Inaugural Local Author Spotlight: Robin Kardon interviews Linda K. Olson
Local Author Spotlight: “Gone,” by Linda K. Olson (interviewed by Robin Kardon) As all of us navigate through a period of challenges none of us ever envisioned, San Diego author Linda K. Olson tells the story of an unimaginable injury followed by the stunning...
Interview with Festival Sponsor S. Kensington
Q & A with Summer Festival Day Two Sponsor S. Kensington and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write Just Another Girl on the Road? SK: We all carry emotional scars. My father brought his scars back from the war and kept them in a small cedar...
Interview with Festival Sponsor Jerry Yudelson
Q & A with Summer Festival Day One Sponsor Jerry Yudelson and San Diego Writers Festival SWDF: What inspired you to write The Godfather of Green: An Eco-Spiritual Memoir? JY: I wanted to show how the twin threads of my life, spiritual inquiry and environmental...
Interview with Festival Sponsor Darity Wesley
Q & A with Summer Festival Day One Sponsor Darity Wesley and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write the Modern Day Oracle Wisdom Teaching Series? DW: I have been a privacy and information security attorney for 35 years and I found in all my...
Interview with Speaker Lisa Brackmann
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Lisa Brackmann and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write Black Swan Rising now? LB: I actually wrote the first chapter of Black Swan Rising in mid-2014. I’d just moved back to my hometown, San Diego, and...
Interview with Speaker Kathy Krevat
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Kathy Krevat and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about The Gourmet Cat series KK: The Gourmet Cat books are humorous murder mysteries featuring Colbie Summers, a single mom and owner of Meowio Batali, an organic cat...
Interview with Speaker Rich Farrell
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Rich Farrell and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write The Falling Woman: A Novel? RF: As a former pilot, I wanted to explore my fascination with flying in a story. But the more I tried to write my story,...
Interview with Speaker Cheryl Sonstein
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Cheryl Sonstein and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Please tell us about Isabel. CS: The story that became Isabel was originally written for VAMP (an acronym for visual audio monologue performance.) VAMP is a monthly...
Interview with Speaker Joe Ide
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Joe Ide and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write the book, Hi Five, with one of the main characters, Christiana, having multiple personalities? JI: I happened to watch Three Faces of Eve and Sybil in the...
Interview with Speaker Neal Griffin
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Neal Griffin and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about your upcoming book, The Burden of Truth NG: The Burden of Truth tells the story of a young man named Omar Ortega, a fictional character, but during my twenty-seven...
Interview with Speaker Carl Vonderau
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Carl Vonderau and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about Murderabilia, and how it synthesizes the seemingly contradictory parts of your life from private bank, to serial murders, to a Christian Science upbringing. CV: I...
Interview with Speaker David Putnam
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker David Putnam and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about the latest Bruno Johnson novel, The Heartless. How hard has it been to switch launching this book from in-person events to reaching readers through online efforts? ...
Interview with Speaker Matt Coyle
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Matt Coyle and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about latest novel you are writing in the Rick Cahill Series. MC: Lost Tomorrows is the latest Rick Cahill book. In it, Rick finally learns the truth about his wife's...
Interview with Speaker Gill Sotu
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker Gill Sotu and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about the importance of the spoken word to you, and about finding your voice and how it relates to each of us GS: Spoken word is one of the freest forms of artistic...
Interview with Speaker John Vorhaus
Q & A with Summer Festival Speaker John Vorhaus and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: You’ve written several books for writers. Tell us about one of them, such as The Comic Toolbox. JV: The Comic Toolbox was a gift from the universe. It’s the first book I wrote and...
Interview with Author Brae Wyckoff
Q & A with author Brae Wyckoff and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Which writers have influenced you most? BW: CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, RA Salvatore I guess I need to have my author name changed to letters; BW Wyckoff. SDWF: What do you wish you’d known before...
Interview with Author Sally Pla
Q & A with author Sally Pla and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write Benji, the Bad Day, and Me? SP: Benji, the Bad Day, and Me is a little picture book about sibling rivalry, a fuzzy blanket, neurodiversity, and a plain old rotten day. It...
Interview with Author Amy Wallen
Q & A with author Amy Wallen and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Can you tell us a bit about what to expect at your SDWF workshop, “How to Write a Novel in 20 Pies: The Sweet and Savory Secrets to Writing”? Will there be pie?AW: First, YES there will be pie! The...
Interview with Author Virginia Loh-Hagan
Q & A with author Virginia Loh-Hagan and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write books for our children?VLH: As a former K-8 teacher, I was inspired by my students. I wanted to write books that I could use in the classroom and that young...
