radio broadcasts, their articles were featured in Florida, California, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and Canada. In 2025 they authored "Blessings Abound: Awaken to the Gifts at Hand," a tour guide through the land of blessings and the different forms they take. Through their writings, Katherine and Eileen hope to inspire a new appreciation for life's everyday blessings. Your book beautifully encourages readers to “awaken to the gifts at hand. What inspired you both to focus on recognizing blessings in the ordinary moments of life, and how did that awareness change your own day-to-day experiences? Katherine and Eileen were involved with a church committee and assisted with creating a holistic health conference. From the variety of the vendors who presented, they were inspired to create something positive which led to the writing of their book "Gratitude Works: Open Your Heart to Love." The writing of their book raised their awareness as to how many good things constantly flow into our lives. Blessings Abound draws from Native American wisdom, Christian teachings, and the works of great thinkers like Thoreau and Tagore. How did you weave together such diverse spiritual and philosophical influences into a unified message for readers? Katherine and Eileen both are readers of a variety of authors and have listened to many motivational and spiritual speakers. Eileen's love of inspirational quotes led to a collection she cherished and was able to draw from for their work. As they were writing, they realized great teachings and great thinkers do weave together a powerful and meaningful message for readers. Having previously written Gratitude Works, how do you see gratitude and blessings as connected yet distinct themes? What deeper dimension does this new book explore beyond gratitude? Having written Gratitude Works which is a collection of five things a day to be grateful for, for an entire year, they began to see that all of life is a blessing to be thankful for because so many adversities turn out to create good lessons to be learned. It is hard not to see that life itself is a blessing. The deeper dimension the book explores is this: what we think is what we are, and we do have choice about what we think. When we think of goodness and are thankful, goodness continues to come to us, and our lives feel better. . Both of you have devoted much of your lives to service--through counseling, hospice work, and community education. How have those experiences shaped your understanding of what true blessings are? The experience of service opens one up to the fact that all life has adversity in it. At the same time all life has the ability to handle that adversity. Sometimes we handle adversity with help and sometimes by ourselves. Our service experiences helped us realize how people can and do better themselves in spite of their adversity. Women who participated in our prison book program developed a greater sense of appreciation after practicing gratitude for a very short amount of time. Two of many comments received were: “...your book has opened my eyes to the beauty that's in our world instead of all the ugliness I've seen." "It helps me open my heart to love others and to love myself." If a reader were to take just one practice or mindset from Blessings Abound to transform their outlook on life, what would you want that to be-and why? By setting aside time each and every day to recognize our blessings, readers realize that life itself is a privilege and a blessing. In the short amount of time it takes to recognize our blessings and to give blessings to others, we can create a powerful energy that extends far beyond ourselves. This powerful energy is nothing short of love. Blessings given even in silence, have an effect in creating the peace and harmony we all want to enjoy in our lives. How can your book help someone enjoy the spirit of the Holidays? Thanksgiving gives us the opportunity to focus on positive thoughts. Having gratitude for our blessings moves our enjoyment to a deeper level because we are privy to peace and harmony through gratitude. The Christmas magic of giving gifts to others carries into the new year and stays with us when we simply remember the joy we received from it. By seeing happiness in another, we enjoy more happiness in ourselves, and we and world are better off for it.
