VILLAGE ARTS MARKET
October 12-13, 2024
Describe your image
Describe your image
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2024 CONFERENCE
Pre-Conference Meet & Greet July 19, 2024
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Scenes from 2024 CONFERENCE
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CONTEST WINNERS
Member Directory
Pamela Cali Bankston
Living in humid South Louisiana inspired Pamela to create her Frizzy Frieda Series, Frizzy “Frieda’s Gymtastrophe,” “Frizzy Frieda's Dye-saster,” and “Frizzy Frieda’s Drama Day.” Pam also has published work in Chicken Soup for the Soul title, “My Clever, Curious, Caring Cat,” Anthology, “Treasures Found in a Cedar Chest,” as well as having self published, “La Famiglia Sicilian American Cookbook.” Certified in pediatrics, Pam continues to practice as a Registered Nurse. Along with writing her weekly social column for The Daily Star Newspaper, she volunteers behind the scenes for her local children’s drama club. Pam is grateful for her family, friends, and fellow Creative Minds Writers Group authors. Without their support, she would never have filled her own dream role—-being a writer!
Nancy Bourgeois
Nancy Bourgeois brings leadership from years as a Registered Nurse, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret. Army), head of state-wide medical training and Incident Commander of the Office of Public Health for Disaster Preparedness during Katrina to name a few of her overlapping positions. Since retirement, she continues to serve as Executive Director of the Louisiana Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. These experiences and her New Orleans background provide flavor that rings true in her mystery novels, Murder Beneath the Masque and Unmasked, with a third in the series underway as well as A Summer in Comfort. VISIT MY WEBSITE
Tracey Boyle
Tracey Boyle returned to school to obtain a master’s degree in creative writing after retiring from
a career in state budget. She is published in Southeastern La. University’s Manchac Review and
Utah’s Best Poetry & Prose 2022. Tracey likes to read and has been catching up on the classics
since her retirement. Although recently introduced to the writings of Jane Austen, she has
become an avid fan. Taking long walks in nature inspires her creativity.
Deborah Young
Deborah grew up in North Missouri, and her Midwest background is reflected in her writing.
She arrived in Louisiana in 1975 and is a happy transplant to the Pelican state. She was a public-school librarian for 38 years and has been an avid reader since childhood.
Deborah began writing, in earnest, after her retirement and published her first book, Clyde The-Never-Give-Up-Horse. She dabbles in many genres and has written plays, short stories, and is currently working on a young adult horse mystery.
Victoria Fannaly
Victoria is the author of three books of poetry – Ponchatoula Sojourn, Ponchatoula Odyssey and Ponchatoula Dreams. She has also co-authored two non-fiction books Ponchatoula Automania a collection of automobile trivia with her husband, and Bittersweet Memories which includes her grandmother’s memoirs of captivity by the Japanese in World War II. She has seven books of short stories. Her works have been included in eight anthologies.
Fannaly received recognition for her poetry at two Jambalaya Writer’s Conferences and has been published in the Mississippi Gulf Coast Writer’s Magnolia Quarterly publications. She placed first in poetry at the 7thAnnual Berries, Bridges and Books Writer’s Conference held in Ponchatoula.
Laura Ewald
Laura Anne Ewald, President of the Picayune Writers Group, is a former university librarian turned freelance writer, editor, and public speaker. She wrote her first plays in the late 1980s, her first novel in 1990, and has been writing and publishing her own work—scholarly, professional, and fictional—since 1999. Laura continues to pursue her love of drama by writing, creating, directing, and puppeteering for her Everyman Puppet Theatre, with creative partner Mary Beth Magee.
An eclectic scholar of many years, Laura brings a diverse background and love of reading to her equally eclectic writing. Her fiction titles include science fiction, romance, paranormal, mysteries, and children’s titles; her current nonfiction focuses on storytelling, research, and public speaking.
A 2014 happy transplant to the “Deep South,” Laura shares her southern Mississippi home with her elderly parents and an ever-changing assortment of adopted stray cats. To learn more, please visit www.LauraAnneEwald.com.
Tanya Whitney
Tanya Whitney retired from the U.S. Army in 2010 as a Master Sergeant. From Sorrento, LA, she began writing a few years ago as part of her PTSD therapy. Her writing primarily deals with her military service, but she has also written other pieces with various themes. Along with her published poetry books, “A Soldier’s Journey Home” and “A Journey of Healing”, she has poems and short stories published in various anthologies both nationally and internationally. She recently published her first novel, “Fatal Secrets” a murder mystery. She has won numerous national poetry competitions and is a National Veterans Creative Arts Festival Gold Medal, Silver Medal, and Bronze Medal recipient in Creative Writing. You can follow her through her Facebook page TR Whitney - Poet & Author or her website: http://www.trwhitney.com/
Alisa LaGroue
Alisa lives in a small town in south Louisiana just north of New Orleans and loves to write Inspirational Historical Romance. She, quite often, catches herself daydreaming while driving to work, the grocery store, to church, and everywhere in between. She blogs devotionals mostly for herself but hopes it will be encouraging to others as well. She has devotionals published by LifeWay’s magazine, “Journey,” a devotional magazine for women. She is a member of the ACFW. She is also involved with the Creative Minds writer’s group but has trouble making meetings with all the soccer games, football games, high school band concerts, and Boy Scout campouts she and her boys go to.
