The heart of Cat Loaf Studio lies in capturing the charm and comfort our feline companions bring. Their mission is to bring a touch of cat magic into everyday lives. Founded by Melanie Jacobs, Cat Loaf Studio transforms everyday kitty antics into delightful artwork and products. Every piece is hand-sketched and brought to life on her iPad with the Procreate app, blending artistry and puns to capture our purring friends. At Cat Loaf Studio, they believe the simplest moments, like a twitch of a whisker or a perfectly formed loaf, hold the magic of pure joy.

Nia Chiaramonte, co-author of 'Embracing Queer Family: Learning to Live Authentically in our Families and Communities,' brings a powerful blend of professional expertise and her lived experience as a transgender woman to her writing. Nia and her wife Katie encourage us to embrace the Queerness of our family, take ownership of our journey, and use our voice to bring light to our communities. If you are a Queer person on the journey of self-awareness, an ally looking for resources, or a family member seeking advice for how to navigate a loved one's coming-out process, this book is for you, As co-founders of Love in the Face, Nia and Katie extend their book's mission through mentorship, ceremonial services, and faith and workplace consulting, creating safe spaces for transgender and LGBTQIA+ individuals to thrive. Drawing from her 20-year career in Human Resources and her own journey of self-discovery, Nia brings unique insights into building cultures of acceptance and understanding. Through her writing and speaking, Nia continues to champion inclusive spaces where everyone can feel safe, valued, and free to be themselves. Her work reminds us that authentic living isn't just about personal freedom—it's about creating ripples of change that benefit entire communities.

Manya Perkins is a lesbian artist, writer, and licensed mental health counselor based in Western Washington. Her work—whether on the page, the canvas, or in the therapy room—is deeply rooted in advocacy, authenticity, and care for marginalized voices. As an artist, Manya’s primary mediums are ink and charcoal, often centering the lived experiences of the queer and trans community. Her writing spans a wide range of genres, with a particular love for crafting steamy, emotionally resonant romances between lesbians and non-binary characters. In her counseling practice, Manya brings over a decade of experience working with diverse populations, including military and law enforcement personnel, while maintaining a strong clinical focus on the Queer and trans community. Her specialties include stress, anxiety, mood disorders, harm reduction, suicide prevention, and trauma-informed care. She created a queer and trans community support group that runs in Bremerton on Thursday nights, allowing space for the LGBTQIA2S+ community to support each other and find help with the challenges that come with living in this tumultuous time and country. She is also a proud single mother of two, balancing the demands of art, healing work, and parenting with grace, grit, and humor. Whether she's holding space in therapy, building queer love stories, or sketching the beauty of resistance, Manya is always focused on one thing: creating room for truth to breathe.

Tara is a self diagnosed Romantasy addict and loves diving into lush worlds with complex characters and messy interpersonal relationships that teach us about our own lives. Prior to joining D4EO, she had a decade-long career as a $60M+ real estate agent, investor and coach. Interest in querying her debut novel introduced her to the world of publishing as soon as she found out about Literary Agents she realized she had spent the past ten years as an agent in the wrong industry. An ever proponent of messy action, she quickly course corrected - setting her sights on breaking into the publishing world. She views the agent - author relationship as a deeply personal and mutually beneficial one. She wants to work with authors that dare to dream of massive success, a fulfilling career, and the willingness to put in the necessary work to get there. With a strong emphasis on social media marketing herself, she is looking for authors who are eager to work together to grow their own marketing efforts. You can learn more about Tara on TikTok @tarakimberlybooks or visit her website at stan.store/tarakimberlybooks Join her Skool group at https://www.skool.com/happily-ever-authors-writers-8500

M. E. Corey is a guitar player, high school teacher, and adolescence-trauma survivor. Writing has always been his outlet to cope with feeling like an outsider. OUT OF BLUE COMES GREEN draws on his own teenage experiences of suffering bullies, falling in love, and playing in a rock band while navigating being trans. When he isn’t teaching or writing, he travels, walks his rescue dogs, and hangs out with the love of his life with whom he’s raising a super cool kid. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

2025 Kansas Notable Authors Award Recipient, A. D. Childers lives in Kansas where she enjoys a life full of teaching and writing. It helps pass the time while she waits for the next Tana French novel to come out. When not at work, she can be found hiking the local trails or hanging out at the library. She lives with her wonderful and bearded husband, a grumpy cat, and her sweet Kodi-beast-dog, who is her constant snuggle companion while writing.

Robert Prevo is an Anamologist, a podcaster, author, artist and all around great guy. You can connect with Robert at the following: Facebook: Monstrous Podcast YouTube: Monstrous The Podcast TikTok: @monstrousthepodcast www.monstrouspodcast.com You can purchase his book, Monstrous Arkansas on Amazon.