Featured Articles by the Authors:
KISS - Keep It Simple Sweetheart The Two Most Beautiful Words The Power of Counting Blessings 1001 Top Words: New Attitudes – New Possibilities Spiritual Media Blog - Resolutions Seek Solutions Spiritual Media Blog - Two Sides to a Coin Media & Reviews NEWSnet Likely Story Book Viral Reader Views Book Reviews Book Marketing Success Podcast with John Kremer Literary Titan Literary Titan Author Interview Spiritual Media Blog OnlineBookClub.org’s Book of the Day Passionduniya Book Reviews Readers Choice Instagram Post Goodreads Reviews OnlineBookClub.org Forums 1 OnlineBookClub.org Forums 2 OnlineBookClub.org Forums 3 The Book Addict Reviews Book Reviews's Post Goodreads - Book Review's Awards Literary Titan Book Award: Nonfiction 2025 Reader Views Literary Awards Winner Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Blessings-Abound-Awaken-Gifts-Hand/dp/0974855014  Debbie Forcier-Lynn is the founder of Cultural Alignment Solutions and creator of the Expansion Leadership Academy. A Professional Certified Coach, speaker, author, and energy disruptor, Debbie has spent two decades helping leaders break unconscious patterns and lead with power, presence, and purpose. She’s known for her unapologetic style and bold approach to leadership transformation—infusing neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and energetic alignment into everything she teaches. Her first book, The Expansion Factor: Living, Leading, and Loving from the Inside Out, challenges readers to stop performing and start expanding with intention. It’s not a self-help book—it’s a mirror. Debbie has coached thousands of leaders—from first-time managers to the C-suite—who value her rare integration of neuroscience and soul work. She’s a trusted partner for organizations seeking real culture change, not just better metrics. Her signature question, “What are you expanding?” has become a mantra for leaders ready to grow from the inside out. She co-hosts The Expansion Factor podcast, lives life fully with her husband, Jason, and their big, blended family, and spends her days expanding joy, making memories, and living with intention. In The Expansion Factor, you discuss the concept of "Breakthrough Communications." Could you elaborate on what this entails and how it facilitates organizational alignment? Breakthrough Communication is what happens when surface-level conversations give way to real, honest, truth-telling moments that create alignment, not just agreement. It’s about cutting through the noise, performing effective communication, politeness that avoids conflict, vague feedback, and replacing it with courageous clarity. When leaders communicate with full presence, aligned energy, and emotional accountability, they stop managing perception and start moving people. That’s where trust is built. That’s where alignment sticks. Communication becomes a vehicle for culture, not just a tool for compliance. Your book emphasizes the importance of "Action-Based Leadership." How does this approach differ from traditional leadership models, and what advantages does it offer in today's corporate environment? Action-Based Leadership is not a performance. It’s not “managing people.” It’s how leaders live their values in real-time, how they own their impact, and how they follow through. Unlike traditional models that reward titles or task delegation, Action-Based Leaders take radical responsibility for their energy, their decisions, and their people. This model is built around one core idea: “I am accountable to you for your success.” In today’s fast-paced, burnout-heavy culture, that kind of presence, ownership, and follow-up isn’t just powerful, it’s magnetic. It creates cultures that retain talent, build trust, and actually grow. You mention that "everyone has blocks that cause blind spots." What strategies do you recommend for leaders to identify and overcome these obstacles to unlock their full potential? First, stop pretending you don’t have any. That alone is a block. We all do. The real work is self-awareness that goes beyond surface-level reflection. In The Expansion Factor, I show leaders how to recognize their patterns, decode their energetic responses, and get comfortable with their triggers, because those triggers are gold. They point to the beliefs and blind spots running the show. From there, we use tools like the Expansion Audit, breathwork, Thought Shifters and a framework I call “Recognize, Redefine, Release, Replace.” This work doesn’t just shift how leaders think, it changes how they lead. Because when you stop running unconscious scripts, you stop sabotaging connection, follow-through, and confidence. And that’s where expansion actually begins. As the founder of Cultural Alignment Solutions, how do the principles outlined in The Expansion Factor integrate with your organization's mission to enhance team performance and retention? At Cultural Alignment Solutions, we don’t just train leaders, we shift cultures. The Expansion Factor is our foundation. It’s how we help organizations align behavior, mindset, and energy from the top down. We teach Whole-Self Leadership, which means we focus not just on competencies, but on emotional intelligence, nervous system awareness, and energy accountability. That’s