Meet Our Authors, Illustrators & Narrators

Jan Yager, Ph.D. (the former J.L./Janet Barkas) is a writer, sociologist, consultant, professional speaker, artist, and publishing entrepreneur whose areas of expertise include relationships and business issues including time management and work relationships. Jan's first book published by Hannacroix Creek Books, Inc., Friendshifts®, based on fifteen years of original friendship research, led to interviews on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, The View , National Public Radio, and other programs. Other books include When Friendship Hurts (published by Simon & Schuster, Inc.) as well as two career books by Facts on File, Inc. A prolific writer of fiction as well as nonfiction whose books have been translated into 14 languages, she is co-author of two suspense thrillers, Untimely Death and Just Your Everyday People. For more information, go to: www.drjanyager.com.

Fred Yager is a business television producer, communications executive, and screenwriter as well as the author of six nonfiction and fiction titles including the novels Rex and Cybersona and co-author of two career books published by Facts on File, Inc.: Career Opportunities in the Publishing Industry and Career Opportunities in the Film Industry. Fred grew up in a small town in upstate New York with Hannacroix Creek flowing right behind his family's house. He has lived in Texas, California, New York City, and, since 1990, in Fairfield County, Connecticut with his wife Jan and their two grown sons. Fred's previous jobs include 13 years at the Associated Press as a reporter, entertainment writer and film critic, and 14 years at Merrill Lynch including seven years in charge of their business television division. In addition to his book and screenwriting projects, Fred runs his own communications company, World News and Information Network, Inc. 

Carole Addabbo is the author of the charming children's book Dina the Deaf Dinosaur. Addabbo, who has been deaf since birth, has taught American Sign Language at New York University as well as acting internationally with the National Theatre of the Deaf theatre company.

Seth Alan Barkas was a playwright, a freelance theatre critic for Show Business newspaper, and freelance film critic for Baltimore magazine when he was tragically killed at the age of twenty-three. A graduate of New York University, he had worked as a reporter for WBAL in Baltimore. Seth's one-act plays, collected for the first time in our forthcoming collection, In the Great Together, demonstrate that his talent was already established.

Janet Luongo, author of 365 Daily Affirmations for Creativity, is an artist, writer, and workshop leader on creativity who has a multiplicity of talents including producing five documentaries and founding an association for women artists in her home state of Connecticut. She is in demand as a speaker on creativity before a variety of groups. For more information, go to Janet's website www.openminds-opendoors.com.

Priscilla Orr, author of Jugglers & Tides, from Hannacroix Creek Books, is a recipient of fellowships from New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Yaddo and twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Orr's poems been awarded and have appeared in Southern Poetry Review, Nimrod, Worcester Review and other journals.  Orr works as a poet for the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Program and is on the Cape May Getaway faculty.  An Associate Professor at Sussex County Community College, she has taught literature and writing.  In 2000, she started the Idiom Reading Series, and served as the first Director of the Betty June Silconas Poetry Center.  She is currently serving as Interim Dean of Liberal Arts, Social Science & Education.  Orr lives with Crosby, her Norwich terrier in Hamburg, NJ.

Rei Kimura is a lawyer as well as a freelance journalist associated with the Australian News Syndicate.

Mitzi Lyman is a talented fine artist based in Westport, Connecticut. Mitzi created the charming illustrations for our children's book, The Cantaloupe Cat. Mitzi has a degree in human development from University of Massachusetts (Amherst). She has studied painting and drawing at the Arts Student League, the School of Visual Arts, and Corcoran School in Washington, D.C., and has had her own graphics design studio

Valentine is an accomplished fine artist and professional weaver who relocated from Rhode Island, where she and her husband raised their two children, back to her home state of California. Valentine's amazing illustrations, each one an original watercolor, for the children's book by Carole Addabo, Dina the Deaf Dinosaur, reflect the unique detailed style of this imaginative artist.

Glady Barkas recorded the children's book The Cantaloupe Cat for the audio book version of this story in rhyme. She is a retired school teacher with lots of experience reading to children; Glady spent 27 years reading stories to kindergarten boys and girls on a daily basis.