Authors
Judy is a book worm and a history buff. She has combined these two passions by writing historical fiction novels about one of her favorite cities, Saint Augustine.
She enjoys sharing her love of reading, writing, and social studies teaching at the Orange County Public School's Gifted Students Program. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida where she teaches Children's Literature and Social Studies.
Judy is married to her high school sweetheart and lives in the Orlando area. In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys cooking, gardening, traveling with her husband, spending time with her granddaughters, and cheering on the UCF Knights!
Ben Green, a freelance writer and journalist, is on the faculty of Florida State University and the author of several nonfiction books addressing various events and people that have marked the history of the state of Florida. His first work, Finest Kind: A Celebration of a Florida Fishing Village, is based largely on oral accounts documenting the history of Cortez, a small town founded in 1880, where a number of Green's relatives have resided.
Ben is also the founding teacher of the School for Applied Individualized Learning (SAIL); Florida Education Association, communications specialist; AFL-CIO, Florida, communications director and program director; Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, senior management trainer of the Florida Center for Public Management, 1986—.
Frank Thomas (born August 2, 1943) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist from Florida. A native Floridian, he was a 2013 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame
Born and raised in Clay County, Frank Thomas is a native Floridian whose ancestors came to Florida to farm in the late eighteenth-century. Members of his family fought in the Second Seminole War and in the Civil War; they also continued farming until the 1950s. This direct connection with the land and heritage of English-speaking Florida inspired for much of his music. Thomas relates that his entire family played music and that he “learned guitar so young that he doesn’t remember learning.” Before the age of 10, he began singing with his family’s gospel group. Later he began to attend square dances, where he learned the fiddle from a traditional fiddler named Allie Murray. He also received inspiration from his mother who wrote songs about Florida.
Frank has inspired many songwriters to write songs about Florida’s history, environment, and colorful characters. Frank, in recent years, has also teamed up with Stetson Kennedy to provide their audiences an entertaining and informative program starting with Frank and his music and ending with a Stetson Kennedy interview, then taking questions from the audience. He is referred to by some, as The Dean of Florida Folk because of hundreds of assignments given to songwriters, over the years, to write about some of the lesser-known events in the state’s history.
BY ANNA FLOWERS BROTEMARKLE FOR FLORIDA TODAY About Author Anna Flowers
I was first published when I was 12 years old in a national anthology of literature for my age group, and I've been writing ever since. To say you're born to write is a bit dramatic, but I've spent a lifetime believing that and wanting to live out that prophecy with newspaper reporting and magazine jobs, freelance assignments and, finally, with my books being published by a New York house.
My career has been blessed with good timing, good luck and ample energy to create what was needed when opportunity came. It also helped immensely that my genre of the past 15 years, narrative true crime, has been in high demand. This choice has obviously been challenging, but I have had a dynamic life because of it.
Writing and music were lifelong passions, which I never ignored, but my family came first. My late husband, David Brotemarkle, had commendable careers in the military, teaching and helping to create Space TEC at Cape Canaveral. My daughter, Belle, is a Volusia County judge, and my son, Dr. Ben Brotemarkle is Director of the Florida Historical Society in Cocoa Village.
I believe my children realize my guidance and support helped them accomplish their goals, but in such a competitive, achieving family I earned respect of a different kind when I began having successful books published after the age of 55. In this euphoric state, I could clearly hear my mother's words, "If it is to be, it's up to me." It's fun to get compliments and recognition of your work from others, but the self-appreciation that comes with personal accomplishment is the dearest thing of all.
Regardless of how many books you have published, nothing compares to the thrill of seeing your first book up front and center in a major bookstore. Many know the profound feeling of holding a first-born child (an exaggeration, of course), and if it turns out to be a success, well, how proud you are.
The only thing I didn't like was the face. My cover was chosen by the publisher for shock appeal that boosts sales. But in this case, I tried to develop the personality. That must have happened because "Blind Fury" ultimately received seven mass media printings.
"Blind Fury," published by Kensington in 1993, was the story of serial killer Gerald Eugene Stano, who murdered 41 women in Central Florida. It had an initial printing of 100,000 mass media copies, and was distributed worldwide. It was selected as a "lead title" for Doubleday's True Crime Book Club, and was offered in hardback through color ads in Sunday newspapers and major magazines nationwide.
I was in instant demand to speak on crime and crime solving in all media. In addition to radio and TV appearances, I spoke at writers' conferences, including
Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime panels at Stetson University, and for many other crime-related organizations. The promotional aspect was actually more demanding than researching and writing the book.
In 1995, Kensington published my second mass media book, "Bound to Die," the story of Tampa Bay serial killer Bobby Joe Long, a case that still is considered a classic in outstanding police detection, before the use of DNA. Beyond the courtrooms and police precincts, research took me to the FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C., and to the FBI Behavioral and Profiling labs in Quantico, Va.