the secret to performance that’s actually sustainable. Our clients don’t just check boxes, they build leadership legacies. And that’s what drives retention: leaders who show up fully, consistently, and with clarity. For readers aiming to implement the strategies from your book, what initial steps would you suggest to begin fostering a culture of accountability and growth within their teams? Start with presence. Leadership isn’t about your next move—it’s about how you show up right now. Because how you show up in this moment is how you show up everywhere. Then, make this your new mantra: Action. Accountability. Follow-up. Begin with consistent 1:1s that aren’t just about tasks—they’re about energy, ownership, and alignment. Teach your team to own their choices. And most importantly, model it yourself. Don’t say “I support you”—show it by doing what you say you’ll do. Culture doesn’t shift through policy. It shifts through lived example. One decision, one conversation, one leader at a time. There’s a saying you’ll hear me repeat often: “If you’re not seeing accountability in your team, where are you not being accountable?” Or, if you’re ready for the unfiltered version: “If your team sucks, you suck as a leader.” That’s not judgment—it’s empowerment. Because the moment you own it, you can shift it. Website: https://www.culturalalignmentsolutions.com/meet-debbie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cultural_alignment_solutions/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CulturalAlignmentSolutions LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbieforcierlynn/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkZy_jnPRDyHg8lN0LaGHA Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Expansion-Factor-Living-Leading-Loving-ebook/dp/B0FSNZ3R96  Sherry Yellin, PhD, PCC, BCC Sherry is recognized professionally as an expert in leadership, learning solutions, and executive development. She specializes in applying cognitive and neuroscience-based approaches dedicated to equipping leaders to be extraordinary through brain-based, innovative learning and coaching solutions. For more than 22 years, Sherry has been custom designing and delivering comprehensive leadership development programs and executive coaching services for Fortune 500 organizations, nationally-ranked hospital systems, university systems, commercial clients, international clients, and clients in the public sector. She has served mid- and large-sized organizations across multiple categories, including healthcare, packaged goods, aerospace, construction, food service, semiconductors, technology, and more. Sherry is the author of Unforgettable Leadership: 7 Principles for Leading, Learning, and Living and is the founder and facilitator of The LEADing Lab Mastermind Group, an international group of multi-disciplined leaders from across various industries that meets monthly to discuss challenges and share best practices. She is also the creator of The CRANIUM Campus, an online learning platform that hosts micro-trainings on focused leadership topics. Sherry is a brainiac and word nerd – if it involves learning about the brain or the origin of words, she’s all about it. She loves to travel, see new places, and meet new people. She has a passport full of stamps and a suitcase full of souvenirs. Sherry is married with two grown children and lives outside Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Lance, and her miniature donkey, Jasper. In her free time, Sherry enjoys volunteering at North Texas Food Bank, Redeeming Zoe in Cebu, Philippines, and Los Cabos Missions for Christ. High-Level Overview and Neuroscience Foundation The Science of High-Performance Leadership introduces the CRANIUM methodology—seven brain-based strategies designed to align leadership practices with how the brain learns, decides, creates, and connects best. Grounded in decades of neuroscience, this model integrates the science of learning with the art of leadership, transforming how leaders engage teams, make decisions, and cultivate cultures that thrive. The brain is the most valuable resource in our workplaces. It is the compass that points the way. The brain drives every choice we make, so it makes sense to let it guide how we lead. These seven brain-based strategies provide the map for being a leader people want to follow and creating a culture people want to be loyal to. Competent vs. Inspiring Leadership Competence gets the job done. Inspiration gets others to want to do it. A competent leader knows what to do. A leader worth following knows how to unlock potential, reduce threat, ignite purpose, and build a culture where people feel safe, seen, and stretched. The word “inspire” means “to give life.” Leaders worth following give life to those around them by building trust, providing a clear vision, leveraging strengths and involving other to deliver a better outcome and foster greater ownership and accountability. It’s the difference between managing tasks and moving hearts. Inspiration Behind Merging Brain Science with Leadership My journey began not in a boardroom but in a cubicle, helping create a workplace education program. A scared manufacturing worker with 25 years of service boldly stepped into my office and shared her struggles with