Interview with Author Jan Eliasberg
Q & A with author Jan Eliasberg and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about your inspiration for HANNAH’S WAR. What were the novel’s origins? JE: I was in the microfiche room of the New York Public Library doing research for another book—a highly...
Interview with Author Kirk Ellis
Q & A with author Kirk Ellis and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What books are on your nightstand?KE: The End of the Myth by Greg GrandinAmerican Dirt by Jeannie CumminsThe Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood by Sam Wasson SDWF: What were the...
Interview with Author Madonna Treadway
Q & A with author Madonna Treadway and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about your book, Six Healing Questions: A Gentle Path to Facing Childhood Loss of a Parent MT: Six Healing Questions: A Gentle Path to Facing Childhood Loss of a Parent is for adults...
Interview with Author George Galdorisi
Q & A with author George Galdorisi and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write The Coronado Conspiracy?GG: I worry about civilian control of the military and what might happen in that space. SDWF: Which writers have influenced you most?GG: My...
Interview with Nancy Johnson, Director of Teen Programming
Q & A with Nancy Johnson, San Diego Writers Festival Director of Teen Programmer SDWF: Tell us a little bit about the teen programming.NJ: Teen programming will be added at the San Diego Writers Festival this year, and we are so excited! Here is a sample:...
Interview with Author Elizabeth St. John
Q & A with author Elizabeth St. John and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write Written in Their Stars?ESJ: Written in their Stars is the third book in the Lydiard Chronicles, and was always planned to complete this particular series. What...
Interview with Author Mark C. Jackson
Q & A with author Mark C. Jackson and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about The Great Texas Dance, due for release in April 2020.MJ: The Great Texas Dance tells a tale of Zebadiah Creed’s continuing journey in understanding what friendship and loyalty...
Interview with Author RD Kardon
Q & A with author RD Kardon and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write Flygirl?RDK: I wrote the original pages that became FLYGIRL over 25 years ago, when I found myself in a toxic work environment similar to my heroine, Tris Miles. The work...
Interview with Author Chris Enss
Q & A with author Chris Enss and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: What inspired you to write No Place for a Woman: The Struggle for Suffrage in the Wild West?CE: This year marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the right...
Interview with Author Tammy Greenwood
Q & A with author Tammy Greenwood and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about your book, Keeping Lucy.TG: Keeping Lucy, which opens in 1969, is the story of Ginny Richardson, a young mother whose daughter, born with Down Syndrome, is whisked away shortly...
Interview with Author Huda Al-Marashi
Q & A with author Huda Al-Marashi and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Tell us about First Comes Marriage.HA: FIRST COMES MARRIAGE: MY NOT-SO TYPICAL AMERICAN LOVE STORY (Prometheus Books, November 2018) is an Iraqi-American perspective on immigration, love, and...
Interview with Author and Speaker Rabbi Steve Leder
Q & A with author and speaker Rabbi Steve Leder and San Diego Writers Festival SDWF: Your book More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us has helped thousands of people. What inspired you to write it?SL: I had been a rabbi for 27 years before writing...
Author Interview with Tania Pryputniewicz
Q & A with author Tania Pryputniewicz and Susan J. Farese of SJF CommunicationsSJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece.TP: My first poetry book, November Butterfly, was published in 2014 by Saddle Road Press. Ophelia, Nefertiti, Joan of Arc,...
Writing about Mental Health – What to Do When What You Find Out Freaks You Out by Madonna Treadway
Written by Madonna Treadway Studying the Research A few years ago, while doing research for my book 6 Healing Questions, A Gentle Path to Facing Childhood Loss of a Parent, I began studying the leading thinkers on grief and loss. I was hoping to find a clearly defined...
Author Interview with Andrea Moriarty
Q & A with author Andrea Moriarty and Susan J. Farese of SJF CommunicationsSJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece. AM: Radical Inclusion is a call to action for communities to embrace adults with disabilities by exhibiting the risk, humility,...
Author Interview with David Brin
Q & A with author David Brin and Susan J. Farese of SJF CommunicationsSJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece.DB: This is the official writeup of my latest work: Partnering with UCSD's Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, noted...
Author Interview with Marcie Colleen
Q & A with author Marcie Colleen and Susan J. Farese of SJF CommunicationsSJF: In a nutshell, tell us about your book or written piece.MC: I am a children's author. I currently have several books out on the bookshelves. My most recent book is Penguinaut!, a...