Kenosha Writers’ Group

Bill Schroeder is retired and writes poetry and short fiction and is therefore able to lie, exaggerate and relate half truths. His writing may stimulate, depress or horrify a reader; sometimes even causing a laugh at the human condition. Doubtless veracity is not one of his unvarnished qualities.

Tammy Peacy finds time to write between loads of laundry in the basement of the home she shares with her husband, Steve, and their three children. Her writing has been published in AntiMuse, Chick Flicks Ezine, The Write Side Up, and Wanderings Magazine.

Rick Ponzio is a professional fiction writer, playwright, storyteller, actor, and educator. He has been a presenter and a keynote speaker at Young Authors’ conferences in Minnesota and Iowa. He has lectured at colleges and universities; taught writing classes at the Playwrights’ Center and has done artist residencies independently and for the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. He has presented folk literature through the Minnesota Literature Live program, administrated by the Loft. Rick has received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship in literature twice and a Jones’ One-act commission twice. His plays have been toured regionally and nationally. He has self-published books of folk literature including The Feast of St. Luigi, Life is Life, Common Sense, The Cat, Markle: The Messy Boy, and Valentine’s Day. He has published an article for the Loft titled “Writing Folk Literature”, as well as having written classroom exercises for a teacher’s manual on an interactive CD-ROM entitled Opening Night produced by MECC. Rick has recently self-published a CD book entitled Write Times.

Christine Wade is an RN, a lover of trains, and is currently working on a creative non-fiction book based on her childhood.

Mary Ann Eils is a retired registered nurse working part time as a nursing instructor. She has been married for sixty years. Mary Ann is a mother of four, grandmother of nine, and great-grandmother of two. She enjoys writing true to life stories with a humorous touch.

Dorene Mangan writes fiction and is working on her memoirs. “My Father’s Hands” was inspired by her father’s courage after he lost both hands in an industrial accident when the author was eight years old. Another memoir piece, “My First Job”, was recently published in the June/July 2007 issue of Reminisce magazine. She participates in workshops with the Kenosha Writers’ Group and The Internet Writing Workshop..

Rick McCluskey retired after twenty-three years on the Racine Police Department before becoming a full time author who writes under the pseudonym Sheldon Doyle. He has written numerous short stories and poems, but his love is novels; intriguing, thrilling and sometimes scary novels. He has written five books and River of Sensations can be purchased on Lulu.com. Come join him. You never know what’s going to go bump in the night.

Joe Barr was once accused of plagiarism by his High School teacher. He was deeply flattered when he learned what that meant! A technical education and life intervened while his words lay dormant. Of late, he has attempted to resurrect the still synapses and arrange words in a rational and entertaining way. ‘Tis a work in progress.

Nancy Turecek enjoys writing about real life, real feelings, real observations… just real stuff.

Suzanne Simonovich wants to share with everyone a perception of humanity to educate, inspire, and amuse, or encourage a tear of compassion; to leave a legacy of love and camaraderie for herself and for her mother who made an unselfish career choice of motherhood in lieu of journalism.

“In retrospect I believe I can keep her memory alive by writing, I know she would be keen on the idea of me penning a book in her honor.”

While currently working on that premise, she also enjoys other like souls in workshops, and writing classes in the Kenosha area.

Sandy Dickson was born in Zion, Illinois. After high school, she attended college in California where she studied drama. Following college, she spent ten years in the television and movie industries.

During her time in Los Angeles, she sang in a musical group which toured the country. She also served as the main model and spokesperson for Weider Enterprises, a physical fitness company for which she traveled extensively. Sandy had a burning desire to see the world and departed for the Orient, where she lived and worked in various locales, including Japan, Hong Kong, and Bangkok, before progressing on to tour Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Europe.

After returning to the United States, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue her passion for lyric writing. She became certified in the profession of electrolysis and opened an electrolysis clinic, which she presently owns and operates.

Here is another site of hers: www.goflo.com/sd/

Tim Hein. Writing has always served as a creative outlet from the staid accounting world, but it was my six years working as a loan officer in two small town banks that sparked my interest in a novel. Ideas that I couldn’t have dreamed up in a million years, such as an elderly man ripping his filthy dentures from his mouth and slamming them on my desk, or a woman claiming she couldn’t pay because her son had been kidnapped and sold off ~experiences like these are priceless. After six years of hearing a stream of ridiculous excuses, I thought to myself,

“No matter what I write, it will be believable compared to things that have actually happened to me.”

My muse appears in short bursts ~ an hour over lunch, thirty minutes before bedtime, an hour in the car on the way to Grandma’s. Handcuffs and straitjacket couldn’t keep me to pen and paper for more than a couple hours. Maybe that’s why it took my twelve years to write and publish Net Loss. Presidents came and went, centuries rolled over, and I kept pecking away a page at a time until it finally worked. Well, you know what they say about a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters ~ I just happen to be that lucky monkey.