Make sure to like her Facebook Page. You can follow her on twitter @AlisaLaGroue.
Mary Beth Magee
Author/journalist/speaker/storyteller Mary Beth Magee has been writing for as long as she can remember. She writes news, reviews and feature articles for print and online publications; cozy Christian fiction; poetry and devotions, as well as recollections in numerous anthologies.
Her cozy Christian mystery series, The (LOL)4 Mysteries, feature three senior citizens who find themselves involved in danger and intrigue in the fictional Pearl River County town of Cypress Point, MS. Magee’s other books include The Cypress Point Chronicles (short story collections based in Cypress Point), the Devotions from the Road of Life series, several journals with targeted themes, a series of nonfiction books on creativity, and several children’s books. She has appeared in several volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul™.
Mary Beth Magee is a member of several writing organizations and the Poplarville Storytellers Guild. Her newsletter includes a free short story. Visit her website at www.LOL4.net.
Kathryn Martin
Kathryn Martin, CDA, BA, MA - Kathryn long ago combined her fields of study and interests as writer, inspirational speaker and humorist “Miz Maudie”--never dreaming her writing would lead to appearances across the United States and Canada and occasional national TV. Along with hundreds of newspaper columns, national magazine articles and works as City Public Relations Writer, she has three books: nonfiction Believe It or Not—Mama Likes the
Nursing Home!, fiction Long Way from Lonely, and Helpful Hints if You’re Ready to
Write. Additional chapters accepted appear in Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Cat Really
Did That?, British author Melissa Addey’s Merchandise for Authors, and four
anthologies for writers
Steve Patrick
I told my friends, “Someday, I’ll write a novel.”
After Arvilla said, “Stop yammering and do it,” the gauntlet was down.
I sat my backside on a computer chair and let my fingers do the typing.
Once the pages were ready, I had to find a proofreader.
I asked on Craigslist, received a reply, and once edited, asked, “Can you connect me with a publisher?” I was connected. Silver Knight Publishing LLC picked up my opus. In the stellar
year of 2012, The Mysteries of Jack the Ripper found its way onto the shelves of bookstores.
Three Brownstone Murder Mysteries followed – The Murder of Wednesday’s Children, Fools Parsley, and Death is not Forever. Book four is now grist for the writing mill soon to be a polished work of fiction.
Nyle Steven Patrick II [nom de plume] N S PATRICK was born and raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and is known as a Yooper. A Yooper regards all Lower Peninsula natives as trolls. Why, you ask? The Lower Peninsula is below The Straits of Mackinac Bridge. Trolls live under bridges.
He graduated from Albion College a small Liberal Arts school with a BA in Business Administration, and known for the hymn The Old Rugged Cross and the fraternity song The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi.
He served as an Officer in the U S Navy from 1962 to 1969, starting his tour of duty off
the coast of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis and finishing his enlistment off
the coast of Viet Nam. A quote from Lieutenant Patrick, “I realized when a mine exploded beside theship giving me a refreshing salt-water shower, the environment was not healthy. It was now time to say so long.”
He considers his Corporate America life well-rounded, working in the screen-printing field, teaching business administration on computers, owning two neighborhood bars, and three travel agencies.
He called “sweat equity” life quits in 2001 and moved from Austin, TX, to Kenner, LA.
A quote: “I’m 83-years-old, I’ve moved enough, and I ain’t leaving this house until they come with the pine box.”
Evelyn Sanders
Born and raised in Ponchatoula, LA.
B.A. in Elementary Education/Certified in Special Needs from S.L.U.
Taught for almost 30 years. Married for 53 years, 1 son, and widowed, 2 yrs now.
Love traveling, the outdoors, whether gardening or bow hunting & Indian Pow Wows.
Self-taught scrimshaw artist. Cloth doll maker. Member of Northshore Doll Club.
Writer: Newspaper & Magazine Articles, Poetry, short stories: Fantasy & Sci fi.
Won Golden Poet Award in 1989. in "World of Poetry," magazine's contest.
Michael Verrett
Michael hails from Morgan City, Louisiana and grew up in nearby Bayou Vista just blocks away from green sugar cane fields and the unhurried Bayou Teche. He has written/illustrated over three dozen books and contributed artwork to two dozen more. These include picture books, chapter books, young adult fiction, a biography and photo books from his journeys around the world.
Michael studied art at Louisiana State University, Scottsdale (AZ) Art Institute, and the FBI Academy. A former police sketch artist and military veteran, his cartoon strip, Army Life, appeared in the Desert Voice Magazine, and was featured in Stars and Stripes.
He and his wife, Melissa Garbarino Verrett live in Denham Springs, LA with three dogs, two cats, and menagerie of ducks, geese, turtles, bullfrogs and fish.
