Welcome to part two of our “Meet the Team” Q&A series!
In this installment, we’re excited to introduce you to five more of the authors behind some of your favorite stories. So sit back, grab a cup of tea (or your beverage of choice) and enjoy!
(And if you missed last week’s post, you can find it HERE). 🙂
Diana Birchall
Where do you live? I grew up in New York City, and was a little teenage beatnik chick hanging out in Greenwich Village in the 1960s! Later, when I married I was “transplanted” (like Mrs. Elton in Emma) to California. I live by the beach in Santa Monica.
Drink of choice: A daily cappuccino. After that, tea. Hot (English Breakfast) or iced, and lots of it.
Do you have any pets? Yes, yes and yes. Our three cats, now age 16 ½. They were a litter, two long-haired torties, and the head cat is a striped beauty. My husband named them after classical poets, Pindar, Martial the Epigrammatist, and Catullus. But they turned out to be all girls, so the names morphed into Pindy, Marshy, and Tully. Worked out perfectly well, one cat for each human in the family, me, my husband, and my son.
Place you most want to travel: I always wanted to live my life in England, but my day job (apart from writing) was as a story analyst at Warner Bros studios, so I compromised and visited England every year for forty years! Covid interrupted that, but I’m back to traveling again, looking forward to my 41st trip this summer for Jane Austen’s 250th birthday. People ask me why I keep going to England, to which I simply answer, “Because there’s still more to see.”
What food could you eat every day? I do eat bagels and lox every day for breakfast. Guess it’s harking back to my New York roots!
What is something you couldn’t live without? Books.
What is your ideal writing location? At home in my book and cat filled study, but I get out to a café every day (more shades of my bohemian youth), and often write or read there, too.
Name something that instantly makes your day better: At the risk of repeating myself, cappuccino. I’d be a sleepy unproductive zombie without it. Many other things make my days better in a myriad ways, but cappuccino is the one that works instantly!
Where is your happy place? Not just one place, but many places give me the same happy feeling. Random list: England. Italy. Mountains. The Hebrides, the Scilly Isles, the Canadian Rockies. Alaska. Venice…
What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you? I love ballet, and took classes most of my life. Never had the body or professional talent, but I just loved doing it, dancing gave me the same free exalted happy feeling that traveling and hiking do. Had to give up classes eventually when my knees went on strike, but I still do stretching and barre exercises, on the bluffs overlooking the ocean.
Elizabeth Adams
Where do you live? Baltimore, Maryland, in the eastern United States.
Drink of choice: Water! Then hot tea.
Do you have any pets? I have a Tuxedo cat named Thomas and a mutt of a dog who technically belongs to my daughter, but she is often with me.
Place you most want to travel: I’d love to go just about anywhere, but South America is high on my list at the moment.
What food could you eat every day? Green smoothies!
What is something you couldn’t live without? Books. Cozy blankets. A nice oven.
What is your ideal writing location? I like the idea of writing in a garden, but it hardly ever happens.
Name something that instantly makes your day better: A cup of tea.
Where is your happy place? A library.
What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you? I am a terrible knitter.
Jack Caldwell
Where do you live? I’m a Cajun from Louisiana, born and raised on a sugar plantation about an hour south of New Orleans. I’m the token guy in this merry bunch. My blushing bride of 26+ years is a Florida native (Yes, there are such creatures!). After 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, my economic development work forced us on a 10-year odyssey to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Florida, before returning to the Bayou State. Thus, my tag line: A Cajun in Exile. We now live in Prairieville, near Baton Rouge.
Barbara works remotely from home, raising funds for the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and Arts (LSMSA), a boarding school for top students in these fields. They won’t let her retire—she’s too good at what she does. She also has her jewelry business: B. Caldwell Creations.
As for me, I try to write full-time—when my granddaughter lets me.
Drink of choice: Daytime—coffee. Nighttime—red wine or a digestif. Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka, two fingers neat, will change your life.
Do you have any pets? Look, my lovely Barbara is really Elly May Clampet (You Gen-Xers look that up). We have ALWAYS had animals around here. I’m talking Dobermans, Greyhounds, Corgis, Basset Hounds, German Shepards, Bloodhounds, and Pugs, as well as numerous cats. Not all at the same time, mind, but never just one. Good thing we have no room for horses or chickens.
We currently own two male Standard Poodles. The boys are parti-colored, which means they are NOT a solid color of black or white. Moose is black and white, while his brother Rocky is white and tan. They are lovable goofballs.
Place you most want to travel: I want to take my wife to Rome, Italy and celebrate Mass in the Vatican. Barbara wants to show off the Florida Keys, where she was born (Yes, she’s a Conch). There’s an Alaska cruise in our future. We also want to return to Israel and Krakow, Poland.
What food could you eat every day? Well, I have a Ham and Swiss every day for lunch, so I guess that counts. A Fried Oyster Po-Boy or my special Smoked Pulled Pork come close.
What is something you couldn’t live without? COFFEE! I live in Louisiana, y’know. I drink it all day (and sleep all night, thank you). And none of that Starbucks junk. We’re talking Coffee & Chicory!
