Meet the Authors of Your Favorite Reads
Amanda M. Thrasher
Award-winning author Amanda M. Thrasher was born in England, moved to Texas, where she lives with her family. She writes YA, General Fiction, Middle Grade, Early Reader Chapter books, and Picture books. She is the Founder and CEO of Progressive Rising Phoenix Press.
TLA Featured Author
Matthew Gene
Matthew Gene is the webmaster for Progressive Rising Phoenix Press and the author of two sci-fi thriller novels: "Hope" and "Terminus X".
He lives in Ft. Worth with his wife, Karen Murray Odom, author of “Mr. Owl and the Little Boy”.
TLA Featured Author
William Speir
William Speir is an award-winning author living in Texas. Raised in Alabama, he graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is an amateur historian, a Civil War artillery expert, and is the COO of Progressive Rising Phoenix Press.
TLA Featured Author
Tania Glenn
Tania Glenn works with first responders to focus on healing these warriors from the horrors of post-traumatic stress disorder. She has dedicated her entire career to working with first responders and military members. Tania resides in Central Texas.
Karen Murray Odom
Karen Murray Odom was born and raised in East Texas. The Dallas/Ft. Worth area has been her home for the past 30 years, and she has two children.
She currently resides in Ft. Worth along with her husband, Matthew Gene (author of Hope and Terminus X) and their dog Diesel.
"Mr. Owl and the Little Boy" is her debut children’s book, which was inspired by her late mother, Brenda.
Loree Lough
USA Today bestselling author Loree Lough has published over 120 books that have earned hundreds of industry and Readers’ Choice awards, 4- and 5-star reviews, and 7 book-to-movie options.
Catalina Claussen
Author Catalina Claussen is a founding English teacher at Aldo Leopold Charter School and writes poetry, short stories, YA novels, and memoirs.
catalinaclaussenbooks.wordpress.com
Diamonds at Dusk at Progressive Rising Phoenix Press
Caleb Monroe
Caleb is a science teacher at St. Louis Catholic School in Lake Charles, LA. He studied Chemistry at McNeese State University and is married to Jamie Gautreaux Monroe.
Deanna Klingel
Deanna K. Klingel, the author of many books for young readers from Pre-K to high school, lives in the mountains of North Carolina with her husband. She is a member of SCBWI Carolinas, NCWN-West, Catholic Writers Guild, and other professional organizations.
Caroline Dixon
Caroline grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, and joined the Marines shortly after she graduated from high school. She became a licensed practical nurse in 1985 and became a registered nurse in 1996. She and her husband (also a Marine) now call Louisiana home.
Prakash Dighé
Prakash Dighé lived in India, Germany, and Kenya before settling in the U.S. He lives with his family in Dallas, Texas.
View my book trailer here.
Nelda Gaydou
Nelda Bedford Gaydou was born and raised in Argentina by missionary parents from the U.S. She has degrees in English literature, history, and Spanish literature, and she speaks several languages and works as a translator in English, Spanish, French, and Italian.
Darrell Bartell
Darrell D. Bartell is an author, actor, playwright, Texas Hold ‘Em dealer and player, and U.S. Army veteran, as well as a former private investigator, security officer, cab driver, stage magician, and cancer survivor.
TLA Featured Author
M. C. Berkhousen
M.C. (Peg) Berkhousen has been writing all her life. She was raised in Three Rivers, Michigan, and now resides in Ottawa Hills, Ohio. After receiving her nursing degree, Peg continued to write, produced, and directed staff training videos and also provided management training and consultation to other hospitals.
Norma Stricklen
Norma M. Stricklen is an accomplished Special Olympics coach, wife, mother, grandmother, nature photographer, and animal lover with over 30 years of literary experience to her name.
TLA Featured Author
John and Kim Herrington
John and Kim Herrington were regular visitors to Bali before making the decision to live there permanently in 2009. After a family tragedy, they found writing an important part of their healing process. They have been married for 29 years and continue to live and write in Bali, Indonesia.
