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Welcome to our book review website, a project of the Story Circle Network.
We love books that tell the truth about women's lives or that deliciously depict them in enlightening, entertaining novels. Take time to explore the site and let us share our favorites with you. Browse our reviews, learn more about the authors, and meet our talented review team. If you would like to contribute a review, please read our Reviewer's Guidelines. If you are an author, publicist or publisher and would like us to review a book, read Getting Reviewed.
Susan Wittig Albert, Coordinating Editor. In 1985, I left my career as a university professor and administrator and began working fulltime as a novelist and freelance writer. For the past 16 years, I've written the China Bayles herbal mysteries, and for the past five, a series of historical fantasies called The Cottage Tales, featuring Beatrix Potter. With my husband, Bill Albert, writing as Robin Paige, I coauthored a dozen historical mysteries set in Victorian-Edwardian England and over sixty books for young readers. I have also edited two anthologies for the Story Circle Network: With Courage and Common Sense (2004) and What Wildness Is This: Women Write about the Southwest (2007). I've also written nonfiction. In 1992, I published Work of Her Own, a study of women who left their careers, and in 1997, Writing From Life: Telling Your Soul's Story, for women memoirists. You can find out more about my work at my website and get a look into the life of a working writer by reading my blog.
Mary Jo Doig, Editor. As I have grown to seek and find deeper levels of my own story, I find I am also passionate about reading and nurturing other women's stories. Since 2001 I have been a SCN member, have led my internet writing circle 7 for six years, and have been editor of Story Circle Journal's "True Words From Real Women" for five years. I have found so many different ways to express my soul's longings in SCN. Writing book reviews is yet another way for I can both deepen and share my experience with a book that has been particularly meaningful to me.
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Barbara Heming, Distribution Editor. Ever since she learned to read, Barbara Heming has been a voracious reader. For her a snow day was a gift of time to journey into the worlds sandwiched between the covers of a book. She pursued a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literature which opened doors into literature of other cultures. After moving to a remote canyon in northern New Mexico a few years ago, she turned her attention to her lifelong dream of writing fiction and has now completed a number of short stories and her first novel.
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Linda Hoye, Editor. I am a full-time HR Business Analyst and a part-time writer. I nourish my muse with the taste of caramel frappuchinos, the scent of Yankee Candles, the sound of quiet classical music, the vision of Mrs. Potato Head and Gumby and Pokey on the corner of my desk, and the feeling of my smallest Yorkie on my lap.
I live in Washington state with my husband and our two doted-upon Yorkshire Terriers. When I'm not writing or working, I have the most fun spending time back in Canada with my husband, our children, and our two brilliant grandchildren.
I post regularly on my blog A Slice of Life Writing.
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Laura Strathman Hulka, Editor. Born and raised in California, I spent nine years in Tennessee at the turn of the century, learning to speak Southern, and eight months in the Arizona desert, learning I really don't like heat! Presently, I live with my husband of 38 years and two dachshunds on 10 shared acres near Lake Oroville, CA. I consider myself a "renaissance woman" with a wide variety of interests and enthusiasms, including gardening, reading, writing, baking, dogs, crafts and family (not necessarily in that order!). I taught myself to read at age four, from the back of cereal boxes at the breakfast table, and haven't stopped reading since. My favorite genres are cozy mysteries, historical fiction and non-fiction, and biography. I own my own writers services business, Time in a Bottle, providing an array of services for authors. I have two grown children, Rebecca and David (and two grandsons, Xavier and Alexander). Visit my blog.
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Susan Ideus, Communications Editor/Review Team Coordinator. I've been a SCN member since January 2006—one of the best New Years' resolutions I've made! I've been fortunate enough to attend two SCN national conferences and several weekend retreats, and I facilitate online writing group #3. I contribute to SC Book Reviews and have had several pieces of my writing included in SCN publications. I just recently retired from the business world, an event which also coincided with a move back to my beloved New Mexico.
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Judy Miller, Editor. Two years ago I took my husband's advice and began my writing career. It was in one of my writing classes that I came across Story Circle Network. I was drawn to the idea of women nurturing women in their quest to write and share their stories. I joined SCN almost a year ago and volunteered to become one the of the SCBR editors. I have had dozens of articles and essays published in parenting and adoption magazines and my stories are included in A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Families: Stories That Celebrate a Special Gift of Love, Pieces of Me: Who Do I Want to Be? and Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom. I live in the Midwest with my four wonderful kids, ages 8 to 17, and amazing husband. I was a presenter for "Finding Our Stories Online" at the Stories from the Heart V. I am a columnist for the adoption network, Grown in My Heart, blog at The International Mom and facilitate classes for adoptive parents at Parenting Your Adopted Child: Tweens, Teens & Beyond.
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Paula Stallings Yost, Editor Emerita. After a twenty-five-year career in public relations and journalism in Dallas, I returned to my roots in the piney woods of East Texas, working for a while as lifestyles editor for a small-town daily newspaper. In 1999, I established LifeSketches/ Heirloom Memoirs Publishing—a biography service dedicated to helping others preserve their personal and/or family histories in book form, including a visual record of treasured photographs and other memorabilia, or as an oral history. I served as co-editor of What Wildness is This: Women Write About the Southwest, a Story Circle Network anthology published by University of Texas Press in March 2007. For a little fun and something different, I recently began blogging. I hope you'll drop by and share a few giggles and stories with me.
I have very much enjoyed working with my two favorite non-profit organizations over the years. From 2002-2005, I served as vice president of the Association of Personal Historians—an international trade organization of professional writers, videographers and oral historians. My connection with Story Circle Network began in 2001. Since then, I have served on their board, the book review website, taught various workshops, and offered online classes. If you're interested in learning more about my personal historian side, check out the interviews published in the Story Circle Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3 in 2001, and Volume 11, Issue 2 in June 2007, or visit my website.
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