S’zanne M’Chel is the name given at birth to a local author by her mother. Family folklore has it that her father later changed the paperwork at the hospital, and she was raised by a different name. She has always been someone’s daughter, or mother, or wife. For the first time in her life, S’zanne stands at a crossroads in her life with an opportunity to finally be just herself. She felt it was the perfect time to try out the name that she would have had. As this local author explores her writing, she has chosen this birth name as her pseudonym. To match her kaleidoscope personality, S’zanne writes in many genres - Poetry, short story, memoir, essay, and erotica, just to name a few

Jeff Kannel is a pediatric physical therapist, teacher of physical therapist assistants, Spanish teacher, bookbinder, canoeist, father and husband, and retired first baseman. His writing has shifted over the decades from political polemics to investigative journalism to long narrative letters to children’s stories to local history. In fall of 2007 he published a combined genealogy of his paternal grandfather’s family and a history of the village of Plum City, Wisconsin. Now he’s trying out short fiction and creative non-fiction.

Josie Rodriguez I began writing poetry around the age of thirteen and fell in love with that. In high school I had some great teachers who encouraged me to continue writing, entering contests etc. I began hanging around the good people of Kenosha and got invited to display some of my work at the Pollard Gallery, and share some of my poetry at the Kenosha’s Writers group. I am currently developing a comic strip called, “Max and Otis.” It’s about two snails. Keep an eye out for them, I’ll keep you posted.

Lisa Adamowicz Kless
Lisa has been writing since she learned that words, linked together, have the amazing ability to form stories. After experiencing the magic of creating a story herself, she’s never looked back. As a child, she’d write skits, “plays”, and other tales to share with her family, who were always extremely supportive. As a young teen, she had the good fortune to meet local children’s author Florence Parry Heide, and corresponded with her for a few years. With her family and Ms. Parry Heide cheering her on, it encouraged Lisa and helped to keep her writing throughout her teenage years. (Winning a local “young authors” contest didn’t hurt either, providing even more incentive to keep writing!) As a history/English major at UW-Parkside (writing concentration, of course)! Lisa was able to start refining her skills, explore new genres and spend some time with fellow writers. After graduation though, her creative streak somehow tapered off and basically stopped, except for short bursts here and there. However, her love of the written word endured, and the desire to “reunite” with it eventually proved too strong to ignore. Lisa isn’t sure if it was Fate, or coincidence, that led her to the Kenosha Writer’s Group. She’s confident though, that with sheer determination and the support of this fantastic group, she and writing won’t part ways again.

Tamara Walters lives with her four teenage daughters in a cozy country home where she can never get a word in edgewise. Having given up trying to be heard, she instead spends her time writing and waiting in line for a turn with the hair dryer. An office manager by day, she spends her evenings driving the kids to and from their various commitments and trying to avoid cooking dinner. She feels certain she has other hobbies, but can’t remember what they are anymore.

Jodi Diderrich has been teaching for twelve years, most recently as a part-time computer technology and drama teacher. She writes anything and everything and is currently working on a mystery novel set in a futuristic New York City. In her spare time, she plays with her two dogs, Molly & Sam, takes photos, gardens, tutors for the Literacy Council, and hangs out with her husband, Dan. Makes you kinda wish you were her, doesn’t it.

Chris DeGuire teaches workshops in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago. He specializes in training writing tutors. He writes reality-based fiction loosely based on his real life, which is sometimes itself a complete fantasy. His work can be found in Hair Trigger 28 and 29 and in F Magazine 7. He also won the John Schultz/Betty Shiflett scholarship for his piece “The Fellowship of the G-string.” He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College and is hoping to have his MA in the Teaching of Writing wrapped up by Spring 2009. Hoping.

Jen has recently returned to writing. She writes short-stories, poetry, and is currently attempting a first novel.
She likes book and paper arts, zombies, crafting, graphic novels, cake, Scrabble, Victorian magicians, thunder storms, cycling, bad wax works, cooking, listening into stranger’s conversations, mythological creatures, Agatha Christie mysteries, live music, and other stuff too.

Greg DeGuire Bowler by day, writer by night. I do my best work on the lanes. To my credit I have bowled fourteen 300 games, three 800 series. One of which was the city record, an 864 shot back in November of 1997. I have also bowled many 299 games, and currently average 220 in three leagues. I am also on the board of directors for our local men’s association.

Robin makes her home in Paddock Lake, just west of Kenosha. Like most writers, she has been writing since she was a child. She took 10 years off to have children and get her MBA in marketing, but now she is back in full force. Despite growing up as a tom boy, Robin devotes her time to writing Romance and Chick Lit, in both short stories and novels. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Wisconsin RWA, Wisconsin Regional Writers Association and several online chat groups. Her short story, Roommates is published in the December ’08 edition of Long Story Short ezine. Many of her other works can be viewed at WeBook, an online writing community. You can also follow along on her journey at her blog – A Writer’s Peril.

Jennifer McCumber- Sepanski is a wife, mother, educator and writer. She writes anecdotal non-fiction and is inspired by her husband and two children, Mason and Quinn, whose hilarious antics keep her on her toes! Jen has written dozens of poems, but finds motherhood has helped her expand her writing in new directions. She graduated from the University of WI Parkside with a BA in English and is employed as a substitute teacher for the KUSD, where she works primarily with middle school children. She enjoys music, literature, theater, cooking and design and surrounds herself with creative people. Her children amaze her with their creative energy and artistic talent. Future goals include a Master’s degree, getting her work published, picking up the cello again and watching her children fulfill their dreams.