learning and her fears of losing her job That encounter sparked a quest to answer one question: “How does the brain learn?” That search led to neuroscience, just as the "Decade of the Brain" exploded into the mainstream. What I discovered changed everything: how the brain learns is how leaders must lead. What started in the classroom moved to the conference room and reshaped how I would teach and coach leaders forever. One Brain-Based Strategy That Shifts Tomorrow The Challenge Strategy. The greatest intentional act leaders can take is to transform threat into challenge. Threat steals, kills, and destroys. When the brain is under threat, we lose the abilities to plan, collaborate, appreciate the perspective of others, and see options. We become defensive, closed-minded, and overly committed to being right. When leaders intentionally reduce psychological threat and replace it with trust, the brain’s executive functions light up—creativity, empathy, problem-solving, and adaptability surge. A simple shift like replacing judgment with curiosity or providing the why behind a decision can unleash higher engagement and performance and drastically reduce unnecessary resistance and drama. Addressing Cognitive Overload and Burnout CRANIUM honors the brain's need for clarity, purpose, respect, and inclusion. Recent studies reveal the increase in overwhelm, burnout, and stress, and the decrease in engagement and trust impacting our workplaces. The Action Strategy speaks to brain health awareness and accepting the brain has limitations we must work with and not against. It debunks the myth that more is better and emphasizes that the cheaper, better, faster philosophy rarely applies to the human brain. Optimal performance comes not from pushing harder, but from aligning with the brain’s natural rhythms—protecting against multitasking, chronic stress, and sleep deprivation. CRANIUM cultures turn productivity from a grind into a flow. Real-World Example of Measurable Change At a major defense manufacturing organization, CRANIUM strategies transformed a low-trust, high-threat culture into a collaborative, high-performing one. Employees were empowered to learn and lead at all levels—on company time. Trust replaced fear. Innovation soared. The move to self-directed work teams succeeded, employee retention improved, and the organization became an industry benchmark for progressive leadership. Challenging Traditional Leadership Models Traditional leadership models rely on checklists, org charts, and control. CRANIUM replaces that with chemistry—literally. It’s built on neuroscience, not nostalgia. Instead of forcing behaviors and relying on authority, it shifts beliefs and leverages behaviors that build trust and influence. CRANIUM is about shaping environments that activate the brain’s best self. Traditional models tell people what to do using reasoning first. CRANIUM equips leaders with the why and how to foster relating. Traditional models focus on results; CRANIUM focuses on relationships, knowing its relationships that drive results. Where to Start for Emotional Intelligence & Self-Awareness Emotions run the show. CRANIUM leaders know we aren’t thinking individuals who happen to have emotion; we are emotional individuals who happen to think. Leaders aren’t thinking beings who happen to feel—they are emotional beings who happen to think. This strategy teaches leaders how to engage emotions intentionally, regulate reactions, and connect in ways that elevate performance and loyalty. Emotional intelligence is not soft—it’s strategic. It builds from self-awareness and self-management to social awareness and relationship management. Emotionally intelligent leaders know that the quality of their relationship management depends on the depth of their self-awareness. Insights on Leading Remote or Hybrid Teams Neuroscience reveals that connection, not proximity, drives performance. CRANIUM equips remote leaders to actively build and extend trust (Challenge), reduce ambiguity and give clarity (Relevance), increase interaction (Interaction), and evoke emotional engagement (Using Emotion). Virtual environments demand greater intentionality to create belonging, psychological safety, and novelty. Brain-friendly leadership transcends location. Most Surprising Discovery for Leaders Leaders are often shocked to discover how often they inadvertently create threat. They realize through CRANIUM that what they say is not what people hear and what they intend is not what other people experience. Once a leader develops greater self-awareness and brain-based strategies to reduce threat, they realize how much untapped potential naturally exists. When leaders align with the brain, they achieve better results with less effort and inspire loyalty. That changes everything. Website: https://yellingroup.