Review Team

       
Stars / Associates / Guests / Editors
(*reviewer categories defined at bottom of page)

Stars* Star SuperStar Starburst Nova SuperNova

Judy Alter     Star Judy Alter is the author of fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers. Her most recent book is a cozy mystery, Skeleton in a Dead Space, set in Fort Worth. Judy recently retired as director of TCU Press, a position she has held for 23 years. —read more...

Lee Ambrose     Nova Lee Ambrose: I am passionate about words! I enjoy reviewing books for the SCN Book Review Site almost as much as I enjoy reading the reviews posted by my sister reviewers. Reading and writing are such an important part of my life that I cannot imagine a day without actively reading or writing—or both! —read more...

Susan Andrus     StarBurst Susan Andrus: I am an energetic person who loves to read, write, walk, paint, teach, and play cello. I can do many activities that I would otherwise not have time for because I don't have a TV. Right now, I'm working on a series of articles regarding equal education for all. Maybe they will grow up to be a book someday. —read more...

Duffie Bart     SuperStar Duffie Bart: I am a writer and reader living in Santa Barbara where my daughter Scout and two beautiful grandchildren keep me busy and happy. My primary interest is in the deepening of my awareness, and it is through writing, reading, and relationship that I find my growth and spiritual awakening. —read more...

Rhonda Esakov     SuperStar Rhonda Esakov: I am a volunteer instructor for Texas Parks and Wildlife, an NRA Certified Shooting Instructor/Range Officer and have managed my own tax practice for over 25 years. When not working or teaching gun and outdoor courses, I enjoy visiting caves, camping and canoeing. My writing includes a piece in the Kitchen Table Stories anthology... —read more...

Judith Helburn     SuperNova Judith Helburn has been involved with Spiritual Eldering and Sage-ing® since 1994. She is currently Mentor/Intern Coordinator and Chair of the Coordinating Circle for the international Sage-ing Guild. Judith works with seniors in several other programs in Austin, Texas, including the Older Women's Legacy (OWL)-Circle memoir program of Story Circle Network. —read more...

Judy King     Star Judy King In thinking of ways to describe myself, "science nerd" keeps floating to the top, more so than "voracious reader" or "writer." So I'll go with that, although it's not the way I would have imagined describing myself when I was much younger. But my love of animals led to a love of nature led to a curiosity about how things work in the natural world, and there you have it—evolution into a science nerd. —read more...

Khadijah Lacina     Star Khadijah Lacina is a Wisconsin girl transplanted to Yemen, where she lived for nine years with her husband and eight children, before recently moving back to the United States. She is a writer, translator, fabric artist, and teacher. —read more...

Penny Leisch     Star Penny Leisch is a writer, author, and resume specialist who lives in Austin, Texas. Her clients include the City of Tempe, Walsh America, Camping & RV Magazine, Warner Wrangler newspaper, Loving Pets Magazine, Garden and Hearth, Adams Media (Cup of Comfort anthology series), and many more. —read more...

Sharon Lippincott     SuperStar Sharon Lippincott lives near Pittsburgh, PA, and has been writing for thirty years. After retiring from the business world, she turned her focus to life story and memoir writing and leads workshops on these topics based on her latest book, The Heart and Craft of Lifestory Writing. —read more...

Martha Meacham     Star Martha Meacham has a home nestled in motts of live oak and clumps of junipers on a piece of hardscrabble land southwest of Austin. The gentle rolling hills nearby remind her of the glacial drumlins of upstate New York where she grew up before leaving for college in Mexico. —read more...

Jenifer Melville     StarBurst Jennifer Melville is a freelance writer and proud military wife living in Jacksonville, Florida. She has been published in Natural Awakenings, Women's Digest, Jax Air News, and multiple other publications and has a degree in English from the University of Maryland. —read more...


Mary Ann Moore     StarBurst Mary Ann Moore: I am a poet, writer and creativity facilitator in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Ever since carrying them around, for the feel and smell of them, I have loved books—before I had yet learned to read! —read more...

