So, What's Your Story

Ashley Cuffee is a spoken word poet who is better known in our Berlin, Maryland community as the poet Ash’iz. From open mic nights to sharing stories through poetry, Ashley is focused on creating a movement. In fact, she is the Executive Director of the non-profit Beauty From Ashiz Movement, which seeks to provide the community with a creative and comfortable platform to accept and share life’s experiences. Previously, Ashley dedicated 12 years to the Early Childhood Education field and also taught conflict resolution and shoplifter’s alternative courses to court and community referred teenagers for three years. During that time, she became a certified mediator for Delaware Judicial System. Throughout her time as an educator, Ashley has partnered to build a conflict resolution curriculum and is currently creating a poetry-based curriculum to be utilized within the P.R.E.Y Project, a program offered by the Beauty From Ashiz Movement to assist youth in gaining self-identity and awareness. Ashley is currently pursuing a BA in psychology as well as an outlet for publishing her poetry.

MICHAEL O'LEARY is equal parts actor and playwright. For twenty years, he was the face and voice of Dr. Rick Bauer on the Emmy award winning CBS daytime show, “Guiding Light.” Now Michael is throwing himself into a new role: his first full length play, “Breathing Under Dirt,” premiered this past summer at the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Michael called on a few of his friends from Guiding Light to bring his characters to life. The play, set against a southern backdrop,  delves into issues of loss and redemption and reconciliation. “Breathing Under Dirt”  received positive reviews from the DC Metro Theater Arts. One critic noted: “O’Leary’s winding, gritty and bumpy dirt road of an American tale leads us finally to grace and it is through grace, we find nourishment for our souls and learn to breathe again.”  

Karen Karydes had a twenty-four-year career at the Arlington County, Virginia Department of Libraries where she focused on adult acquisitions and reference. She then ran the library for inmates inside the Arlington County Detention Center for five years. She has master’s degrees in English from New York University and Library Science from the University of Maryland. At sixty, she pursued her interest in literary biography by entering the University of Maryland’s Ph.D. program in English Language and Literature. After receiving her degree in 2010, she returned to full-time public library work and is now the Acquisitions Librarian for the Talbot County Free Library in Maryland. Her book, Hard-Boiled Anxiety: The Freudian Desires of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and Their Detectives, is based on her dissertation and was published by Secant Publishing in August 2016. Kirkus Reviews named it one of the best indie books of August. 

Ann Hymes studied English Literature at Rollins College and Mills College and then completed her graduate studies at Washington College, earning her Master’s Degree in English. Although she chose a career in real estate, Ann maintained a lifelong passion for writing. Her debut novel is Shadow of Whimsy: A Cape Cod Love Story, released in June 2016 by Secant Publishing. The story follows Theresa Crandall as she uncovers hidden truths about her family’s past and finds new relationships in a coastal New England town. 

This week we feature Chris Conway. Although he was born in Connecticut, he grew up in Southern California and graduated from California State Long Beach. Chris spent his career in business, owning and operating several manufacturing operations, but writing was always a constant hobby. His first manuscript was a non-fiction account of WW2 soldiers, which involved several years of research and interviews. His second novel, The Devil’s Voice, was a thriller, and earlier this month, he published his third novel, a historical fiction work titled The Glove Slinger. It tells the story of Sam Grady, a Golden Glove boxer who enlists in the service as World War 2 was looming on the nation’s horizon. Welcome to the podcast, Chris!

Reverend David Briddell is a retired United Methodist minister, historian, genealogist, and author. David was born and raised in Berlin, Maryland and entered Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland when he was just 16 years old. When he enrolled in the School of Theology at Boston University in 1952, David became friends with a young man from Georgia by the name of Martin Luther King, Jr.  David’s ministry took him from Maryland to Pennsylvania to New Jersey and he has sinced retired in the town where he started out. David has published two non-fiction works. The first book, Men of Color: To Arms!, was co-authored with Dr. Clara Small in 2010. That volume documents the historical contributions made by African-American soldiers, manumitted slaves and freed blacks from the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland in the Civil War. Then, in 2014, he and his wife, Jane, published a collection of genealogy for the Fassett, Waters, and Briddell families.

Jeff Smith joins Stephanie and Tony to discuss blogging both as an exercise in writing and an exploration of topics outside the scope of one's normal, every day writing. Also, there's goofiness. Remember to write in for your haiku and limerick postcard.

Jane Briddell is a children's author who emmigrated from England in the late 1960s. Her latest book, "123 Acorn St." is a whimsical look at the relationship between our things and ourselves.

Bonnie Feldstein, who writes under the name Anna Gill Bonnie was born and raised in N.J. but she mostly is inspired by her experiences living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her work can be found at AnnaGil.com.

This week Stephanie and Tony discuss the ins and outs of independent publishing, including how Stephanie got into the business and why she stays in it. They also cover the perceptual difference between traditional and independent publishing. Both publish great works, both publish trash, so what's the real difference? Plus, an email contest wherein you can win a haiku or limerick.