Member Bios

ROBERT EBERT

Robert Louis Ebert was born in a manger in 1962. His father was a college student by profession, whose hobbies included music, political activism, and marriage. In 1971 Ebert's parents fulfilled the fondest wishes of friends and family and vowed never to see one another again. That vow, unlike the marriage, was successful. Young Robert and his siblings were relocated to Phoenix and thus entered a decade-long period that they would like very much to forget. Although he has never been formally educated, Robert Louis Ebert did attend public schools for twelve years. The trauma and merits of that attendance are still being assessed.

Ebert has no athletic honours as exercise is against everything he sits for. He does not understand the current rage for physical exertion, not when there is so much television still to be watched. He has never drank wine coolers, boogied, or watched any reality-based programming. Politically, Ebert is still trying to reconcile his earnest belief in Socialistic principles with his equally earnest desire for a lot more capital than he currently possesses. In matters theological, he subscribes to Cain's Heresy: "Let every man go to the Devil in his own way." Ebert does very much believe in Fate, finding in it the only logical explanation for the good fortune of his choice in spouses.

Robert Louis Ebert is currently working on a novel set in late-Victorian London. His choice of subject matter undoubtedly springs from his ardent belief that the world started to go desperately wrong when grown men began to wear short pants. He is today heavily medicated and living somewhere in South Central Kentucky.

KAT JORDAN

Born and raised in Ashtabula, Ohio, a town that boasts seven toxic wastes dumps, a river so polluted it glows in the dark and is "60 miles from the nearest job," Kat Jordan was shanghaied to Radcliff, Kentucky in 1992. Once she escaped captivity she realized that her circumstances had greatly improved, and has stead-fastedly refused to return to Northeastern Ohio. "I'm glad that Lake Erie is blue instead of brown and has live fish in it," she says, "but that town is so backward that the Amish have moved there in droves. I'm not going back."

Her writing credits include: a column in the Harbor Journal (defunct), ISO 9000 procedures and quality manuals for Crucible Magnets (defunct), training materials for High Speed Access (defunct), an un-childish children's story, a non-romantic romance, and an un-suspenseful mystery. She's been published in "Practical Horseman" and "Mother Earth News" as well as various websites including Gardenweb.com forums.

She married Sgt. Bob Jordan (retired) in September 2001. They moved to five acres in Vine Grove Valentine's Day in 2005, a mini-farm they have christened 'Jordan's Croft'. The current population of Jordan's Croft consists of 3 Quarter horses, 13 ducks, five chickens, three cats and a Jack Russell terrorist. Kat's hobbies include painting and gardening, specializing in hard-shell gourds and cooking herbs. Her current passion is Jordan's Croft, the couple's first home. "The house was a wreck when we bought it," she says. "I have an aerial photograph of it as a blank slate. We are in the process of turning it into a modern American cottage. It took us a month just to transplant all the flowers from our old place. We have the bare bones in place: house, barn fences and the motorcycle shed. You wouldn't recognize the place from the picture." Kat also dabbles in e-commerce: writing Web pages. Her homepage is http://jordanscroft.blogspot.com.

JOHN SWINDELLS

John Swindells was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas with a BA in zoology. Other degrees include MA in Anthropology from American University and MEd in science education from George Washington University. He served 30 years on active duty in the US Army, retiring in the rank of Colonel in 1989.

Subsequent employment included operations research analyst, park naturalist, and high school science teacher. He moved to Kentucky from Virginia in 1997 and is currently engaged in preparation of a novel. He has four children and three grandchildren. His wife has three children and two grandchildren. He and his wife live near Bardstown and enjoy the care of a 200 year old farm house complete with ghosts and bats.

ROBERT VILLANUEVA

Robert Villanueva was born in Alaska but has lived most of his life in Kentucky. He graduated from Western Kentucky University with a BA in journalism and worked for nearly seven years at various local newspapers, in positions ranging from staff writer to news editor. During his career as a journalist, he earned nine Kentucky Press Association awards for news, features, columns and photos as well as the First Place award for Feature Writing from Landmark Community Newspapers, Inc.

Robert's short stories, poems, essays and articles have been published in various print and online magazines and books including Return of the Raven, GlassFire Anthology, The Binnacle, Trillium Literary Journal, Contemporary Rhyme, Flutter Poetry Journal, The Flask Review, The Summerset Review, The Square Table, AbsoluteWrite.com, The Heartland Review, C/Oasis, The Louisville Eccentric Observer, Snitch, Bluemountain.com, Writer's Digest Magazine, Write Choice Journal and the disaster-relief book Stories of Strength. He is currently working on a novel and a collection of short stories.  His website is kybard660.tripod.com.