Welcome to this week’s faculty five. We hope you’re enjoying getting to know our 2017 faculty as they share five fun  and interesting facts about themselves! This week, we’ve got Splickety’s Ben Wolf and Lindsey Brackett, as well as romantic suspense writer Lynn Blackburn.

Ben Wolf

1. I went to Australia as a 7th grader and got to pet live kangaroos. Believe it or not, they’re softer than housecats!
2. I started Splickety Publishing Group because I got a couple of short stories published and wondered, “Why isn’t there something like this, but for flash fiction?”
3. Before embarking on my career as an author/freelance editor, I worked in retail at the Men’s Wearhouse and Brooks Brothers. I also served as a volunteer youth pastor and briefly ran a resale shop for a non-profit organization.
4. I’m hopelessly addicted to video games of one sort or another. I used to think the addiction would end as I grew older and grew out of that phase of my life, but smartphones have video games on them, darn it all. So I’m doomed to play them forever.
5. I was once serenaded by Jeff Goldblum in a hotel lobby in Portland, Oregon.

Lindsey Brackett

1. I’m the oldest of seven kids, six girls and one boy. Yes, we have the same mom and dad. No, we aren’t Catholic. Or Mormon. Or homeschooled. Yes, my parents knew what causes that. No, I don’t want to ‘have a bunch of kids like my mom.’ There, I think I covered all the usual responses 🙂
2. When I was growing up in that big family, we were often tapped as models for various Savannah River lake projects. If you go to the Visitor’s Center at Lake Russell in Elbert County, I think there’s still a picture hanging of my brother and myself pretending to be lost in the woods.
3. I majored in Interdisciplinary Studies in college with concentrations in English, Theater, and Secondary Education. That sounds really fancy except for the fact that I didn’t actually get certified to teach and truthfully, “interdisciplinary studies” is code for “commitment issues.”
4. I have three daughters and one spoiled rotten baby boy who was the biggest–and best–surprise ever. He came along just as I quit teaching to write, which is why the novel I started in 2008 is finally being published in 2017.
5. One of my very first jobs was working at the local radio station. I read the obituaries, followed by the yard sale notices, at four o’clock every afternoon. Classy stuff, folks. Yes, I’m putting it in a book.

Lynn Blackburn

1. I am incapable of talking without using my hands and I frequently use sound effects when I describe things.
2. As a teenager, I had a recurring storyline in my head – in it, I had been recruited by the CIA and was one of their best spies. Apparently being fifteen made for a great cover!
3. I have a decent voice—I can harmonize with a group, but no one’s asking me to sing a solo and I’m okay with that. But let me tell you, in the privacy of my minivan I perform many of Broadway’s greatest hits. Everything from Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and My Fair Lady, to Wicked and Hamilton.
4. I can—and will—watch my favorite movies whenever I catch them on TV. Favorites include You’ve Got Mail, the Harry Potter movies, the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies, Star Trek (the new ones) and McClintock!
5. I graduated from Clemson University and am a devoted fan of the Clemson Tigers. (That engineering degree has really helped with the writing business, LOL!) I yell at the TV (really), cheer along with the fans whenever the band plays “The Tiger Rag,” and during the College Football Playoffs did a lot of “prayer walking” around my kitchen. Go Tigers!

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