31 Central Florida authors to catch up with while at home

Kristen Arnett

Kristen Arnett perfectly captures the heart-wrenching feelings of loss and love in her novel Mostly Dead Things. The book focuses on Jessa-Lynn Morton who loses her father to suicide and is forced to take on the family business, while the rest of her family struggles with strange coping mechanism, revealing their true identities.

Photo via Kristen Arnett

Bob Morris

Bob Morris’s five new eBooks Short Road to Hell, All Over The Map, Gut Check, The Man With The Fish On His Foot, and The Whole Shebang each come with a collection of short stories that make readers laugh, shed tears and embrace life lessons.

Photo via Bob Morris

Teege Braune

Teege Braune displays humor in his articles for The Drunken Odyssey that presents his creative writing in “Top Takes a Top,” which was featured in the Bridge Eight literary magazine.

Photo via Adult Literacy League

Kristin Harmel

Kristin Harmel’s most recent work, The Winemaker’s Wife, is set in 1940 during some of the most gruesome days of World War 2, that teaches how one decision can impact others lives forever, yielding to serious consequences for the cost of freedom. Harmel is also known for her novel The Room on Rue Amelie, which tells the story of World War 2 from three different perspectives that eventually cross paths in the turmoil.

Photo via Kristin Harmel

Suleika Jaouad

Suleika Jaouad is known for her New York Times column “Life, Interrupted” and her first debut novel Between Two Kingdoms which focuses on Jaouad’s true story of survival in coping with leukemia and her journey of healing and self-discovery.

Photo via Suleika Jaouad

Heather McPherson

Heather McPherson is known for her time in Orlando as a food editor for the Orlando Sentinel and has two published cookbooks; Field to Feast and Good Catch.

Photo via Heather McPherson/ Twitter

Kacey Kowars

Kacey Kowars’s A Celebration of Words is a collection of the stories he learned in interviewing various literary heroes on his radio show, “The Kacey Kowars Show,” including guests such as David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Lawrence Block and more.

Photo via Kacey Kowars/ Facebook

Norine Dworkin-McDaniel and Jessica Ziegler

Norine Dworkin-McDaniel and Jessica Ziegler’s books Science of Parenthood, The Big Book of Parenting Tweets, and The BIGGER Book of Parenting Tweets all use both science and humor to help parents understand why children do the things they do with the help of their signature cartoons.

Photo via Science of Parenthood

Tez Brooks

Tez Brooks is known for his book The Single Dad Detour: Directions for Fathering After Divorce which focuses on his journeys and lessons on the rocky road of single fatherhood. Brooks has also written three other books on family and spirituality including Four Easy Ways Your Church Can, Minister to Single Dads, and The Door.

Photo via Tez Brooks/Amazon

Bob Kealing

Bob Kealing’s most recent book Elvis Ignited, The Rise of an Icon in Florida tells the role that Florida played in Elvis’s life and career and the influence of rock and roll. Kealing has also written other books including Life of the Party: The Remarkable Story of How Brownie Wise Built, and Lost, a Tupperware Party Empire and is a four-time Emmy award-winning journalist.

Photo via Bob Kealing/ Facebook

Jeff Dixon

Jeff Dixon explores non-fiction in The Disney Driven Life, about his experiences as a former Disney cast member and shows off his fiction writing in his three part book series starting with The Key to the Kingdom, that unlocks mysterious hidden Disney adventures.

Photo via Key To The Kingdom Book

Robert James

Robert James’s Next!: The Search for My Last First Date, leads the reader into the world of dating from a man’s perspective, where Bob struggles to learn the rules of modern dating. James uses humor to illustrate the perils of romance which will leave the reader hoping for a comical happily ever after.

Photo via Goodreads/ Robert James

Gary John Bishop

Gary John Bishop’s books Stop Doing That Shit and Unfu*k Yourself are honest and no nonsense books that discuss self-imposed limitations and self-sabotage as well as ways to cope with it. Unfu*k Yourself is a New York Times Bestseller that encourages readers to take their lives in their own hands and start to live the life they want to have.

Photo via Gary John Bishop/Twitter

Jess Kunerth

Jeff Kunerth shows off his investigative journalism skills in Trout: A True Story of Murder, Teens, and the Death Penalty and informs readers on local nature and bike trails in his Florida's Paved Bike Trails: An Eco-Tour Guide and Florida's paved bike trails. The story of Trout illustrates a sad and disturbing look into an impulsive crime while the guidebooks point out the perfect trails for an afternoon of exercise.

Photo via Jeff Kunerth/Twitter

Gary Monroe

Gary Monroe shows his passion for art, photography and history in his books The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters and Extraordinary Interpretations: Florida's Self-Taught Artists. Monroe’s eye for photography and words helps readers to get a glimpse into the many communities of Florida.

Photo via Matheson History Museum/Facebook

Jesse Bradley

Jesse Bradley’s talent for literary fiction is evident in his poetry collection DODGING TRAFFIC, his novella Bodies Made of Smoke and his graphic poetry collection The Bones of Us. One of Bradley’s most popular books Jesus Christ, Boy Detective tells the mysterious story of Jesus Christ who is trapped in the body of a boy detective and the journey that is taken with the help of his uncle to get home and find answers.

Photo via Jesse Bradley/Instagram

Vanessa Blakeslee

Vanessa Blakeslee’s poems, short stories, essays and book reviews have received numerous prestigious awards including 2018 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for Short Stories, the 2019 IPPY Silver Medal for Short Story Fiction, the NIEA, and was a Chicago Tribune "Summer Reads" Pick. Blakeslee’s most recent book, Perfect Conditions tells the various stories of characters from across the globe that struggle to find control when they face unexpected circumstances.

Photo via Vanessa Blakeslee

Tison Pugh

Tison Pugh, a UCF professor in the English department has twelve published books and focuses on medieval english literature and queer and gender studies. Pugh’s most recent book, The Queer Fantasies of the American Family Sitcom, focuses on family sitcoms and how they portray sexuality.

Photo via UCF Department of English

Rayyan Al-Shawaf

Rayyan Al-Shawaf’s book When All Else Fails, tells the story of an Iraqi college student who lives in Orlando when his whole life chances on September 11. Readers will feel loss, hope, love and courage in Al-Shawaf’s novel.

Photo via Weam Namou