Our Team

You have found us out!  Like the Wizard of Oz, we’re the ones fooling about behind the curtain, pressing buttons, pulling levers, and generally wreaking havoc.  We wish you’d pay no attention to us, but since you’re on our staff page, we’ll oblige you with our names, pictures, e-mail addresses and a bit of background information.  In no particular order, we are:

• Morgan Sully, Web Designer and Site Engineer / morgan@awordwithyoupress.com
• Derek Thompson, Project Development Director / derek@awordwithyoupress.com
• Kristy Webster, Visual Arts Editor / kristy@awordwithyoupress.com
• Thornton Sully, Editor-in-Chief / admin@awordwithyoupress.com
• Monika Spykerman, Content Editor / monika@awordwithyoupress.com
• Ruth Joyce, Personal Assistant to Wuss’n'Boots / ruth@ruthjoyce.co.uk
• Simon Vey, Chief Information Officer / simon@awordwithyourpress.com
• Diana Diehl, Technical Director / diana@awordwithyoupress.com

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Editor-in-Chief Thornton Sully has Jack Londoned his way across the globe sleeping with whatever country would have him, and picking up stray stories along with way.  A litter of dog-eared passports that have taken up residence in his sock drawer are a constant temptation, but, as the founder of A Word with You Press, dedicated to publishing and purveying fine stories, it’s not likely he will stray too far from our newly established headquarters in Oceanside, California.  He is the author of three novels and is on call to review books for The San Diego Union Tribune.

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Web Designer and Site Engineer Morgan Sully is an artist, DJ and new media educator.  Aside from helping people make the best use of technology for the creative good, Morgan builds websites like the one you are on right now. By day, he develops programming, facilities and workshops as the Lab Manager of Media Arts San Diego, a non-profit new media lab which brings technology to an underserved component of the community. By night, he composes live webcasts of original electronic music. Morgan is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz. More about Morgan can be found here.

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Visual Arts Editor Kristy Webster is a writer of short fiction, poetry, and memoirs, as well as a gifted painter. Her short stories have been featured in two anthologies by Girl Child Press. Her fiction has appeared in online publications such as The Abacot Journal, The Molotov Cocktail and Connotation Press. Kristy’s art is an exploration of the feminine, focusing especially on distinct awakenings in the lives of women. Kristy earned a Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College where she studied sculpture, poetry, bookmaking, creative writing, human development and women’s studies. She recently earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She lives near Seattle, Washington with her two well behaved sons, and two ill mannered cats.

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Content Editor Monika Spykerman grew up on the West Coast and attended college in Texas.  There, between consuming vast quantities of coffee, editing the yearbook, and engaging in various activities strictly prohibited in the student handbook, she earned a BA in English.  After graduating, she loathed a succession of sub-par jobs, then somehow landed a position as a graphic designer for a large, non-profit organization in Pasadena, California, eventually becoming their Publications Coordinator.  This involved a lot of writing, editing, cracking the whip to make sure deadlines were met, and consuming even vaster amounts of coffee.  Monika now lives in Washington State with her husband and daughter, having relocated mainly because the Northwest is noted for its excellent coffee. She’s abandoned her career as a freelance writer, editor and graphic designer, to give her all to A Word with you Press, but damn it, she is HAPPY.

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Director of Project Development Derek Thompson is a freelance writer of many different things, sometimes all in the same afternoon – it’s like trying to lasso raindrops with yarn. He has writing credits for newspaper, magazine, radio, live performance and the internet. His novels, like many of his stories, touch upon the universal themes of truth, death and loss. But he also knows a few knock-knock jokes (as well as stronger material). He enjoys writing (natch), mythology, ambiguity and trees. You can never have too many trees – they’re like socks for the planet. Derek likes his humour dark, his writing devoured and, somewhat rebelliously, his coffee cup filled with peppermint tea.

Derek is the birthing partner of The Coffee Shop Chronicles and future A Word with You Press anthologies, helping to bring them into print and distribution.  Even now he is standing by with plenty of towels and hot water (he doesn’t know why but he saw that in a movie one time). He works with Thorn to create a thriving community beyond our website, to spread the word about our words.  If you’ve got a question about publication dates and book availability, Derek’s your man.  Plus, he’s got extra towels.

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Ruth Joyce, Personal Assistant to Wuss’n'Boots (a regular cartoon feature starting June 27th was discovered by Wuss and Boots in 1998.  Realizing they lacked any sort of aesthetic appeal (the boys are honest:  they were a bit of a mess back then), they thought they’d hire this clearly-awesome-frizzy-haired-gap-toothed-drama-queen of a child. The fact that she was only 10 years old made it tricky; as Ruth says, “I was still, pretty much, an idiot.” Thankfully, Wuss’n'Boots have put up with her through the intervening 12 years, rolling their eyes frequently during a period of teenage angst when her hair turned red and she rebelled by…doing consistently well at school.

With quite a lot of art exhibitions under Ruth’s belt – including a recent showing in Melbourne, Australia – she’s made a name for herself with streetwise and free-spirited works spilling over with motion and emotion.  She confesses, however, that Wuss and Boots are the only boys she’ll ever truly love.  Want to know more?  Visit Ruth at www.ruthjoyce.co.uk.  Visit Wuss’n'Boots every week on our site, and ask them everything you ever wanted to know about your kitties, but were afraid to ask.  They will dispense sound advice.

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Chief Information Officer Simon Vey is passionate about technology, music, sailing, and all things William Shatner.  A recent graduate of San Diego State University, where he studied information systems, he specializes in improving business processes using automation and data management.  Simon is proficient in  a number of programming languages, building web apps, and providing technical support.