Inside Scoop Live!

Melissa Muldoon is an artist, graphic designer, and award-winning author of the Studentessa Matta Website, a dual language blog, where she promotes the Italian language and culture. Through the Matta Website, she organizes small group language immersion programs in Italy twice a year, in collaboration with Italian schools as well as private Italian language homestay vacations, with teachers all over Italy.
Waking Isabella follows Melissa’s debut novel Dreaming Sophia, published in 2016. In this new book set in Arezzo, Italy, readers are taken on another art history adventure. Waking Isabella weaves together several loves stories as well as a few mysteries, as Nora, the protagonist begins to resolve the puzzle of a painting, which has been missing for decades of Isabella de’ Medici — the Renaissance princess who was murdered by her husband.
For more information on Melissa Muldoon and her books, visit her website at www.melissamuldoon.com.
Topics of conversation:
Isabella de Medici
Research for the book in Arezzo, Italy
Giostra del Saracino – Annual Jousting Festival held in Arezzo
Suppression of Artists and Hitler’s Obsession during WWII
Melissa’s Writing Process
Her Award Winning Italian Language Blog and Immersion Trips to Italy
Most Rewarding Experience as an Author

Dr. Iyabo Ojikutu is a board-certified pediatrician and fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She received her medical degree at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria. She has been practicing medicine since she was 22 years old, and currently owns, and runs her practice in Atlanta, Georgia, where she lives with her two daughters. Permanent Happiness is her first book. Her writing began in December 2015, after her dear father passed.
For more information on Dr. Iyabo and her book visit her website at www.driyabo.com.
Topics of conversation:
Her inspiration to start writing
Pediatrics as a career
Finding balance in a busy world
Learning about life from living in 3 different continents
United Nations SDG Media Zone event
Her writing process and publishing experience

Adeed Dawisha was born and raised in Iraq and educated in England, where he received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics in 1974. Until September 2016, he was University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Miami University, Ohio, and is the recipient of many prestigious fellowships and awards.
In addition to over 80 academic and public policy articles and book chapters, Dr Dawisha has 12 scholarly books, the most recent of which are the new and expanded editions of Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (2016), and Iraq: A Political History (2013), both published by Princeton University Press, and The Second Arab Awakening (2013), published by W.W. Norton.
Since retirement, he has turned to fiction with the publication of his first novel, The Paymaster (Outskirts Press, 2017). A fast-paced thriller, The Paymaster is a tightly written and intricately plotted novel, with many unanticipated twists and revelations. The plot is complex, but not complicated, and while the narrative moves along at a tempo that makes it difficult for the reader to put the book down, there is enough space for character development, so that the reader feels intimately connected to the characters at every juncture of the novel.
Adeed Dawisha is married to Dr. Karen Dawisha, author of the best-selling book, Putin’s Kleptocracy (Simon and Schuster, 2014). He has a daughter, Nadia, a son, Emile, and a recently arrived beautiful grandson, Theodore.
Topics of conversation:
Writing Mystery/Thrillers in Retirement
Fiction vs. Non-Fiction Writing
European Soccer
Future Projects
Publishing Experience and Advice to New Authors

Kaylin McFarren has received more than 40 national literary awards, in addition to a prestigious Golden Heart Award nomination for Flaherty’s Crossing – a book she and her oldest daughter, Kristina McMorris, co-authored in 2008. Prior to embarking on her writing journey and developing the popular Threads action/adventure romance series, she poured her passion for creativity into her work as the director of a fine art gallery in the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon; she also served as a governor-appointed member of the Oregon Arts Commission.
When she’s not traveling or spoiling her pups and three grandsons, she enjoys giving back to her community through participation and support of various charitable and educational organizations in the Pacific Northwest, and is currently the president of the Soulful Giving Foundation – a non-profit focused on cancer research, care and treatment at hospitals throughout Oregon.
For more information about Kaylin McFarren and her work, visit her website at www.kaylinmcfarren.com.
Topics of conversation:
Writing Across Different Genres
Soulful Giving Foundation
Annual Family Photo
Upcoming Projects
Her Unique Writing Process

J. Everett Prewitt is a Vietnam veteran and a former Army officer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and a Master of Science Degree in Urban Studies from Cleveland State University. Prewitt was awarded the title of distinguished alumni at both schools.
His debut novel Snake Walkers placed first for fiction in four different literary contests and won the Bronze Award for General Fiction in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year contest. Snake Walkers was also honored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
Prewitt’s second novel, A Long Way Back was awarded the Literary Classic’s Seal of Approval. It won the Independent Publishers of New England first place award, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal Award, received the Bronze Award for the INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award, the Silver Award from Literary Classics and the DNQ Award from IBPA’s Benjamin Franklin Award.
Something About Ann, and a series of short stories related to A Long Way Back including the award-winning The Last Time I Saw Willie, will be available in September 2017.
Prewitt loves tennis, billiards, backgammon, jazz, and a good red wine.
For more information about Everett Prewitt and his work, visit his website at www.eprewitt.com.
Topics of conversation:
Writing and PTSD
Books That Inspired Him
Writing Positive Stories
Prewitt’s Future Projects
Message to Young African American Writers

