Mom’s Favorite Reads Author

Meet the Team

Mom’s Favorite Reads is brought to you each month due to the efforts and dedication of a core of volunteers who cheerfully give up their time each month to bring the magazine to completion. As some of the team members are changing, I thought it would be a good idea to introduce them. I asked them all the following questions.

1. What is your role in the Magazine?

2. Tell us about your writing life.

3. What do you do in your spare time?

When they had all stopped laughing at question 3 what writer has any spare time – they gave me some fascinating answers.

I joined the magazine 3 years ago as copy editor and proof reader and have very much enjoyed that role. I am now taking over as Editor in Chief and Publisher as well as continuing as a copy editor. I am very much looking forward to working with the new team to move the magazine forward. It is an exciting time for us all, as well as for the magazine. I also do a regular interview with an author, as well as a monthly literary tour of the USA.

I write crime thrillers (The DI Shona McKenzie Mysteries), humorous mysteries (Cass Claymore Investigates), young adult mysteries (The Fergus and Flora Mysteries), children’s picture books (The Bertie the Buffalo Series), and nonfiction for writers (Writing Matters Series).

I am currently writing a historical series based on the life of an 18th Century Naval Surgeon. In addition, I am the President of The Scottish Association of Writers and the co-founder and director of Auscot Publishing and Retreats. As an international public speaker I can often be found in far flung lands speaking at writing conferences and literary events.

My great loves are travelling, reading and eating out. Luckily, I can combine these as I travel the world at conferences and events. I love people and also history so travelling allows me to meet new people and find out about the history of new countries. It’s a win all round.

I joined Mom’s Editorial Team as one of the editors around two years ago. Prior to that time, I was a regular contributor of articles and short stories to the magazine. This year, I will be taking on more of the tasks involved in organising the content and production of the magazine. My main content contribution to Mom’s at the moment is in co-ordinating articles for the monthly health and well-being feature.

I mainly write historical fact and fiction. My working life was spent in mental health nursing, first as a practitioner and then as a specialist practitioner, my first degree is in psychology. I then moved into nurse teaching. After taking early retirement from the University of Dundee, following a diagnosis of lupus, I combined my love of history with my passion for research and set out to write a series of historical fiction novels. ReignoftheMarionettes, a historical drama based in Restoration London, is the first of these books and was my first published novel. I have since published one factual book, SoYousayICan’tVote.Frances Connelly.TheWorkingWoman’sRouteToThe Voteand another historical novel TearsofStrathnaver, which is set at the time of the Highland Clearances. The ideas for my books come directly from history - I found that fact is indeed stranger than fiction. I enjoy including small details of the time period in my writing.

Although I grew up in the Scottish Borders, I now live in a small seaside town on the east coast of Scotland with my family and Dalmatian, Lola. I have always loved being near the sea and concluded a long time ago that I must be a ‘Water’ person. Having the fatigue associated with lupus means that I am often limited in what I can take on. Fortunately, I love to read and enjoy reading a wide range of genres including biographies, thriller, crime and historical. I also like doing anything writing related and am a member of a few local writing groups. I currently work voluntarily as the Affiliation and Development Officer for the Scottish Association of Writers, which I enjoy.

I write a monthly flash fiction column. I pick a topic to write on whether it is a theme to write to or ways of improving flash fiction skills. (These can usually be transferred easily enough to short story writing as well). It’s my belief if you can write short and to a tight word count, you can write to a longer spec and do so better. Why? Because in writing flash, you have to write for impact, and I’ve found that spills over into other work I do.

I edit MFR’s flash fiction/short story submissions and set the flash fiction challenge which is based on my topic of the month. Great fun to do and I’ve earned the title of “flasher queen” here too!

I'm a multi-published flash fiction/short story writer, blogger, and editor. My main focus is on short story/flash fiction collections for the independent press. I am one of the winners of the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition (based in the UK) where entrants wrote to the same word count (1000 words) and theme. I won three years in a row. I ve contributed prompts to a number of books too.I run workshops on writing, especially for flash fiction (online and in person). I judge short story/flash fiction competitions too. I write weekly for online magazine, Chandler’s Ford Today, on topics of interest to writers. I often interview writers here. My fiction has appeared in anthologies (CafeLit/Bridge House Publishing) over many years. I have two flash fiction collections out with Chapeltown Books. (From Light to Dark and Back Again – 2017. Tripping the Flash Fantastic – 2020). I have submitted my third collection and am beginning to work on a fourth. I’m a member of the Society of Authors, Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, and Association of Christian Writers. Basically, if I’m not “flashing”, I’m blogging and/or editing! not at the same time. The pages would get soggy, and my dog would cause chaos in the pool. Suspect there might be a flash story in that scenario though! I help out at my local church and try not to do too much damage in my garden. (Mowing the lawn and raking leaves in the autumn is about the height of my gardening skills).

I also now have my own YouTube channel and regularly create flash fiction videos for it. Good fun to do and another way of showcasing what flash can do and be. Some of my festive flash fiction pieces have been broadcast too.

I am relatively new to writing and this wonderful magazine. I was introduced to Mom’s by Wendy H. Jones, who invited me to write an article on adoption. This brought me to the magazine, and since that first time, I have contributed stories, poems and articles.

Lately, I have tried to join the Flash Fiction challenge each month, which has been great.

I was offered the role of Social Media manager, which was a great honour, and I enjoy posting highlighted pages on our Facebook page. It’s hard to choose as there are so many wonderful pages, so it’s tempting to get through them all in one week!

I write novels, usually fiction around questions of faith, as that’s important to me. To know what Christian living looks like on a difficult Tuesday morning. I accidentally drifted into dystopian type writing, even though I would never have expected that. I also write blogs on my website as well as book reviews.

When I’m not writing I’m most likely homeschooling my children, walking the puppy or teaching her not to eat everything that fits her mouth. I love to read as well and seeing the great reviews in Mom’s Favorite Reads helps my TBR list to grow. I read similar things to what I enjoy writing, but as I do a lot of reviews as well as follow Wendy’s Reading Challenge, I get to read a lot wider, which has been fabulous. My main hobby is drinking coffee and even my puppy knows to leave my coffee alone.

I am very pleased to be joining the team of Mom’s Favorite Reads and take on the responsibility for page layout of the magazine. In previous jobs, I have produced booklets, newsletters and the like, which I really enjoy so I’m looking forward to this new role.

Writing is something of a calling for me and much of what I write is uplifting, encouraging and supportive. The stories are fiction, but the message isn’t. As a former complementary therapist, I met many people who just needed to have someone tell them how amazing they were.

This became my motivation. My characters learn to tap into their inner resources to find their way forward and sometimes they have a little help from the angelic realms. I have had many ‘interesting’ experiences in my life. Like any good writer, I kept journals and I use these notes in my books.

When I’m not writing, I take part in Meditation and Qigong classes. Qigong is similar to Tai Chi, both of which I taught for many years. I also write articles on these subjects. I have grandchildren who keep me busy, in a good way, and I love spending time with family and friends.

Eileen Rolland

Thank you everyone for your candid answers. It is good to get to know you better.

I would like to finish by saying a heartfelt thank you to Hannah Howe, Melanie Smith and Sylva Fae who are sadly leaving the team. You have left some big shoes to fill as well as a legacy of an outstanding magazine. You will be missed, and I wish you all the very best with your future writing and publishing journeys. I hope I, and the new team, do you proud.