SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Vivianne Winter

Author Spotlight on Vivianne Winter

Name: Vivianne Winter

Location: Portland, OR

Tell us about yourself: I’m mom to a new, 4-month-old kitten and an autistic son who is in college. I know I put the cat first, but that’s because he’s new.

What’s your experience and advice as an entrepreneur? I had an eBay store, buying wholesale and reselling. I was doing well, but it’s more complicated and less profitable now that certain policies have changed. To be successful you must be organized, like knowing where your stock is, and ready to give details about the product. This might include independent research so you’re informed.

What kind of articles do you like?
I like articles about people overcoming struggles, and I’m always interested in home and makeup tips. I’m also an animal lover, and wrote an article about Portland’s famous friendly sea otter…

Read more about writer Vivianne Winter in SEARCH Magazine‘s Spring 2022 #Entrepreneurs issue.

SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Oksanna Normandeau

Author Spotlight on Oksanna Normandeau

Location: Spanaway, Washington

Tell us about yourself: Poetry was first introduced to me in my childhood years with Shel Silverstein’s, Where the Sidewalk Ends. It continued on into my adulthood as I read through the semesters in college. It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I went through one of my most influential transitions of my life where I turned to it for my own therapeutic means. I haven’t stopped writing since.

What do you find inspiring about writing poetry? The possibilities with each creation are boundless. If you think about all of the ways one can form a writ ten piece—free verse, spoken word, haiku, etc—it is mind blowing what we can come up with…

Read more in our Winter 2021 #Wellness issue.

SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Kristin Battestella

Author Spotlight on Kristin Battestella

Name: Kristin Battestella

Location: South Jersey

Tell us about yourself: I say I’m a writer first and foremost, however after a difficult battle with Lyme Disease several years ago, I’ve focused more on non-fiction writing and mixed media platforms like podcasts and videos rather than writing genre fiction.

How has the last year dealing with COVID been for you? I stocked up on everything in advance, beginning December 2019 actually, as there were already rumblings of unease at the time. At some point I had…

Read more in our Fall 2021 You Can Do It! issue.

SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Lillian Csernica

Author Spotlight on Lillian Csernica

Name: Lillian Csernica
Location: Santa Cruz, California

How has the last year dealing with COVID been for you?

On the one hand, it’s been business as usual because my older boy is medically fragile. We’re used to operating at a level just below hospital standards for an isolation room. On the other hand, I’m going a little crazy because I’m used to having a certain amount of alone time each day. Keeping both of my sons busy and entertained is a lot of work. It’s difficult to have enough energy left over for writing.

SEARCH Magazine is a little unusual, in that we always run a column on autism to raise awareness. How did you come to write about autism for SEARCH Magazine?

Through the wonderful and talented Emerian Rich (SEARCH Magazine’s original Editorial Director)…

Continue reading in the Summer 2021 magazine issue on Superheroes.

SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Loren Rhoads

Author Spotlight on Loren Rhoads

Location: San Francisco, CA

What made you interested in writing for SEARCH? 

SEARCH’s previous editor, Emerian Rich, knew I was working on a book called 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, so I offered to show her some of the remnants of the old graveyards in San Francisco. Most people don’t know that the cemeteries here were evicted in the early 20th century.

After San Francisco’s most elaborate cemetery finally gave up the ghost in the 1940s, some of its lovely stonework was collected by an artist who worked with the Exploratorium (our science museum) to build the Wave Organ. It’s a huge, beautiful creation at the end of the Marina yacht harbor, where you can listen to the ocean gurgle and splash. There’s nothing else like it in the world.

I took Emerian there and she asked me to write about it for SEARCH.

What else do you write?

In addition to 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die, I’ve written a memoir about my cemetery travels called Wish You Were Here. I’ve also written a space opera trilogy called In the Wake of the Templars and … continue reading in the Winter 2019 issue of SEARCH Magazine.

SEARCH: Author Spotlight on Jim Keller

Author Spotlight on Jim Keller

Location: Los Angeles County

What made you interested in writing for this issue of SEARCH magazine?  A friend of mine used to be on the SEARCH staff. She introduced me to the magazine, and I enjoyed the all-ages format. When she told me about the spacethemed issue, I was like, “Wait! Space science is what I write. I think I’m morally obligated to pitch something…”

What was your favorite thing to do as a child?  Harassing my siblings. Isn’t that the favorite pastime of every child with siblings?  🙂

Do you have a hot tip for us?  You won’t believe this,  … continue reading in the Fall 2019 issue of SEARCH.