Patricia Pando     Nova Trilla Pando: After years of living in rural Georgia, I now lives in my favorite city, Houston, Texas where I write, do volunteer work, play with a grandson, and enjoy all the plays, concerts, museums and general fun I missed during her country years. (There's a time for everything.) I have been an SCN member for many years, as well as a contributing editor to the Story Circle Journal for several years and a member of the board. —read more...

Doris Anne Roop-Benner     SuperStar Doris Anne Roop-Benner: I have lived in Richardson, Texas, since 1973 and been a member of Story Circle since its creation in 1997. Born and raised in Philadelphia, I have been married to Bob for 42 years. —read more...

Susan Schoch     Star Susan Schoch: As a freelance writer, editor and custom publisher, I specialize in memoir and personal history work at my little cabin in Idledale, Colorado. The natural fit with Story Circle Network for the past 8 years has been both motivating and fulfilling. Because I'm always discovering women's books that increase my awareness and stoke my passion for their stories, it's an honor to write reviews for SCBR and share those discoveries. —read more...

Susan J. Tweit     SuperStar Susan J. Tweit is the award-winning author of twelve books (including her memoir, Walking Nature Home: A Life's Journey, and Colorado Scenic Byways, winner of the Colorado Book Award), numerous magazine articles, and newspaper columns. Visit her website. —read more...

Sharon Wildwind     Star Sharon Wildwind is a Calgary, Alberta writer, who focuses on mysteries and memoirs. She has kept a journal since 1978 and has one published memoir, Dreams that Blister Sleep, based on the year she spent in Vietnam with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. Her Viet Nam veterans mystery series includes Some Welcome Home (2005)... —read more...

Linda Wisniewski     SuperStar Linda Wisniewski: I joined Story Circle Network about eight years ago and have been an Internet chapter member almost as long. I've facilitated an e-circle, written book reviews and was one of the editors of the Kitchen Table Stories anthology. —read more...



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Associates*

  • Janet Caplan lives with her husband and 2 cocker spaniels near Victoria on Vancouver Island. The dogs often find their way into her writing, which has appeared in Dogs in Canada, Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from the Dog, OCEAN Magazine and Tiny Lights, as well as in several anthologies and online. —read more...

  • B. Lynn Goodwin is a freelance writer, editor, teacher, former caregiver, and the author of You Want Me To Do What?—Journaling for Caregivers (Tate Publishing). She is published in Voices of Caregivers; Hip Mama; the Oakland Tribune; the Contra Costa Times; the Danville Weekly; Staying Sane When You're Dieting; Small Press Review; Dramatics Magazine; Career; We Care; Caregiving, and Self-Care NCDA Monograph; Families of Loved Ones Magazine; the Story Circle Network Journal... —read more...

  • Barbara L. Heller is a clinical social work psychotherapist and writer living in a small village in upstate NY with her husband of thirty years. She blogs with her wonderful 29 year-old daughter at Intentions and Inspirations. Her first blog, The Dream Year, chronicled her and her husband's one-year sabbatical, traveling around the US and Canada in small vehicles—a 22-foot van, an inflatable kayak, bicycles and a 26-foot boat. —read more...

  • Becky Lane is a lifelong voracious reader—especially of books about people who are "living the good life." She and her husband have recently left suburbia and embarked upon their own quest for the good life in the Texas Hill Country. —read more...

  • Diana Nolan is a former librarian and has worked in public and academic libraries, as well as a law library. "A born and bred New Englander, I moved to Virginia with my husband seven years ago expecting only a change in the weather! I have two sons, one in New York, and one in Tennessee, and three grandchildren." —read more...

  • Edith O'Nuallain, mother of 5 and substitute teacher in a local primary school, lives in Wicklow, the Garden County of Ireland. She reads and writes whenever the opportunity presents itself to her, and has an insatiable appetite for buying books, a habit her dearly beloved husband prefers to call a disease! —read more...

  • Donna Van Straten Remmert is a former member of the SCN Board of Directors, and has facilitated writing workshops and writing circles. She has published a memoir about her childhood, The Littlest Big Kid and a memoir about her teen years, The Jitterbug Girl. —read more...

