Don Taylor Writers Marketplace Authors’ Bios

Carolyn was born, raised, and married in San Diego, California. Since San Diego State University was seven blocks from her home, she chose to earn her BA degree there.  It wasn’t long before Carol’s husband began getting offers from companies in different states, so they followed the trail of breadcrumbs to Los Angeles, California (where her two children were born), to Big Bend, Wisconsin, on to Butler, Pennsylvania and finally came to roost in Burlington, North Carolina where they now live. Her favorite job was a community college instructor, where she taught students the remedial education needed for a GED as well as adult literacy. Carolyn’s interests include sewing, playing the piano, directing her choir, volunteering at the local hospital, and of course writing. She also adores God, family, friends, and desserts but hates beets, liver, and being in the hot sun. Carol enjoys reading fiction with plots that feature engaging characters. Ergo, she strives to write complex plots with compelling characters that have interesting and varied personalities. 

Kenneth Farmer is a retired public defender and prosecutor. His first jury trial took place at the tender age of 19 when he was a witness at his brother’s civil commitment proceeding. Though he has plenty of professional experience dealing with schizophrenia, it is his personal one that qualifies him the most to write his book, Lee. He actually went through the tears, disappointment, fear, shame, and blame that thousands of families of schizophrenics endure every day. As a result, he is able to describe with incredible accuracy the heartache as well as the legalities of this horrible problem.

Emily Grandy is an award-winning novelist and editor based in the Midwest.

Before she became a biomedical editor, Emily did medical research for the Cleveland Clinic. 

As a former scientist, Emily’s writing aims to communicate science-based knowledge through storytelling. As an artist and environmental advocate, she hopes to help heal our relationship with the more-than-human world. Her debut novel, Michikusa House, was awarded the Landmark Prize (Homebound Publications). Her second novel, Cupido Cupido, was a finalist for the PEN/Bellwether Prize for socially engaged fiction in 2023. Her other writing has appeared in both academic and literary journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

She prefers walking to driving, clouds over sun, and gardening to most any other activity, although yoga, cooking, birdwatching, hiking, wandering, and, of course, writing are also key elements of her daily routine, to which she is rigidly committed.

Emily has lived in many places, both in the U.S. and abroad, but always gravitates back to the Midwest and its Great Lakes. She currently calls Milwaukee, Wisconsin home. 

Uriel R. Limjoco graduated from the University of the Philippines, College of Medicine in 1957. He is a general surgeon who retired from twenty years of private practice and twenty years of active surgical service in the United States Navy as well. He is a retired captain in the United States Navy and assistant clinical professor of trauma and general surgery from Loma Linda University. He is also a 100 percent disabled United States Navy veteran. He had published several articles of surgical nature in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Canadian Journal of Surgery, and Wisconsin Medical Journal. He is a retired member of several organizations including, but not limited to, the American College of Surgeons, San Diego Society of General Surgeons, Los Angeles Surgical Society, and Milwaukee Academy of Surgery. 

Carolyn Jo Limjoco met her husband, Uriel R. Limjoco, while she was in college at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her young married life was principally involved in raising their six children and leading them to become God-loving, educated, and industrious members of the community. Always principled in helping and educating less fortunate children, she spent many years as member of a school board in Wisconsin, ten of them as president. All the time, she donated her salary for scholarship money to deserving students. She and her husband spent many years as a safe house for battered children in Wisconsin. She is well read and had coauthored a historical pamphlet for the Carnegie Museum in Hanford, California, when she was curator. Uriel and Carolyn have coauthored Cytokine and KAUTCH (min kärlek), published by Fulton Books, and The Popes: A Brief Summary (From Peter to Francis), Purple Gardenia, and A Balkan Rhapsody, published by Covenant Books. They are active members of Saint Brigid Parish in Hanford, California.  

L Maristatter is an author living in the Midwest. Her debut novel, Tiny Tin House, explores what happens in a future United States when the wall of separation between church and state collapses.

Michele Merens is a writer and playwright whose fiction has been published in dozens of literary and commercial magazines and anthologies. Her novel, Inside Our Days, will be published in 2020 by Muriel Press, Marian University. She has also worked as an op-ed columnist and arts reviewer for various newspapers, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Michele was a winner of the 2020 Nuit de Philosophy (Night of Philosophy) Op-ed Contest, judged by New York Times editors and the Brooklyn Public Library. She is a Puffin grant recipient for her dramatic work and was named a Barnard College Senior Scholar in Creative Writing.

Michele has also written numerous full-length and short plays, many of which have been published in anthologies or received readings across the nation. A DVD copy of her full-length play The Lion’s Den is currently archived at the Wisconsin Veteran’s Museum, Madison, WI.

She has been named a semi-finalist for her full length dramatic works by the Princess Grace Playwrighting Competition, the Mildred and Alfred Panowski Playwrighting Competition, the Firehouse New America Players Festival, NuVoices Emerging Playwright’s Competition and a finalist in the Hidden River Arts Playwrighting Competition.

Michele holds a BA in English from Barnard College, NY and a MSJ in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Winner of multiple awards for his technical publications, George has spent a lifetime writing about the tech and medical industries. His latest story unites his strong background in science with his love of the Great Lakes.

A quiet guy with a goofy sense of humor, he can usually be found reading, writing, playing guitar, or talking to the water in Door County. He is a co founder of the Waunakee Writers’ Group and regularly speaks to groups and travels.

Diane is a mother, author, inspirational speaker, and grief coach with a degree in life experience. With two decades of caretaking for terminally ill children, she learned how to navigate through many unforeseen circumstances with grace. Diane is a woman of faith, family, and friends and truly believes that the events in her life have been shaped and molded by God’s hands.

Diane was raised on a farm in Southeastern Wisconsin as one of fifteen children. The world was changing as she grew, and although farm responsibilities lessened, the weight of worldly events sank in. While her four sons grew up, she spent her time in the community as an active parishioner at the local church, a volunteer at school events, a librarian’s aide, and advocated for special needs. Diane is passionate about ministering to the lonely, bringing hope to the hopeless, and encouragement for the defeated.

Dr. Isabela Sardas is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than twenty five years of experience in the treatment of childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders using a cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic perspective. She obtained her training in psychology from The Cambridge Hospital-Harvard Medical School, UNT, and the University of Pennsylvania. She was Chief Executive Officer of a child and adolescent mental health day treatment program for 20 years, specializing in depression, anxiety and trauma. Dr. Sardas is now in private practice. She is a long-standing member of the American Psychological Association and National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.

Amy J. Truesdell is a writer and consultant with an appreciation for family and cultural history. Her debut book, From Binghamton to the Battlefield: The Civil War Letters of Rollin B. Truesdell, fulfills her long-held dream of narrating her great-great grandfather’s wartime experiences based on the 100+ letters he wrote home during the war and which the family preserved. The book was released December 2022.

Formerly, Amy was a lead foreign affairs officer with the U.S. Department of State specializing in stabilization operations in conflict zones in Central and East Africa. Amy earned a Master of Arts in International Affairs and a Master of International Service with a focus on African Human Security from the American University.

Currently residing in Wisconsin, she remains a member of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance and the International Thriller Writers organization. Branching out, she is working on a novel.