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unforgettabledesign.group/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/yellin-group YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@yellingroup Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/SCIENCE-High-Performance-Leadership-Brain-Based-Strategies-ebook/dp/B0FTTQ8F8W  A Lifelong Passion Turned First-Time Author Tamara Buzyna Adams is a first-time author, showcasing her meticulous research skills and her ardent passion for genealogy. Deeply immersed in her own family’s history project alongside her mother, Helen, she brings over 25 years of experience in uncovering and preserving ancestral stories from her Russian, Ukrainian, and Finnish heritage. Using her parents’ adventurous spirit, she vivaciously seeks out any experience, especially travel, that brings her closer to understanding not only her own heritage but of those surrounding her. Determined Roots: A Granddaughter’s Mission Comes to Life Tamara’s indomitable spirit, undoubtedly inherited from her ancestors, enabled her to pursue her ambitious ideas of researching her grandmother’s diaries and searching for descendants, and she was successful. From Diaries to Times Square After five years of researching her grandmother’s diaries, her work reached a remarkable milestone in November 2024, when her book cover was displayed in New York City’s Times Square. The next day, she presented a six-hour seminar on her findings to the spellbound descendants of those who had been on the ship with her grandmother. Her dedication comes full circle with the publication of her first narrative book, Last Ship to Freedom, in fall 2025. A Scientific Mind Behind the Stories In addition to her extensive genealogy research experience, Tamara holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Elmhurst College (now Elmhurst University), and a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from Florida A&M University. Her background in science and research is evident in her attention to detail when uncovering family histories and piecing together her past. Balancing Motherhood, Medicine, and Memory Tamara lives in Alpharetta, GA with her husband and 2 children. Before pursuing genealogy, as a pediatric Occupational Therapist, she specialized in improving fine motor skills, enhancing upper body strength, and supporting functional daily activities to promote independence and well-being. She later embraced the role of a stay-at-home mom. While raising her children, she actively volunteered in their schools. Creative at Heart - with a Love for Snow and Prehistoric Bones Her hobbies span a wide range of creative and adventurous pursuits, including photography, graphic design, scrapbooking, card making, travel, and anything related to snow. In her free time, she enjoys diving into genealogy websites to research her friends’ family histories. Fun fact: She has always been fascinated by dinosaurs since childhood and dreams of joining a dinosaur dig one day! Perhaps a different kind of genealogy, tracing the lineage of prehistoric giants! What inspired you to turn your grandmother Lydia’s diaries into a full-length book, and what was the most surprising discovery you made along the way? I originally planned to simply translate my grandmother’s diaries to preserve them as part of our family archive, never imagining anyone outside the family would care. But as I shared her story, people were captivated. The more I realized how unique and relevant Lydia’s journey was, I knew her story had to be told. Through the process of researching and writing, I not only brought her experiences to life but, to my surprise, discovered how deeply alike we are! I feel like I know her better now than I did when she was alive! Lydia’s story is both deeply personal and historically significant. How did you balance emotional truth with historical accuracy in your writing? I fact-checked everything I possibly could from her diaries, (names, dates, and events), against historical records, but I never wanted to lose her voice in the process. Balancing accuracy with emotion meant honoring the facts and how she actually felt about them. Last Ship to Freedom captures, through a child’s eyes, how exile, uncertainty and hope were experienced in real time. The image of the steamship Kherson adrift in the Black Sea is so powerful. What does that ship symbolize to you and your family today? To me, the Kherson represents both survival and transformation, a grand, uncertain adventure that carried my family across seas, into a new life. For our family, it’s a symbol of courage, resilience, and hope, reminding us that even in the most uncertain moments, choosing bravery over fear can change everything. The Kherson was their last chance at freedom and they bravely took it. As a genealogical expert, how did your professional background influence the way you approached telling this story? I approached this genealogy project like it was a puzzle waiting to be solved. My science background made me crave evidence. So I verified every name, date, and event through records, archives and personal memorabilia. That genealogical mindset helped me not just confirm Lydia’s story, but expand on it, adding depth, context, and connections that made her experiences come alive. The book explores themes of exile, resilience, and identity. How did Lydia’s experiences shape the generations that followed, including your own? One of the most powerful threads in Lydia’s diary is how her family held onto their identity through tradition, even in the midst of exile. They celebrated holidays, cooked familiar foods, and kept their faith. As I read her diaries and told her story, I realized that many of those same customs in my