  • Becca Taylor joined Story Circle Network in late 2005 as a holiday gift to herself. Since then, she's participated in several workshops, facilitated an e-Circle, and presented at the 2008 SCN Stories from the Heart conference. In 2006, she discovered a way she could put her geekdom to good use to serve SCN: she started the SCN podcast. She is also a Board member for SCN. —read more...

  • Kathy Waller is a paralegal, a librarian, and a writer. She loves reading, and one of her favorite activities is giving book talks. A native of Fentress, Texas, she now lives in Austin. —read more...



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Guests*



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Editors*


Susan Wittig Albert Editor SuperNova 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. —read more...

Mary Jo Doig Editor 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. —read more...

Barbara Heming Editor 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. —read more...

Linda Hoye Editor 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. —read more...

Laura Strathman Hulka Editor SuperStar 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. —read more...

Susan Ideus Editor SuperStar 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. —read more...

Judy Miller Editor SuperStar 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. —read more...

Editor Emerita

Paula Stallings Yost Editor Paula Stallings Yost, Editor, 2002-2008: 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. —read more...



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Inactive Reviewers

  • Penny Appleby
  • Karen Ballinger
  • Julie Baum
  • Bobbi Chukran
  • Patricia Daly-Lipe
  • Sally Gelardin
  • Mary Marino-Strong
  • Marion Mitchell
  • Linda Joy Myers
  • Brenda Osborne
  • Carol Smallwood

Former Reviewers

  • Melanie Alberts
  • Karen Bensing
  • Carolyn Blankenship
  • Sharon Blumberg
  • Lisa Check
  • Catherine Cogburn
  • Gloria Cordova
  • Leslie Crowley
  • Nancy Dasenbrock
  • Robin Edgar
  • Carol Feder
  • Judy Fettman
  • Kara Flathouse
  • Grace Forrest-Maestas
  • Christine Gilbert
  • Darla Grant
  • Jeanne Guy
  • Joan Shaddox Isom
  • Cassandra Jacobs
  • Jazz Jaeschke
  • Juanita Johnson
  • Maggie Knorr
  • Dianne Lodge-Peters
  • Denise McAllister
  • Susan Cummins Miller
  • Katherine Misegades
  • Tracie Nichols
  • Laurie Park
  • PJ Pierce
  • Paulette Rees-Denis
  • Janet Grace Riehl
  • Rebecca Roberts
  • Deborah Robson
  • Cheri Rosenberg
  • Jane Ross
  • Karen Ryan
  • Danelle Sasser
  • Jan Epton Seale
  • Leslea Smith
  • Allison Stadd
  • Marlys Marshall Styne
  • Peggy Talley
  • Lina Tanner
  • Mary Tinkler
  • Carol Waid
  • Marti Weisbrich
  • Mary Welker-Haddock
  • Allyson Whipple
  • Gwen Whitehead

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* Star Stars have posted 10 or more reviews/interviews in the past 18 months and have their own web pages. Further classifications for Stars: SuperStar SuperStar (25 reviews/interviews); StarBurst StarBurst (50); NovaStar NovaStar (75); SuperNova SuperNova (100).

Editor Editors procure / distribute books to our review team, edit reviews/interviews submitted by our review team, publicize posted reviews on our social media sites, and submit their own reviews/interviews.

Associate Reviewers have posted 5-9 reviews/interviews in the past 12 months.
Guest Reviewers have posted 1-4 reviews/interviews in the past 12 months.
Inactive reviewers haven't submitted a review in the past 12 months.
Former reviewers haven't submitted a review in the past 36 months.

       
Star Stars have posted at least 10 reviews &/or interviews in the past 18 months
SuperStar SuperStars have posted at least 25 reviews &/or interviews
StarBurst StarBursts have posted at least 50 reviews &/or interviews
NovaStar NovaStars have posted at least 75 reviews &/or interviews
SuperNova SuperNovas have posted at least 100 reviews &/or interviews
Editor Editors procure / distribute books to our review team, edit reviews/interviews submitted by our review team, publicize posted reviews on our social media sites, and submit their own reviews/interviews.