This book was introduced at the Bouchercon Conference in Nottingham, England, and in London I was pleased to see it in the front window of Murder One bookstore on Charring Cross Road.
"Bound to Die" became a Mystery Guild book club selection, and was issued in hardback. It later received multiple mass media printings.
A film studio came to my home in Satellite Beach to film my part in a segment of "Medical Detective" about the case called "Thread of Evidence," which was shown on the Discovery and Learning channels for five years. After that, I was interviewed live on more than 150 radio stations, and I never knew whether I would be talking for 15 minutes or an hour, or whether the subject would be on a specific case or on the criminal justice system in general. This was followed by call-in questions from listeners.
My 1999 Raven Press book, "Murder at Wayside Antiques," was a departure from my serial-killer stories. It was a case of double-homicide in an antique shop north of Ocala. I discovered new readers from the antique world, and they invited me to speak at their National Convention of Antiques and Collectibles in Las Vegas. That night, I sold a record-breaking number for me of books at one signing. It was an unbelievable experience.
Writing has made my life richer in so many ways. It's fun to be able to sometimes help new writers, as others have helped me. It's been rewarding to serve on committees such as the MWA Edgar Allan Poe Awards for the selection of best novel, presented each year at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, and to receive other recognition and honors for doing something you enjoy immensely.
I look to the future with great expectations.
Peter Schreyer is a renowned Winter Park photographer, photography instructor and the Executive Director of the Crealdé School of Art.
In 1995, he was the recipient of the Rhea Marsh and Dorothy Lockhart Smith Winter Park History Research Grant. The images featured on this site are from his grant-winning project: Photographic Essays of Winter Park's Westside. He also wrote the text that accompanies his photographs. Mr. Schreyer stated that his goal in creating this essay was to "establish a photographic record of places and people, depicting surviving historical aspects of our city's African-American community in the mid 1990's."
With three great-great aunts recognized as Civil War spies and a great-great uncle known from Mayport, Florida to Cape May, New Jersey as a rum-runner during Prohibition, Ann Browning Masters has a colorful family history of stories to tell. But, she also has stories of common life that weave a quiet beauty around tales of resistance and intrigue. She has focused mainly on saving stories of the Everyman and Everywoman who lived through wars, hurricanes, and times before life-saving vaccines. And she has told the tale while emphasizing the dialect and vocabulary of a mixed cultural group living in St. Augustine and Northeast Florida from after the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement.
Prior to Floridanos, Menorcans, Cattle-Whip Crackers: Poetry of St. Augustine being published by the Florida Historical Society Press, Dr. Masters held clinical and administrative positions in drug abuse treatment and mental health organizations. In her subsequent academic career, Dr. Masters’ writing focused on gender and equity issues. She received the Education Law Association 1992 Outstanding Dissertation Award for her dissertation titled The Evolution of the Legal Concept of Environmental Sexual Harassment of U.S. Higher Education Students by Faculty.
A St. Augustine native, Dr. Masters is a 12th generation Floridian. Her heritage includes being a Floridana, a descendant of Spanish settlers during Florida’s First Spanish Period. She is also a Menorcan, a descendant of the Italian, Greek and Menorcan colonists who came to St. Augustine in 1777 during Florida’s British Period.
Research Interests
African-American history, urban, civil rights, history of sports
Education
Ph.D., Florida State University (1994)
Professor Bartley, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, is the director of the Pan-African Studies program at Clemson University. He came to Clemson in 2004 from the University of Akron, where he taught for ten years and helped build a vibrant Pan-African studies program. He is also the author of several essays on race, politics, and the Civil Rights movement.
For more than forty years, Weona Cleveland wrote about the people, places, events, and even the plants that make Brevard County Florida unique. Weona Cleveland’s articles first appeared in the Melbourne Times in the 1970s, and later in this newspaper. Her reflections on local history as told through the eyes of everyday people earned her a dedicated following of readers. Some of Weona Cleveland’s best newspaper articles from the past three decades are collected in the new bookMosquito Soup, published by the Florida Historical Society Press. Publication of the book was made possible by the Kellsberger Fund of the South Brevard Historical Society.
Like most Floridians, Weona Cleveland came here from somewhere else. Born in 1925, she moved to Melbourne, Florida, from Atlanta, Georgia, in 1961. The following decade she started writing for local newspapers. Her previous books and booklets include Melbourne: A Century of Memories (1980), Crossroad Towns Remembered: A Look Back at Brevard and Indian River Pioneer Communities (1994), and A Historical Tour of Melbourne (1999).
In addition to her numerous articles and other writing projects, Cleveland researched and wrote the text for most of the historical markers located throughout Melbourne and Eau Gallie. She says that her proudest personal accomplishment is the walking tours of old Eau Gallie and Melbourne that she gave for many years.
