518 Publishing Company, LLC

Pub 518 welcomes back Shan Jeniah Burton to the Droids & Dragons team. Shan is an upstate NY native. She the widow of an Oregonian she met at the Grand Canyon. After calling Yellowstone, the Canyon, and the Everglades home, she now lives with her two grown kids, two contentious cats, and a pair of dogs on the same country road where she grew up. These days, she’s moving through her fifties and still learning every day. Writing has always been her favorite way of interpreting

Pub 518 welcomes back Clay F. Johnson, author and poet to the Droids and Dragons team. Clay started writing about 11 years ago and never looked back. "Attempting to describe the year that inspired me to start writing would be akin to the trials of Atlas and call back to my mind miserable memories that I’d much rather forget. Without going into too much detail, I truly began writing properly during the first week of January 2015 while riding the Metro into DC toward a soulles

Jenna Cornell Pub 518 welcomes Jenna Cornell, author, poet, and screenwriter to the Droids & Dragon team. "My name is Jenna Cornell. I also go by Jenna Jakes when doing spoken word performances. I started writing at age 9. It was an assignment from my 4th grade teacher to write a short story. I was so inspired, I wrote two! I also started writing poetry my freshman year in high school and then ventured into screenwriting in my early 30s." Jenna is well-published, writing in m

Buffy the Bard Pub 518 welcomes Buffy the Bard, author and poet to the Droids & Dragons team. "I’ve been writing since my mother insisted that I find a less physical outlet for my imagination — less I end up with more injuries than baby teeth. The concept of creating, and in essence, participating in the types of adventures and experiments I yearned for opened up a world of possibilities to me. Suddenly, I could not only dream up my own Pokémon battles and pirate voyages and

Ronja Vieth Pub 518 welcomes Ronja Vieth to the Droids & Dragons team. Ronja is nomadic and travels the world writing. "I started writing as a child already and pursuing a degree in American Literature has fed my love and my art." Ronja has a PhD, specializes in American Gothic Literature and some of her poetry reflects that. She is a well-published author. Her writing has appeared in national and international journals and calendars, such as the Cincinnati Review, Otherwise

Mir Rainbird Pub 518 welcomes author and poet, Mir Rainbird to the Droids & Dragons team. "Hi! This is Mir Rainbird, author of 'Monster’s Child'. I’ve been writing my entire life. In fact, I started writing before I could read, so my first “stories” are strings of letters that only look like words. I think one of them was a Poky Little Puppy fanfic… My mother was a big reader and used to read me the books she was reading when I was quite small. I think I was three when she re

Sarah Newgarden Pub 518 welcomes Sarah Newgarden to the Droids & Dragons team. Hear what Sarah has to say about her writing process. "My name is Sarah Newgarden. I live in upstate NY. I have been writing on and off, since I was in high school, and I am a first-time published author." When we asked Sarah who has inspired her writing, her response was, "There are many authors who influenced my storytelling style. Ursula Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Laura Vandenberg, Ottessa Moshfeg

Herb Kauderer Pub 518 welcomes back Herb Kauderer. He is from the eastern shore of Lake Erie, forty-five minutes' walk from where the Buffalo Bills of the NFL play football. "I often walk the waterfront of this inland sea stealing poetry ideas from seagulls only to lose them in the wind. I have been writing since I joined the junior high school newspaper in seventh grade. It was easier to communicate with my family of orientation by writing than any other way." Herb is a we

D. K. Lindner Pub 518 welcomes D.K. Linder to the Droids & Dragons team. She lives in New York USA. "I've been writing a long time. I don't actually remember my first story. I do remember the first time someone made me feel like a writer. My fifth-grade teacher had paired the class up to write short stories. A friend and I wrote a short children's story about firefighting from the Dalmatian's perspective. Not only did we get a great grade, but my teacher went out of his w

Angela G. Williams Pub 518 welcomes back Angela G. Williams. She is originally from South Africa but now resides in the USA. "I have been writing for several years, exploring genres that span from historical mysteries to gothic fiction. My writing is heavily informed by my professional background as a genealogist and historian; I am fascinated by the "paper trails" of the past and the ways that knowledge and craft are passed down through generations. I started writing to brid