S.Z. Estavillo is a biracial feminist thriller author known for her compelling stories that delve into ethnic and social commentary with strong female leads. Her professional background in literary agencies and TV studios has sharpened her editorial acumen and market trend insights, contributing to her success in securing book deals and greenlighting screenplays that became Lifetime movies. She has also collaborated with industry experts like Brian Klems at the Writing Day Workshop and completed UCLA’s Editorial Acquisitions course, further honing her manuscript development skills. With a master’s degree in television, radio, and film, S.Z. brings a cinematic touch to her writing, complemented by her extensive hands-on experience in digital marketing, social media, and PR. Her robust social media presence, boasting over 85,000 followers, underscores her ability to effectively promote her work. Her dedication to the literary community is evident in her recent role teaching ‘Leveraging Social Media to Build Your Author Brand’ at the L.A. Writer’s Conference and the North Texas Romance Writers (NTRW). S.Z. is the recipient of the David Twohy Scholarship for Screenwriting, the Carl Foreman Filmmaking Award, and Best Short Film at the Latina Film Festival. Her publishing achievements include three highly successful blogs with over 3 million reader views and numerous articles as a news producer, where she interviewed notable figures such as Martin Luther King III, Holocaust survivor Esther Bauer, and Reality TV star Matt Roloff of Little People, Big World. Her debut novel, The Serpent’s Bridge, is the first in the Serpent Series, followed by The Serpent Woman and Twilight of the Serpent. S.Z. Estavillo continues to leverage her editorial expertise and marketing prowess to carve a distinct path in the literary world.

Val Gale was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa. He served in The US Army from 1991 to 1996, stationed in New York and Seoul, Korea. He completed a B.A. in 1999 from Grandview University in Des Moines after his honorable discharge. He identifies as a trans. man. Val focuses full time on his writing since an industrial accident amputated his hand and ended his work in a tire facility, creating an opportunity to pursue his lifelong passion for creative fiction. His first novel, Different, a semi-autobiographical YA novel about a trans teen, was published in 2017. He recently completed Hunter, an LGBTQ novel telling the story of post-transition trans relationships. He has just completed his next novel, “Wild Dandelion”, a LGBTQ adult fiction romance thriller. Karen and Jan are beta readers. Val is currently working on an LGBTQ suspense novel and is experimenting with short fiction.

Katelyn A. Brown is a genre-hopping fiction author with an overactive imagination and far too many ideas. She writes Christian holiday romance with a sprinkling of fantasy in her Christmastime Trilogy series. Her alter ego, Kate Annie Brown, writes culinary cozy mysteries in the Emerald Bay Mysteries series. The first book is Harvest Fest Homicide, while a second book is in the works. When Kate is not reading or writing, she's most likely to be found cooking up a new dish for her family or having a hot cup of tea and avoiding housework. She lives in the country with her husband, four wild kids, and assorted barnyard creatures. For bookish, foodie, and farm-related content, visit her Instagram page @cozykatewrites.

Marsh writes under two pen names—Reck Well for Fantasy and LitRPG, and MJ Douglas for Sci-Fi and Dystopian fiction. They’ve been writing their whole life, but after finishing their first full-length novel in 2017, they’ve published three books in the last two years: Augmented and Echo as MJ Douglas, and Potions and Perils as Reck Well. Marsh excels at crafting characters who feel real in lived-in, multilayered worlds. Their stories center on flawed, deeply human (and sometimes inhuman) characters trying to carve out meaning in a world that works against them. Their worldbuilding is immersive—full of small details that make each setting feel like it existed long before the story began. Marsh isn’t just telling stories—they’re inviting you into them—with a mix of humor, heart, and deeply personal stakes. Right now, they have two active projects, both under Reck Well: Sand and Sorcery, the sequel to Potions and Perils, and Stumbling Up: A Loser’s Guide to Progression, a LitRPG comedy.

Pamela Ernest has been an artist in one form or another her whole life, learning early on from both of her parents. In 2003 she began sculpting figures in polymer clay and two-part epoxy and spent many years working in those mediums. In addition to art, Pam is a paranormal researcher and investigator and cohosts on 3 paranormal podcasts. She joined the In Other Words Podcast, initially as producer, but has since joined full member. Encouraged by her cohosts, she has started writing and is working on her first short story. Her artwork can be seen on Facebook at Silverthorne Studio.

Jan C. Thorpe, PhD, a storyteller from childhood, has been a psychotherapist in private practice for 30 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally from Pennsylvania she grew up in Southern California where she swam in the ocean, rode horses and shocked her friends, brother and parents with scary stories as much as she could. Her first book, Ancestors, has received four- and five-star reviews.

Carol Burbank is an award-winning writer, coach, and transformative educator. After 20 years of teaching, journalism, and scholarly research in leadership, business communication, cultural studies and education, she founded Storyweaving, LLC to nurture creative and sustainable change through consulting and coaching. In 2019, she launched the Storyweaving Retreat Center, a space for her clients and other seekers to gather, teach, write, and recharge.

Meet artist Jessica Holeman, and her Curious Relics Studio. Jess is an assemblage artist and painter who works in a wide variety of mediums. Learn her story and her creative process that she goes through in order to bring to life her work. In addition to art, Jess is also cofounder and cohost of Bordertown Strange Podcast and cohost of On the Fringe Podcast. Her work can be found on her Facebook page, Curious Relics Studio. 

Join us and guest, Mary Schuytema of Chicken Scratch Pottery. We will be discussing her process and her art. What an amazing first guest to have!

In the inaugural episode of “In Other Words” Podcast, meet hosts Jan, Karen, Val and Pam and learn about their individual paths to creativity.

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/i-feel...

License code: IAX4KLZAT8ODQVR2