own childhood traced back to her family. Her focus on gratitude, appreciation of small joys, and perseverance, even amid loss, shaped the generations that followed. Her resilience didn’t end with her, it lives on in us. There are haunting, poetic moments in the book—like the abandoned horses in the sea. How did you navigate capturing these scenes through a child’s eyes while honoring their emotional weight? Lydia never wrote about the abandoned horses in her diary, she only began journaling a few weeks later. However, she spoke of it years afterward with quiet stoicism, proof of how deeply it affected her. I chose to honor that moment through recollections of others who witnessed it, including her friend Zhenia’s niece, and a poem from a fellow evacuee. Letting their voices convey the scene’s emotion felt like the most truthful and respectful way to capture its haunting story. What parallels do you see between Lydia’s refugee journey a century ago and the experiences of displaced people today? The parallels are strikingly similar. Families still flee war and uncertainty, and children remain caught in the crossfire of history. The loss of stability and the uncertain future Lydia endured echo in today’s refugee crisis, reminding us that behind every statistic is a human story. Her journey helped me better understand how history shapes who we are and why we search for home, both physically and emotionally. What challenges did Lydia and her family face aboard the Kherson that particularly struck you as relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic? A century before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lydia lived through the typhus epidemic aboard the Kherson, an overcrowded, quarantined ship where fear, isolation, and uncertainty felt hauntingly familiar. Like families in lockdown, they faced strict limits, scarce supplies, and no clear end in sight, yet they endured. That parallel reminded me that while diseases change, the human experience of fear and isolation remains the same, offering perspective during the darkest days of the pandemic. If Lydia could see the impact her story is having today, what do you think she would want readers to take away from it? I believe Lydia would want readers to understand the quiet power of writing things down, even when life feels ordinary or uncertain. She might have said, “that’s just the way it was,” never realizing how extraordinary her story truly is. I believe she’d be proud to know her words now help others connect with history in a personal way. Through Last Ship to Freedom, her strength reminds us that perseverance and rediscovery often come from hardship, and that even in the most uncertain times, we can rise, rebuild, and find out who we truly are. Writing Last Ship to Freedom was clearly a labor of love. How has sharing Lydia’s story changed you and your connection to your family's history? Sharing Lydia’s story transformed how I understand my family’s history. It turned names on a tree into real, interconnected lives. One of the most rewarding discoveries was finding the descendants of my grandmother’s best friend from the ship. Their families were like family aboard the Kherson, and now, a century later, we’ve become family again. Through this project, I gained a deeper empathy for those uprooted by history and a profound sense that Lydia’s story continues to bridge generations, reminding us how the past still shapes who we are today. Website: https://www.tamarabuzynaadams.com/
Faceboook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577538382880 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_tamara_adams/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamara-buzyna-a-91883522a/ Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRKZK3TF  MIT alum. NCAA athlete. Engineer. High-performer in his native Canada. Rob Kalwarowsky had it all. So why was he depressed? The chaos inside his organization was matched by an internal talk-track that was leaving him confused, frustrated and ready to end it all. But from depression came transformation: a powerful journey to self-leadership, acceptance and clarity that led beyond the toxic leadership and negative thinking that had stolen his focus. Confronting the personal and professional demons of chaos, Rob uncovered a proven way to help anyone (and any team) to enhance performance in the midst of uncertainty. By accessing new perspectives on self-leadership, his strategies help companies and high-growth business leaders to rise above the unpredictability of our times. A coach and TEDx keynote speaker, Rob capitalizes on chaos with multi-billion dollar international companies, entrepreneurs, executives and aspiring leaders. What inspired you to write Capitalizing on Chaos, and why do you feel this message is particularly relevant now? The inspiration came from my own story. I had all the external markers of success—a great career, an incredible partner, financial stability—but on the inside, I was suffering from depression, suicidal ideation and panic attacks. My inner world was pure chaos, even when the outside wasn’t. In 2025, we live in a world of unprecedented levels of chaos; in business, in the economy, in politics and in technology. My book provides a roadmap to master the