Michael Pronko has lived in Tokyo for twenty years but was born in Kansas City, a very different world. After graduating from Brown University in philosophy, he hit the road, traveling around the world for two years working odd jobs. He went back to school for a Master’s in Education, and then took a teaching position in Beijing. For two years, he taught English, traveled China and wrote.
After more traveling and two more degrees, another M.A. in Comparative Literature in Madison, Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in English at the University of Kent at Canterbury, he finally settled in Tokyo as a professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuin University. His seminars focus on contemporary novels and film adaptations, and he teaches other classes in American indie film and American music and art.
Pronko has published three award-winning collections of essays: Motions and Moments: More Essays on Tokyo (Raked Gravel Press 2015), Tokyo’s Mystery Deepens (Raked Gravel Press 2014), and Beauty and Chaos: Essays on Tokyo (Raked Gravel Press 2014). He has published books in Japanese and two textbooks in both English and Japanese.
Over the years in Tokyo, he has written regular columns for many publications: The Japan Times, Newsweek Japan, Jazznin, ST Shukan, Jazz Colo[u]rs, and Artscape Japan. He runs his own website Jazz in Japan (www.jazzinjapan.com). He also continues to publish academic articles and helps run a conference on teaching literature.
For more information about Michael Pronko and his work, visit his website at www.michaelpronko.com.
Topics of conversation:
Writing Mystery
Life in Tokyo
Cultural differences between Japan and America
Being a Professor of American Literature in Tokyo
Jazz and his Jazz website: www.jazzinjapan.com

Diana Forbes is a 9th generation American, with ancestors on both sides of the Civil War. Diana Forbes lives and writes in Manhattan. When she is not cribbing chapters, Diana Forbes loves to explore the buildings where her 19th Century American ancestors lived, loved, survived and thrived. She is passionate about vintage clothing, antique furniture, ancestry, and vows to master the quadrille in her lifetime. Diana Forbes is the author of New York Gilded Age historical fiction.
For more information about Diana Forbes visit her website at www.DianaForbesNovels.com.
Topics of conversation:
Being a Native New Yorker and finding traces of Old New York in today’s city
The Gilded Age and the Women’s Suffrage Movement
The Discipline of Writing
Finding Your Community of Writers
Writing Historical Fiction

Michael Kasenow is an award-winning novelist (View From The Edge; A Wicked Thing); an award-winning poet (Six Feet Down); and the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Last Paradise. He has traveled extensively, living in many places among a variety of unique personalities. His lifetime resume includes waiter, cab driver, bartender, lumberman, janitor, and ranch hand in New Mexico. These experiences add authenticity to his written work. He is currently a Geology Professor at Eastern Michigan University and lives in a Michigan harbor town, enjoying the west waves of Lake Michigan.
For more information on Michael Kasenow and his book visit his website. 
Topics of conversation:
Poetry as a writing and reading tool/exercise
How an Author’s non-writing background helps his/her writing
Surviving and thriving after child abuse
His Passion for Geology

Nicole Taylor is an anthropologist who explores contemporary social issues related to education and health through the analytic lens of language practices. Her research includes teasing and bullying in schools, childhood obesity, and body image concerns and social media use among youth. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Arizona.
Following graduate school, she worked in nonprofit and corporate settings conducting research in the areas of substance abuse, education and poverty, childhood obesity, and school climate. Nicole then served for five years as the Director of Scholar Programs at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico before returning to Texas State University, her undergraduate alma mater, to accept a faculty position.
For more information on Nicole Taylor and her book, visit her website.
Topics of conversation:
Conducting Ethnographic Research
Creating a Healthy, Respectful Relationship with our Bodies
Guilty Pleasures
Yoga, Meditation, and Walking – Self Care
The Importance of Family, School, and Community Engagement

Janice Wood Wetzel is a graduate of the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, and a former Dean and Professor Emerita of Social Work at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. She has served as a United Nations Representative in New York since 1988.  Dr. Wetzel is a well-published international educator and researcher who has specialized in the human rights, mental health and advancement of women from a global perspective for more than 40 years. A mother of three and grandmother of four, she is a member of Professional Women Photographers and lives on the Upper West Side of New York City.
For more information about Janice Wood Wetzel and her book visit her website.
Topics of conversation:
The Profession of Social Work
Women and the United Nations
Women and Mental Health from a Global Perspective
Photography
Writing a Memoir