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Pam Villagran/Ann Marie Jameson
A retired teacher and Louisiana native, Ms Villagran is married with three sons and seven grandchildren. She became an avid reader at a young age and began writing poems and short stories in high school. Her first work to be published was a poem she wrote as a teenager. Her first book to be published was a children’s book titled "Why Did I Have To Be Born Last?," which was released in 2003. After taking several years off from writing to care for her elderly parents, Ms. Villagran published her first novel, "A Bed of Roses," in 2016 under the pen name of Ann Marie Jameson. Spurred on by fan support, Ms. Villagran/Jameson published the sequel to "A Bed of Roses" in 2017 titled "Belle Rose". In 2018, she decided to expand the two books into a four book series publishing "Petite Rose" in 2019, and "Coming Up Roses in 2020." In 2021 and 2022, Ms. Villagran took time off from her writing to focus on the promotion of her Willow Rose series. In 2023 she published a spin-off book to the series titled "Lilly's Redemption." Ms. Villagran was elected President of CMWG in January of 2024 and is now busy taking on the responsibilities of her new position in the group.
Lynette Vinet
Lynette Vinet, a native New Orleanian, resides in Hammond, Louisiana. A member of Creative Minds Writers and the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans, she has published historical romances (with Leisure Books, Zebra Books, Steel Magnolia Press and Open Road Media), a romantic suspense novel; short stories; and genealogical articles in The New Orleans Genesis.
She was nominated by Romantic Times for Best Romantic Adventure novel and won first, second and third place for Historical Romance in the Dixie Kane Memorial Contest by Southern Louisiana Romance Writers of America in 2012. One of her short stories was awarded first place by Hammond Regional Arts Center. Her novels are available on Amazon.
Dr. Jerry Pinsel
Dr. Jerry Pinsel has been writing for most of her life. Beginning with the creation and performance of short plays in elementary school and junior high, she moved on to serve as managing editor of her high school’s newspaper and, later, as editor of her college sorority chapter’s newsletter. Beginning in high school, she has authored dozens of publications and articles over her years in the field of education.
She subsequently led various groups of her student her seventh grade students in the creation of Strawberry Jam, a student literary arts magazine. The student magazine captured three First and two Second Place Columbia Scholastic Press Awards during its years in publication. She led her Strawberry Jam alumni in the creation of the Children’s Guide to Louisiana for the 1984 World’s Fair. New Orleans Magazine, in its review, referred to the statewide children’s guide as, “…one of the year’s best!”
As an intern with the American Association of Educational Service Centers at the American Association of School Administrators in Alexandria, VA she developed A Summary of Telecommunications Efforts Involving Educational Service Centers and Others. The publication was long-considered a benchmark in distance education.
Her various positions in education are many as are her subsequent articles and publication in the field. From the classroom to administrative positions, from elementary school to universities, from academic appointments to an appointment in the Governor’s Office, from Baton Rouge to Washington D.C., and including educational institutions throughout United States to Eastern and Western Europe, her experiences reflect a broad educational and cultural expanse. Pinsel carefully brings these bear in order to enhance her creative works.
She retired after serving as the 2010 President of the National Association of Community College Teacher Education Programs, within the Maricopa Community College System in Phoenix, AZ, Her personal and professional efforts on behalf of children and youth continue. Her lifelong interest in writing continues as well.
Clyde Eschete
A native of New Orleans, Clyde has written many stories from his hom ein Ponchatoula. Author of the novel A Man Who Could Count Cards, Clyde has many more books he is working on.
Dr. Larry Gray
Larry Gray has a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame where he specialized in Renaissance drama, but his passions are writing and theatre. Larry has been writing since he was a young boy and has published poetry and short stories in many small journals, including a collection of short stories Bayou Coeur and Other Stories by Clemson University Press. He is a published playwright whose plays have won many awards including the Mid-South Playwriting competition and the Mazim Mazumdar prize and they have been produced in New York, Chicago, Buffalo, London, New Orleans and many other cities. Stories that he has told his children and grandchildren resulted in two volumes for children entitled The Land of the Three Elves under the pseudonym Grandpa Gray. He was also one of the founding editors of Louisiana Literature, a small journal housed in the English department at Southeastern. His first novel, The House on Esplanade, has just been published by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press.
Mary Smith / M. G. Faust
M. G. Faust began writing in 2021 at the youthful age of sixty.
She is the author of Hot Pepper Courage, Quiet Lessons and Blood Under the Oaks.
Eager to attack life, she graduated high school, married, and started college within a week when she was seventeen. She remains in awe of that naïve, energetic, and tireless younger self. Now she feels productive if she does a load of laundry.
She and her late husband lived in a rural area of Louisiana where they raised three wonderful children and a niece. Now she has the joy of cooking for grandchildren.
Growing up on a small farm in south Louisiana gave her time to read on long, laid-back summer afternoons. Through books and listening to family stories, she traveled the earth.
Although her list of past jobs is long and varied, notable ones include a horseback instructor, a social worker for the State of Louisiana’s child welfare system for twenty-five years, mental health counselor for children, and being a background actor in the film industry. She was a blur in many scenes.
She now lives in a small town just north of New Orleans with her second husband and two German Shepherds who have trained their humans quite well.