chaos within so you can lead yourself, your family and your business in the best ways regardless of the chaos in the world. You emphasize that chaos is not just external, but also a state of mind. Can you explain what that means for leaders and professionals? Have you ever seen a person (athlete, musician, speaker, leader, etc.) perform at their very best when it seemed like everything was falling apart around them? It’s a state of mind. Internally, they are calm regardless of the chaos around them. When your brain feels chaos, it gets stressed resulting in the fight or flight response. This response not only makes you a worse leader for yourself but also for your families and businesses. For leaders, this shows up as your internal talk track—the judgmental voice, the constant pressure, the war within. When you are able to find inner clarity and a sense of calm, you can lead in innovative, human-centric ways regardless of what's happening around you. How does your background as an MIT alumnus, NCAA athlete, and TEDx speaker inform your approach to leadership during disruption? I come from a background where performance is everything. High-stakes and competition were part of my day-to-day. I learned to cultivate a mindset that delivers in the biggest moments regardless of what’s going on around me. As a leader, you can learn how to do that too through my tools and strategies. In today’s high stakes business world, can you afford to be the leader who folds in chaos? What would it feel like if you were growing while your competition turtles in fear? In your book, you discuss the “human operating system.” Can you break down what that concept entails and why it’s important? I define the "human operating system" as the core beliefs, patterns, and internal voices that govern our thoughts and actions. It's the "software” you run on and for the most part, you’re unaware of what it’s doing. It’s mostly formed during your childhood so it’s not up to date with your current life. Would you let your phone or laptop run on an operating system that was created 30-50 years ago? By understanding your human operating system, you can selectively perform updates to whichever core beliefs, patterns and internal parts that are outdated. You can design your psychology to support your personal, professional and business goals regardless of any chaos around you. How do you help leaders develop resilience in high-pressure and rapidly changing environments? Resilience isn't about being invincible; it's about your ability to respond and recover when you get hit. The real work of building resilience starts internally. I help leaders understand their own "human operating system" to identify the patterns and voices that are draining their energy. By getting to know your inner parts (like the inner critic, people-pleaser, judge, imposter, etc.), you stop fighting with yourself. This releases the energy that was once consumed by internal chaos, allowing you to stay centered and respond to external pressure with clarity instead of fear. Can you share an example of a business or individual who successfully applied the principles in your book to overcome chaos? In 2024, I worked with a CEO who was working incredibly hard to scale his business. His business had been stuck at $3 million/year in revenue and he was working long hours, weekends and on vacation to scale. He was frustrated, burning out and unhappy at the lack of results and how he was unable to spend time with his family. He had internal chaos and it spread into his business. Through coaching, the CEO was able to become a Self-led leader, reducing internal chaos. This allowed him to implement the team leadership strategies that we worked on to engage his team, empower them in their roles and focus on scaling his business through people, processes and technology. What were the results? In 2025, his business is on track to do $11 million in revenue, he spends more time with his family and he’s gotten back into working out for his physical health. The CEO feels more successful, happier, healthier and his business is thriving. Emotional intelligence is a recurring theme in your work. How can leaders cultivate it to better navigate uncertainty? Emotional intelligence is born from self-discovery. One of my favorite quotes is from a Jamaican spiritual teacher, Mooji who says “step into the fire of self-discovery. The fire will not burn you, it will burn what you are not.” You are not fear, you are not the parts that take control when you are stressed. You can start by being aware of your emotions, leaning into them with curiosity (why are you feeling the way you do? What is it trying to tell you?) and acknowledging them. A quick strategy, when you feel stressed, fear, uncertainty, anger, etc., is to take a deep breath and say to yourself “I’m Human”. Just by doing that, you will reduce your stress and activate the ability for you to give compassion to the parts of you that are signaling to you (through emotions) that you’re in chaos. Using that tool will help you make better decisions, innovate and thrive in disruption. What are the most common mistakes executives make when responding to disruptive change, and how can they avoid them? The single biggest mistake is trying to manage external chaos