Donna Zadunajsky grew up in a small town in Ohio named Bristolville, spending her childhood reading, writing, and fishing. In her teens, she read nothing but Stephen King books, and it was then that she told herself she would one day write her own books.
Donna’s writing career began with seven children's books about her daughter and the adventures she went on, but her dream has always been to write mystery/suspense novels.For more information about Donna Zadunajsky and her books, visit her website.
Topics of conversation:
Writing in different genres
Reading Goals
Love of Music
Freelance Writing
Work Ethic and Her Mentor
Elvis Presley Memorabilia

Amanda Yoshida first dreamt of being a children’s book illustrator when she was a mere toddler, growing up in the suburbs surrounding Portland, Oregon.
As a child, she spent countless hours drawing and studying the artwork inside her stacks of colorfully illustrated books. She favored the rhyming words and silly drawings of Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein and claimed one day she would be an artist.
Eventually, the pens and pencils that were always in her hand became paint brushes in her exploration of creativity. At the age of fourteen, her original artwork was displayed and sold at her family’s art gallery in Portland’s Pearl District and lead to substantial private commissions.
After graduating from the elite Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Los Angeles in 2009, she fell in love with the digital canvas and began working solely in this media.
Amanda returned to her beloved hometown of Portland in 2013 and began working as a freelance graphic designer and digital painter. While in the midst of growing her successful business and putting down roots with her husband, the dream of becoming a mother and published author was realized.
Two months before the birth of her first child, she received word that her first children’s book, would be published. Amanda now enjoys reading her debut book, “The Greatest Wish” to her son, Morgan. She is currently working on the next installment of the Everchanging Story Book series.
For more information on Amanda Yoshida and The Greatest Wish, visit her website.
Topics of conversation:
Becoming a Mother and an Award Winning Author
Growing up with a Family of Authors
Her Background as an Artist
Loving Life in Portland, Oregon
Her Passion for Vinyl Records

Joshua Landeros was born in Pomona, CA, but was raised in Perris of Riverside County for years uncountable now.
He comes from a large family in which he is admittedly “the black sheep.” Landeros grew up on Dragon Ball Z, Godzilla films, Batman the Animated Series, and Star Wars. Not to mention an infinite love for dinosaurs and all movie monsters.
He began writing in middle school starting with Godzilla fanfictions. He kept writing and eventually created his own world full of characters. In 2016, the dream was finally realized in his first novel, Reverence. He now attends the University of California, Riverside where he majors in History Admin Studies and minors in English.
For more information on Josh Landeros and his book, visit his website.
Topics of conversation:
Favorite Hobbies: Movies and Comics
Politics
Balancing College Life with the Writer’s Life
His Self-Publishing Experience
Favorite Books and Authors

Buck Marshall taught political science for five years and received his doctorate from Tulane in 1992. After 20 years in the private sector, his reaction to the Occupy Wall Street movement was to write a series of books and establish the non-profit SWIFT Act Alliance. For more information about Buck Marshall and his book visit his website.
Topics of conversation:
What is SWIFT Act
His holistic view of the current economy in the US
Society – Political – Economic Circle and Bipartisanism
How the average Joe can help turn things around
Importance of The Swift Act Petition in the Trump era

Melissa Muldoon is the Studentessa Matta—the crazy linguist! In Italian, “matta” means “crazy” or “impassioned”. Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European History from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and art history in Florence.
Melissa promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog, Studentessa Matta (studentessamatta.com). Melissa began the Matta blog to improve her command of the language and to connect with other language learners. It has since grown to include a podcast, “Tutti Matti per l’Italiano” and the Studentessa Matta YouTube channel. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Tours, which she co-leads with Italian partners in Italy.
Dreaming Sophia is Melissa’s first novel. It is a fanciful look at art history and Italian language and culture, but it is also the culmination of personal stories and insights resulting from her experiences living in Italy, as well as her involvement and familiarity with the Italian language, painting, and art history. 
For more information on Melissa Muldoon and her book, visit her website at www.DreamingSophiaBook.com. For more information on her Italian language blog visit studentessamatta.com.
Topics of conversation:
The Studentessa Matta – Her Italian language blog
Her original career plans as an art history teacher
Being a plein air painter and graphic designer
How her passion for Italy comes to life through her book
Italian language immersion program
Meeting Sophia Loren!