What is your ideal writing location? My office. I’ve turned one of the bedrooms in my house into my Man Cave/Writing Retreat. The boys are usually sleeping at my feet. I have a TV on the wall to catch the games and NASCAR.
Name something that instantly makes your day better: My wife. (Now, everybody say “Aww!”) I also adore my four grandchildren, especially my granddaughter—Princess Sugar Pie.
Where is your happy place? It would be grilling and/or smoking something next to the pool for my family to eat. As a Cajun, I know my way around the kitchen and the grill. People have been known to fight over the last slice of my Meyer Lemon Ice Box Pie—it put a Key Lime Pie to shame.
What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you? It all depends where they’re from. Is it that I’ve written over a dozen works and a play, yet I can’t spell? Or ,that I’ve never taken any writing course in my life (I’m a Business Major)? Or, that I’ve acted in musicals and directed plays, and have been an extra in two movies? Or, that I’ve lived through five major hurricanes?
I guess the most surprising thing is that I give talks about my works, and sell my books and my wife’s jewelry in person, yet I’m really an introvert. Now that I think about it, Darcy’s an introvert too, isn’t he?
I guess Barbara’s right—I am her Darcy! She’s my Elinor, after all.
Jennifer Altman
Where do you live? In Northern Westchester County, NY, about an hour north of New York City. It’s an area that’s known for its scenic beauty and historic charm, but it’s still within easy access to NYC. So, it’s kind of the best of both worlds!
Drink of choice: In the morning, an iced cappuccino (or strong iced coffee), even in the wintertime. I’m addicted to Starbucks Espresso and Cream (the ones in the tiny little cans), but lately I’ve also been enjoying Stok Cold Brew Cappuccino. In the afternoon or evening, unsweetened iced tea or Vitamin Water (the Energy flavor).
Do you have any pets? Yes! I have a three-year-old Cavapoo named Penny. She is pretty much the center of my universe, which is exactly the way she likes it. 🙂
Place you most want to travel: I love to travel, so we could be here a while! Right now, I’d say the places at the top of my (very long) list are: Amsterdam, Portugal, Italy (I’ve been to Rome, Florence, and Venice, but I’d love to do the Amalfi Coast and Capri), Scotland, and Ireland. But England is a perennial favorite. I’ve been three times but there’s still so much I haven’t seen. It’s probably the one country I could go back to again and again, and never tire of it. I always say that I must have been British in a previous life!
What food could you eat every day? Really good Chinese food. But also ice cream, chocolate, and cheese.
What is something you couldn’t live without? All of the above! And books, of course.
What is your ideal writing location? A comfy sofa or chaise, usually with my dog, Penny, pasted up against my leg. I wish I was able to write in a café or a library, because it would get me out of the house. But I need total silence when I write, so I think I’d be way too distracted. Plus, I like to be comfortable!
Name something that instantly makes your day better: My dog, 100%.
Where is your happy place? As I’ve already mentioned, England is definitely up there. But also, Chautauqua Institution, in northwestern New York State. If you know, you know.
What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you? I think it depends on who you ask! For the majority of people who know me “in real life,” probably the fact that I’m a published author. 🙂 But for the people who know me as an author (which is probably everyone reading this post!), maybe the fact that I spent the majority of my career in the television industry, including 17 years working at the Late Show with David Letterman. Also, I’m terrified of roller coasters.
Joana Starnes
Where do you live? South of England, not far from Netherfield 2005 and from the Great Road to Bath, now known far less poetically as the A4.
Drink of choice: It depends. Coffee to wake up, tea to calm down, a cappuccino or a mocha for a treat.
Do you have any pets? None after my cuddly and playful cocker spaniel.
Place you most want to travel: Italy, Spain, Malta, B-roads England. Whenever we go on holiday we tend to rush from home to our main destination along the motorways, but what I’d like us to do one day is travel leisurely along the slow roads, go wherever fancy takes us, stop wherever we please, discover old landmarks and country inns, and (in my case) take hundreds of photos.
What food could you eat every day? Sweet, ripe and juicy melon.
What is something you couldn’t live without? Books.
What is your ideal writing location? I’ve had such happy moments writing in very special places: by the lake at Lyme Park (this has to be my top favourite spot); by the fireside in an old inn near Ambleside, in the Lake District; in Berkeley Square and Green Park in London. All those places (and quite a few others) inspire me and feature more or less prominently in my novels, but over the years I found that I’m at my most productive when I’m writing in busy coffee shops. Not sure why. Perhaps the background noise and movement make me less likely to fixate on arranging the phrases just so, and more inclined to go with the flow.
Name something that instantly makes your day better: A hug from my husband or our kids.
Where is your happy place? At home with my family.
Thanks for reading! We’ll be back next Friday with the next installment in the the series. 🙂
1 comments
I’m loving this series, it’s so interesting to read the backgrounds. I’m definitely impressed with the answers as I personally struggle with decision making so it would be a problem picking a favourite food or place to travel. I can’t travel much nowadays but I love my home so that’s ok. I can manage the ten minute trip to Lyme Park although last year the weather wasn’t conducive to travel anywhere! Joana would definitely struggle to write there in her favourite place!
Looking forward to next week.