without first addressing the chaos within. Executives often believe that by controlling every detail or overworking themselves, they can feel safe. But that just creates a vicious cycle of fear and burnout. You can avoid this by first acknowledging your internal state and then focusing on what you can control: your own thoughts, emotions, and actions. This puts you back in the driver's seat, allowing you to lead your team from a place of clarity, perspective and confidence. How do you define “self-leadership,” and why is it critical in both professional and personal contexts? Self-leadership is the ability to create inner peace & tranquility regardless of the chaos around you. It's the moment you realize that your internal critic, your inner child, or your people-pleaser aren't enemies—they are parts of your system trying to keep you safe. By listening to them, you stop fighting with yourself and are able to choose your next action from your best judgment. You, as Self, are the only one who has all of the information and, by leading your parts, you will be the one at the helm. This is critical because you can’t truly lead a team or a company if you can't first lead yourself with integrity and purpose. Your coaching incorporates frameworks like Internal Family Systems. How do these psychological approaches enhance leadership development? Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a powerful tool because it helps leaders understand that their inner world is made up of different "parts"—the inner critic, the people-pleaser, the overworked achiever and many more. By engaging with these parts with compassion instead of judgment, you build internal alignment. Using IFS, you can see results very quickly, sometimes even in the first session! This inner work eliminates the inner chaos and frees up your energy to lead with greater presence, empathy, and resilience. Your team models you and this inner work makes your team more innovative, productive and happier. Website: https://www.robkalwarowsky.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bosscoachrobk LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-kalwarowsky YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ExecutiveCoachRobK Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Capitalizing-Chaos-Executives-Succeed-Disruption/dp/B0FM4KV2DR  Jake C. Rudquist is an author based in Minnesota whose stories have appeared in various humor publications. His debut novel, We’re All Dead Here, is a bit more serious than his usual nonsense, and is a tribute to all the scary books he read and loved in childhood. He currently resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and dog. What is your book about? We're All Dead Here is a ghost story from the point of view of the ghosts. It asks, what would you do if you were twelve years old and suddenly a ghost? Who is your book for? My book was written for middle grade readers because that's the age when I most loved to read. I tried to make it interesting enough for adults to enjoy too. I'm a parent. How do I get my child excited to read? Let them choose what they read. If it's a book, great, but it doesn't have to be. If they seem interested in comics and graphic novels, or magazines, or even online articles, that at least gets them reading. I remember reading video game magazines when I was younger. Sure, I loved playing video games, but I grew to enjoy reading about them too. The point is, I was reading! My child might be open to reading books, but just doesn't know WHAT to read. What would you recommend? Suggest something that touches on their interests. My book incorporates two things I found fascinating when I was in that age range - the paranormal, and the Second World War. If your child is interested in sports, or music, or gaming, there are definitely books out there about all those things, both fiction and nonfiction. Once my child starts reading something, particularly a book, how can I steer them towards finishing it? This is a great question, because all our attention spans are shorter than ever, for both kids AND adults. If your child is reading fiction, you can ask them who their favorite character is and what's happening to that character. In the case of my book, I wrote it so that adults can get something out of it too. It's possible for both you and your child to be reading my book (or something similar) at the same time. With whatever you're reading, you and your child can touch base every so often to talk about what's happening in the story and propel each other towards finishing the book. Website:
https://northernspecterpublishing.com/ Purchase the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Were-Dead-Here-Jake-Rudquist/dp/B0CNDFK9KX |
AuthorJane Ubell-Meyer founded Bedside Reading in 2017. Prior to that she was a TV and Film producer. She has spent the last five years promoting, marketing and talking to authors and others who are experts in the field. Archives
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Bedside Reading, LLC , 700 Canal Street, Stamford CT 06902
For more information contact: [email protected] 917 848 3353
Media
Privacy Policy
Terms & Refund Policy
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Bedside Reading® is a Registered Trademark