Emilio Corsetti, III is a professional pilot and author. Emilio has written for both regional and national publications including the Chicago Tribune, Multimedia Producer, and Professional Pilot magazine. Emilio’s first book 35 Miles From Shore: The Ditching and Rescue of ALM Flight 980 tells the true story of an airline ditching in the Caribbean Sea and the efforts to rescue those who survived. Emilio is a graduate of St. Louis University. He and his wife Lynn reside in Dallas, TX.
To learn more about Emilio Corsetti and his book visit his website.
Topics of conversation:
Being a pilot and flying
Writing investigative non-fiction
Factual vs. creative historical writing
What he learned from his research for Scapegoat
Self Publishing vs. Independent Publishing

Dr. Emily Christensen earned her Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy and has two Masters Degrees: an M.S. in Professional Counseling and an M.Div. in Pastoral Counseling.
The only thing better than writing, she says, is being married to a writer. Nathan Christensen married Emily in the Oklahoma City temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 13 October 2012, and have since fostered more than eighty-five children. In 2015, they adopted the six children who stayed, and are totally and completely and helplessly in love as a family – now sealed together for time and all eternity.
Topics of conversation:
Foster Care
Adopting a Special Needs Child
Informed Patient Care for Foster Parents
Living Your Vocation

Kay Williams always had an inclination to be a professional actress, so, with stars in her eyes, she moved to New York City right after college graduation (she was a theater major). She lived in a rent-controlled apartment with no heat, and lots of rodents, too busy earning money to act (her dad had saved her letters from that time so she recently took a fresh look at those hair-raising and now hilarious adventures).  After 9 months in the Big Apple, Kay slunk back to Ohio, to a safer life, teaching, directing, acting in community theater, and reviewing films and plays.
Her dream didn’t die. She moved to San Francisco, where she played many leading roles until several theaters went bankrupt (an occupational hazard, she discovered).  Acting roles dried up just after she earned her Equity union card.  She left the Bay Area for the Pittsburgh Playhouse. Two years later that theater was too broke to renew her contract. There was only one place left to go, New York City. It still scared her, but this time, she vowed to be victorious.  Kay acted in a number of new off-Broadway plays, finding it more fun than doing a show that had been successfully produced and “set in stone.”  In between acting jobs, she worked as an office temp until she landed a perfect job, “Gal Friday” to an award-winning independent filmmaker, which not only gave her flexible hours to audition, but also an education about film writing, directing, and producing.  She took films she’d helped produce to the Cannes Film Festival and to the Leningrad International Documentary Festival (where Kay and Eileen’s second thriller, The Matryoshka Murders, begins).
 Kay’s eventual move to an apartment in New York’s crime-ridden Hell’s Kitchen became one of the catalysts for Butcher of Dreams, Kay and Eileen’s first thriller (about the theater, of course).
Fearful of spending her retirement as a bag lady begging for money outside Actors Equity, Kay took a “real” job.  A physician she’d worked for as a temp asked her to join him as he set up a Primary Care Residency Track at NYU Medical Center. She did and learned a great deal about good doctoring and academic medicine (and the politics of academe–another book, perhaps). The NYU job was too demanding to take time off to audition so she and Eileen teamed up to write, a move they had been contemplating for several years. Kay discovered that she didn’t miss acting all that much. With fiction writing, she had total control and could play all the characters! Kay and Eileen found they jelled as a writing team. 
To learn more about Kay Williams and her book visit her website.
Topics of conversation:
Her adventures in NYC and San Francisco in the 60s
Being a Gypsy Actor
Working as a “Gal-Friday” for independent film writer, producer, director, Jack O’Connell
Her trip to Russia to the Leningrad International Documentary Festival
How she and her sister finished writing their dad’s romance novel

Jane Alvey Harris has a Humanities degree from Brigham Young University with emphases in Art History, Italian Language, and Studio Art. She’s CRAZY about the visual and performing arts! She enjoys playing classical piano, painting & sketching, singing & acting, and especially writing poetry & prose.
But, her real passion is PEOPLE. She loves to watch and study what makes us tick as human beings. Definitely a dreamer, her favorite thing to do is to weave together sublime settings and stories for characters to live and learn in…herself included.
Jane currently lives in an enchanted fairy-princess castle in Dallas, Texas, with her three often-adorable children and their three seldom-adorable cats.
To learn more about Jane Alvey Harris and her books visit her website.
Topics of conversation:
Being a movie junkie
Books and reading
Travel and trying new things
Musical motivation
Being in love with her cat!

Sandy Marriott Cook lives in Texas with her husband, Richard, and their furry and feathered “children.” She has been an animal lover ever since her pet turtle was her best friend and confidante. As an artist, Sandy hopes to convey the special places pets hold in our hearts. To see some of her portraits of pets and wildlife, visit www.smarriottcook.com.
Topics of conversation:
Rescuing waterfowl
Painting
Being a big classic movie fan
How A Home for Abigail was a family project
Her new dog, Peaches