In 2006, the Brevard County Commissioners named Cleveland the first Honorary Brevard County Historian. In 2009, Cleveland received the Julius Montgomery Pioneer Award from Florida Technical Institute for her research on the local African American community. In 2011, the South Brevard Historical Society recognized her accomplishments with an Honorary Lifetime Membership.
After finishing two years at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and receiving a B.F.A. from the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota in 1972, Theodore worked as a commercial artist for local advertising agencies. Fifteen years later he began pursuing interesting freelance design work including creating drawings for an archaeological survey company which greatly influenced him.
Theodore Morris first started researching Florida history in 1988. He joined Time Sifters Archaeology Society, a Sarasota Florida group that held monthly meetings and organized archaeological digs in the area. He met George Luer, a much respected archaeologist and earned how important it was to protect Indian sites from looters. In 1995, Luer and Theodore collaborated on a poster to benefit the Florida Anthropological Society. Theodore and Luer decided the design should include a few of the main tribes and a large line drawing of an Apalachee Bird Man Dancer. This was not an easy task because the history of Florida's first peoples have been distorted and misrepresented for hundreds of years. A book showing Timucua people in 1564, drawn by Jacques le Moyne and engraved by Theodore de Bry in 1595, portray the Timucua as European-looking people from the16th century. My research for the poster, at the local library, turned up very little information and no accurate images. There were some imaginary ones created by artists with no true knowledge of Florida's early tribes that were totally unusable for reference. So, with the assistance of archaeologist George Luer, Jeffrey Mitchem, Jerald Milanich, and other Florida archaeologists, Theodore finished the drawing. The poster of his drawing inspired him to do a full color paintings. His first painting was well received and its connection to Florida's past captivated him and he continues painting with oils making the past the present.
Serving as a combat medic in the historic Seventh Calvary in Vietnam in 1968, allows him to relate on a personal level to the incomprehensible deaths of native men, women, and children by European military conquest, disease, and slavery. Painting on canvas allows him to bring back these early native peoples whose images and lifestyles were grossly misrepresented for so long in history books and other chronicles of Florida’s early days. While he cannot change history and right the wrongs that drove these Indians into extinction, through his paintings he honors their memories and help set the record straight.
His writes about his approach:
1. First I decide on what to paint based on something I read or perhaps because of a discussion with an archaeologist.
2. I do some sketches to give me some ideas for the subject matter and composition.
3. To find the elements that will be included in the painting, research is required. I use photos from my library, computer searches, and archaeology books for tribal descriptions and artifact photos. I never collect artifacts since they belong to the people of Florida, not private collectors. Artifacts and European descriptions are how I determine the tribal culture in my paintings. Research, historical accuracy and believability are always central to my paintings. I've photographed hundreds of natural areas that encompass each tribal territory to insure that the background scenery of my painting is accurate. It's important to know which plants and animals are native and which have been brought in more recent times.
4. After setting my canvas on my easel, I use thinned burnt umber pigment to organize the painting with the use of lines and washes. At this point I can indicate how the lights and darks will be arranged.
5. After the background has been painted, I premix my four main flesh colors. These are painted wet on wet so the blending process will give me the most realistic effect. After the painting is dry, I go back and readjust the color values to highlight some areas and “push back” others. Lastly, I paint all the details in the foreground.
6. Now comes the most fun and challenging part for me; painting the artifacts and objects that will bring the Indian figure alive. All during the creative process, the painting directs me as to what details are next. The process of painting a portrait is made up of thousands of little decisions; adjusting details just a little changes the final look.
7. Spending hours with a painting, it becomes harder to “see” with an objective eye. The last stage is to let the painting sit for a while and see if it has captured my original vision. I always consider the new painting I'm working on as my best and feel it brings me a step closer to understanding these early tribes of Florida.
John Dos Passos Coggin was born in Annapolis, MD and currently lives in Northern Virginia. He has been a writer and environmental advocate for more than ten years.
He writes nonfiction and fiction. He has published many articles on film, music, books, politics, and public policy. In 2012, he published his first book, Walkin’ Lawton, an authorized biography of Florida governor and U.S. senator Lawton Chiles.
His environmental career began in 2003, when he interned for the Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources. Afterward he worked for League of Conservation Voters, the Environmental Finance Center at University of Maryland, David Gardiner and Associates, Astrum Solar, and Richmond Region Energy Alliance. He also worked as a clean energy communications contractor at U.S. Dept. of Energy. He currently works as a freelance writer and editor.
He is the maternal grandson of renowned American author John Dos Passos. With his family, he curates the John Dos Passos literary estate. He is committed to renewing the Dos Passos legacy for the 21st century.
He wrote the text for the official John Dos Passos website at www.johndospassos.com and he currently maintains the site. His commentary appears in the 2015 Spanish documentary, Robles, Duel in the Sun. The documentary concerns John Dos Passos’ role in reporting on the Spanish Civil War and his friendship with Spanish translator José Robles.