Jay T. Levy Pub 518 welcomes back Jay T. Levy. Jay lives in the state of Delaware, USA and has been writing since high school, but didn't take it seriously until his senior year. "I was originally going to go to art school but changed my focus from painting and drawing to the written word instead. I didn’t start sending stories out for publication until 2019, after joining a critique group." Jay is a well-published author. He has stories in 16 different anthologies dating bac

Carol Dresser Pub 518 welcomes Carol Dresser to the 518 team. Carol lives in upstate NY with her husband and two daughters. "I've been writing since the second grade. I made a book by folding sheets of 8.5 X 11 paper together; it was a ghost story! I couldn't tell you what inspired me, but stories and the telling of them have always been important to me." This is Carol's maiden voyage as a published author and it's wonderful that she submitted to our call for submissions. "T

Simon Johannes Pub 518 welcomes Simon Johannes to the Droids & Dragons team. He lives in the 518, AKA Upstate New York. This is Simon's 2nd stint in a Pub 518 anthology. His short story, 'The Washerwoman', is featured in the 2025 anthology, Catskill Chaos. He also has several horror short stories published in Nikkol Jelenic's "A Taste For Killing" magazine. We asked Simon which book or author influenced his storytelling style the most and he replied, J.R.R. Tolkien and E.E. S

Christine Bigley Pub 518 would like to welcome Christine Bigley to the Droids & Dragons team. Christine grew up in Upstate New York but now lives in Northern Germany. We asked Christine how she started to write and she told us, "I loved writing as a child and in high school. I came back to it after completing The Artist Way in 2017." Christine has been published in various anthologies in Germany and in Austria, as well as in Pub 518's 2025 anthology, Catskill Chaos. What a wr

Laura Kordowski and Simon Erdile 518 Publishing Company welcomes the dual author team, Simon Erdile and Laura Kordowski. The two live in Albany, NY and have been writing together for a little over a year. "We are also working more on our long-term goals as a couple. Being together opened up more writing and creative opportunities for us." Simon Erdile has been published in the New York State Assembly internship committee's distinguished intern reports for 2013. The second hal

Maria Carvalho Meet Maria Carvalho, a lifelong Connecticut resident. Maria is a published author and poet. "Writing stories and poetry came naturally to me as a child, but I got away from it as an adult, focusing on motherhood and my career for a number of years. Then, about 15 years ago, I read "The Brightest Star in the Sky" by Mirian Keyes and something just clicked; I knew I had to start writing again. I've been happily writing ever since!" Maria is the proud author of t

Simon Mohsin Pub 518 would like to welcome Simon Mohsin to the 'Droids & Dragons' team. Simon lives in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He considers the city as the 'most notorious "hood" area of the country'. "I have been writing for more than two decades, but fiction writing has been my passion since the first year of COVID. My inspiration was mainly my sister, whom I lost last year. The absence of other engagements, a manageable workload, and ample time on hand became my

Stephen Thorn Pub 518 welcomes Stephen Thorn, a poet and storyteller from Pennsylvania, USA. When we asked Stephen to tell us a little about himself, his reply was, "I can be somewhat verbose and windy, so you might not have enough room for some of them. (chuckles)" Of course, we always have room for someone who writes great prose. Stephen started writing poetry about his pet. "My first poem was four sentences about my parakeet. It was a class project, and I think it was in

Ron Kundinger Meet Ronald L Kundinger, 67 years old and living in Appleton, Wisconsin, US. "I have always dreamed of being a writer, always thought of myself as a writer. I just didn’t seem to have the fortitude to put things to paper. I wrote myself short stories, crumpled them up, and threw them away. Then I would dream of the stories I would write. I wrote poetry when I was younger and published 30+ poems in small press ‘zines in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It wasn’t unt

S. Marie Nemo Pub 518 welcomes back S. Marie Nemo. She's from Albany, NY/USA and has been writing seriously since October 2020. "My inspiration to start came from my day job at the time (I worked at a school). One of my responsibilities was to edit text submitted by alumni for publication in the class notes section of their alumni magazine. I had so much fun reading their stories that I decided to write one of my own, and I've never looked back." S. Marie's first published st