Jimmy Porter
The late Jimmy Porter was a West Texas native. He spent his life living in Midland, Texas, and he worked as a building contractor, custom painter, and oil and gas operator.
Jodi Lea Stewart
Jodi Lea Stewart’s grew up in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. After graduating summa cum laude with a BS in Business Management, she wrote for a college periodical, wrote regional western articles, and served as managing editor of a Fortune 500 company newsletter. She currently lives in Arizona.
Russell N. Myers
Russell Myers serves as a chaplain for Allina Health Emergency Medical Services, based in Minneapolis. Russ is board certified with the Association of Professional Chaplains. He lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Colette D. Candy
Colette has been a writer for as long as she can remember. It’s something that she hasn’t been able to stop. During the times when she wasn’t writing, she felt that there was something missing from her life.
Her first book contained stories and poetry dating back to the 1980s, which she kept hidden under her bed.
She has also written poetry that was turned into lyrics. She joined the Songwriters Guild of America, published these songs, and sang her tunes to different singers in South Louisiana that she knew would be interested in her writing. She came close to achieving her goals, but life took a different turn.
Colette changed professions to one which provided steady pay and excellent benefits. She remained in that profession for many years, helping people to achieve sobriety.
Eventually, she purchased an established bookstore, accomplishing a lifelong dream. She was able to bring many individuals together in the joy of reading, she rented booths to other business owners, she held classes, and she started book clubs that continued long after she closed the store.
While working at the bookstore, she began creating hand-sewn dolls, which she refers to as her Louisiana Swamp Fairies. She has created many over the years, with no two ever alike.
Colette considers herself a resident of the fairyland she created with her dolls, while writing her short stories. She hopes that these stories will bring her readers to another realm of make believe as they laugh, cry, and wonder why.
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Larry John Phillips
Born and raised in northeastern Indiana, Larry John Phillips is married with 2 children and 5 grandchildren. He is a semi-retired business owner with a B.S. degree from Purdue University. During his free time, in addition to collecting quotations, Larry enjoys playing golf, gardening and spending time at their lake cottage with family.
During the last 40 years, Larry collected quotations on different topics and formed a habit of reflecting on them as part of his morning routine. Over the years he continued to expand the collection of his favorite quotations and today it consists of over 100 topics and 2,500 quotations. The journey with quotations has had a profound, uplifting, and thought-provoking impact on his life.
David Ciambrone
Dr. David Ciambrone is a retired aerospace and defense company executive, scientist, professor of engineering, and a business and environmental consultant. He is a best-selling, award-winning author of twenty-five books.
For additional information visit:
Dr. David Ciambrone
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J. C. Newman
J. C. “Kurt” Newman is a retired US Government employee living in the southeastern United States. Kurt’s career includes four decades with the military and a variety of federal “alphabet” agencies—running the geographic gamut from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Codename: Mountbatten is his first novel.
David Standeven
David Standeven was born in the oil town of Midland, Texas. After graduating from the University of Texas at Dallas with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and a Minor in Business Administration, he began a career as a Software Engineer that has lasted 12 years and counting.
His first stabs at writing began in college, beginning as an insomniac hobby that refused to stop. In nearly fifteen years of writing, he has written works of Fantasy, Action and Adventure, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Poetry, and Children's Stories. He credits this love of writing to his childhood love of reading that included JRR Tolkien, Alexandre Dumas, Feodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Dickens, Boris Pasternak, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and fellow Texan Robert E. Howard (since adulthood he has added Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Jo Nesbo, Stephen King, and numerous others to that list).
When not working, reading, or writing David can be found smoking meat, learning to cook new dishes, sipping whiskey or slivovitz, or fermenting his own mead with local Texas honey. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas with his wife, daughter, and dog. He can sometimes be spotted at meetings of Fort Worth Writers or in the local libraries and coffee shops.