 

 

SEARCH: Author Spotlight Sumiko Saulson

Author Spotlight on Sumiko Saulson

Location: Oakland, CA

What’s an article you’ve written for SEARCH that you enjoyed? And why did you enjoy it?

I really enjoyed writing a Black History Month article about Marian Anderson. She was my great grandfather’s first cousin, and my mom always talked about wanting to meet her as a child. Marian Anderson used to invite my grandmother and other relatives to her ranch. I am very proud of being related to her and was thrilled to highlight such an important historical figure for African American History Month.

What was your favorite thing to do as a child?

I loved roller skating and drawing, probably drawing more, though. My mom said I used to throw temper tantrums at the grocery store if she didn’t buy me new crayons and paints every time we walked past the toy aisle, so I guess I was a prima donna artist at a very young age. I still paint and draw quite a bit and even have acrylic paintings in art galleries. I write a comic book called Mauskaveli.

Do you have a hot tip for us? (What is a product/ app/food/store/website that you use right now that you can’t do without or that you like right now? And why?) I just finished reading the last of  … continue reading in the Spring 2019 issue of SEARCH.

 

 

SEARCH: Author Spotlight Elliot Thorpe

Elliot Thorpe

SEARCH AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

Location: Essex, UK

What’s an article you’ve written for SEARCH that you enjoyed? Summer 2016’s Music Snapshot in Time: San Francisco 1959. It allowed me to be creative in emulating an era of music that I really adore and to (hopefully) describe—as best I could—San Francisco of the past. Even reading it back now makes me long for warm evenings and cool jazz vibes, but then I am sitting in my apartment watching the torrential, freezing April rain pour out across where the River Thames meets the North Sea.

What was your favorite thing to do as a child? Rappel my GI Joes on pieces of string out of my first floor bedroom window. The toy line was called Action Man in the UK.

Do you have a hot tip for us? Amazon! I’m a big collector of movie scores and unfortunately many of the larger music stores in London that used to sell imports closed down many years ago. Because movie scores are still something of a niche market, finding rare releases … continue reading in the Fall 2018 issue of SEARCH.

 

 

SEARCH: Author Spotlight Michele Roger

Michele Roger

What’s an article you’ve written for SEARCH that you enjoyed? 
I’m really blessed to live in the Motor City. There is so much revitalization going on right now in the city of Detroit. While I’ve loved traveling and writing about my adventures in the Cayman’s, New Zealand, and Canada, I have to say the article that has meant the most to me is the Empowerment Group article. A Detroit based Wayne State University student studying art accepted a challenge made by her textiles professor. In a very short time, she went from full time student to homeless advocate and eventually founder of a non-profit organization. One part of her solution gave locally made, warm winter coats to the homeless while the other part of her vision employed working poor parents trying to get themselves and their children out of homeless shelters. Some of the first people they employed have finished college and have gone off to start their own businesses. I’ve never been more inspired than I was after completing that interview.

What was your favorite thing to do as a child?
While I loved reading and playing piano, my absolute favorite time as a kid was the annual fishing trip to northern Canada with my grandparents. No phone, no computers, limited electricity on generator, we went to a camp called Lac de Mille Lac (Lake of a Thousand Lakes). There, we fished all day and photographed wild moose, eagles, and bears.

Do you have a hot tip for us?
My new favorite….continue reading in the Summer 2018 issue.

 

SEARCH: Author Spotlight Tim Reynolds

Tim Reynolds

What’s an article you’ve written for SEARCH that you enjoyed? And why did you enjoy it?
I enjoy them all, because I’m the lucky one who gets to write almost all of the humor articles for SEARCH. People may not believe this, but my articles are all based on true stories in my life, and there is no hyperbolic exaggeration for effect. And because they’re true, I have great fun remembering the incidents and getting them down on paper, to share with the readers, rather than just friends on the deck. One of my favorite stories, though, is the one about Santa, Seniors, and the Goat, mostly because it revolves around my favorite time of the year, Christmas, and one of my favorite places on the planet, Lake Louise in Banff National Park.

What was your favorite thing to do as a child?
Make believe. Whether, making up covert ops for my G.I. Joes or creating plays for my two sisters and I to perform for our parents, it was all about make believe.

Do you have a hot tip for us?
I’m an introvert. I’m really not a big fan of listening to conversations I’m not part of or hearing other people’s music pulsing out of their headphones, but I spend so much time on public transit….continue reading in the Spring 2018 issue.