Our Editors

P. JUNE DIEHL is a senior editor with Virtual Tales. She is an editor, author, writing coach and teacher, offering her skills to ePress Online, newsletters, writing groups and individual authors. She has also worked for over 20 years as a technical writer/editor. Her nonfiction book, The Magic & the Mundane: A Guide for the Writer's Journey, was recently published by ePress Online. June teaches writing classes at Pearls of Writing. Working in several genres, her first loves are fantasy and science fiction, and she is currently writing several novels, including Murder in D Minor and Logan's Lament. June lives in Fredericksburg, VA with five cats.

BETTY DOBSON is a senior editor with Virtual Tales. She is a freelance writer/editor based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. As the owner/operator of InkSpotter Publishing, she publishes books and newsletters and hosts an annual flash fiction contest. She's a prize-winning poet, essayist, and short story writer. Her work appears in a variety of print and online journals, as well as several books, including Body Language: A Head-to-Toe Anthology ; The Canadian Writer's Guide, 13th Edition ; FabJob Guide to Become a Published Writer ; and The WritersNet Anthology of Prose: Fiction. She is also the Editor of Poetry Canada magazine, the Contributing Poetry Editor with Apollo's Lyre, and the Networking Editor with WE Magazine for Women. When not immersed in writing and editing — and when her cat allows — she distracts herself with genealogy, reading, and painting. She will edit primarily in the Mystery/Crime and Romance genres.

JAKE GEORGE is a senior editor with Virtual Tales. He is a published author of Native American novels and medical self-help works about thyroid disease. With over 20 years under his belt as an editor for the Department of Defense, Jake started Sage Words Services, a Native American owned and operated editing, proofreading and web design company. Jake is a guest columnist for Florida Today newspaper and has been published in numerous online and print magazines. He has served as a mystery genre writing judge for a Florida publisher and serves as a youth mentor for young aspiring writers. Jake is of Lenni Lenape descent and is a storyteller of Native American tales. His book, GRANDFATHER'S SONG was released in January 2005; the sequel A NEW DAWN was released in October 2006. Jake will be editing stories for Virtual Tales in our Westerns genre.

ALLISON ITTERLY was born and raised in Long Island, New York. After completing her BA in English at the University at Albany, she pursued a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing at San Diego State University. Her Master’s thesis was an edgy collection of short stories focusing on the lives of New Yorkers. While obtaining her MFA, she taught creative writing courses, and tutored writing to undergraduate, graduate, and ESL students. Since then, she has worked as a freelance writer and editor, and currently is a Copy Editor for marketing company in Salt Lake City, Utah. In addition, Allison was recently hired as the lead writer and editor for a documentary film due to come out late next year.

TI LOCKE has been a writer all her life. She majored in communications at college and has worked for newspapers, and radio and TV stations as a writer, advertising copywriter, editor, layout editor, typesetter, and photographer. She once actually yelled, “Stop the press!” when she discovered that the mayor’s first name had been misspelled as “Fart” in a page twelve headline. Ms. Locke has also worked as a high school math and science teacher; her exceptionally dry wit is a by-product of years of explaining why factoring trinomials is significant. In addition, Ti worked at KCTS, the Seattle PBS affiliate, reviewing, buying and producing programming for the K-20 school market. She wrote and/or edited the curriculum and web content for many of these projects. She continues to work with new documentary filmmakers, helping to get their scripts and budgets broadcast-ready. Ti’s big passions are typography and photography. She will not call a font a typeface and vice versa. She has a digital camera, but she still shoots film—and Polaroid, for as long as the film stock lasts.

DONALD O’DONOVAN was born in Cooperstown, New York and currently resides in Los Angeles. He spent many hours as a child playing on the large seated bronze sculpture of James Fenimore Cooper in Cooper Park. O’Donovan taught English as a second language, English composition, creative writing and English literature. He worked for ten years as an engineering writer in aerospace, and for five years as a how-to book editor. He has published several novels and collections, including Tarantula Woman. An audio book narrator known for his velvet-and-gravel storyteller’s voice, Donald O’Donovan got his start in voice over recording westerns as a volunteer at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. He has done commercials, radio spots and video narration. His audio books include Confessions of a Bedbug Hauler and The Enchanted Forest, Classic Fairytales from Many Lands. He is currently narrating The Coming of the Horseclans, by Robert Adams, for Mundania Press. His screenplay, Tarantula Woman, adapted from the novel, is in development with a Hollywood production company. Donald O’Donovan is also a “Sunday painter” whose art brut paintings have been exhibited in galleries around southern California.

LEA SCHIZAS is an award-winning author, editor and founder of writing websites and communities . She is the Founder and Editor in Chief of the online writer's Zine Apollo’s Lyre and The MuseItUp Club, an online writing critique community, which have been named to the Writer’s Digest "101 Top Writing Sites" and received awards from Preditors and Editors. Ms. Schizas is also the author of THE ROCK OF REALM, a YA Fantasy/Adventure novel, co-author and editor of the nonfiction writing reference book THE MUSE ON WRITING, and numerous short stories. She has served as an editor for Double Dragon Publishing, Tiger Publications, Loose ID and Quill Pen.net Press. Ms. Schizas will edit primarily Fantasy, Science Fiction and Romance titles for Virtual Tales.

KAREN ANNE WEBB choreographed her first "Nutcracker" in the fifth grade and wrote her first novel in the eighth grade. Her career in journalism began with a stint as a dance critic and today she is one of the best-known dance critics in the Western United States. Ms. Webb's first novel, THE CHALICE OF LIFE, is the first book in quest fantasy that takes place in the fictional world of Caros. That universe came to her in a series of dreams and was published by Dragon Moon Press. The main character is, of course, a dancer. In addition to her own writing, Karen is also a meticulous copy editor and proofreader and will be editing primarily Fantasy and Science Fiction works for Virtual Tales. Karen lives in Centerville, Utah with her husband and their adopted son.

ROBERT WETHERLEY was born in England but was raised in Canada and the United States. His adult life has found him living in several states and numerous foreign countries. As a Master Instructor in the United States Air Force, he taught electronics classes, world-wide, to U.S. and foreign students and authored seven text books. For the past ten years, Robert has edited technical manuals for land-based systems that support commercial and military rocket launches as well as NASA’s space shuttle. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Hawaii Pacific University and a Master of Science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. A stickler for facts and structure, he loves well-written fiction. Robert will primarily be editing the Mystery/Crime and Action/Adventure genres for Virtual Tales.