Check out our history with our Historian, President Emeritus Toby Fesler Heathcotte.
Board Members
Kathleen Cook
President, Web Administrator, Membership Director and Contest Director
Kathleen Cook began writing poems and short stories at an early age. At age eight, she sent one of her poems unaided to the Reader's Digest and claimed to be sixteen, believing that the magazine would take a "mature" writer more seriously. She received a very kind rejection letter from an amused editor. At age 18, Katy edited a weekly newsletter for the Port of Call, a Nazarene mission for homeless teens as well as her college newspaper. She worked for various publishers before opening her own editing service.
Katy joined the Arizona Authors Association in 2009 and served as its editor from 2019-2024. In 2020, she joined the Arizona Authors Board of Directors. She created the current website in 2021 and still serves as Web Administrator. She assumed the presidency in January 2024.
Contact Katy at: Kathleen Cook
Jane Ruby
Vice President and Treasurer
Award-winning novelist, essayist, and short story writer Jane Ruby served for several years as a judge for the Arizona Authors Association annual literary contests. She has directed the Association’s Literary Contest since 2019. A former Secretary of the organization, she has most recently performed in two capacities as both the Contest Coordinator—mercilessly enlisting her daughters as judges—and as the Treasurer of the Association. Once a research chemist, she has transformed her technical expertise into presentations for elementary and high school students.
Contact Jane at: Jane Ruby
Toby Fesler Heathcotte
President Emeritus,
Association Historian
Since childhood, Toby has been interested in the past and has found many affinities with her ancestors. Unexpected psychic experiences led her to study reincarnation and psychic phenomena, and she took comfort in the fact that she was not alone. A high school teacher of speech and drama for many years, Toby wrote academic books before venturing into relating her psychic experiences in Out of the Psychic Closet. Those experiences also translated into a fictionalized series called the Alma Chronicles, a family saga of reincarnation and conflicts spanning centuries.
An early member of the Arizona Authors Association, Toby rejoined in 1996 and became active in a critique group. She took on the annual Literary Contest and hosted the first Contest Awards banquet. From 2005 to 2015 she served as President, assisting on the organization’s first two websites. She returned to the presidency from 2021-2024. She is delighted to pass the leadership to excellent new officers, and continues with the board as statutory agent, providing support and historical context.
Contact Toby at: Toby Fesler Heathcotte
Mark D. Walker
Board Member, Million Mile Walker Review Columnist,
Travel Writer
A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, Mark has dedicated over 40 years to managing and raising funds for nonprofit organizations like Make-AWish International. Mark is a member of PEN America; a founding board member of Advance Guatemala; and served as former CEO of Hagar USA, and President of both the Greater Arizona Association of Fundraising Professionals and Scottsdale North Rotary, receiving the “Service Above Self” Award from Rotary International.
Find out more about Mark HERE.
Contact Mark at: Mark D. Walker
Daniel Dickinson
Website Administrator, Technology Administrator
Daniel Dickinsons’ writing first appeared in an annual publication with his short story “Escape from Ogre Island.” He has self-published two other stories “Gathering Tide”, "Aggression Factor" and the newly released "Ember of War." He is a frequent contributor to the Arizona Author Association's quarterly newsletter.
Contact Daniel at: Daniel Dickinson
Kyle Patton
Arizona Authors Digest Editor-in-Chief and
Forum Director
Kyle Patton An Arizona-born editor, writer, journalist, and photographer, Kyle has worked for a variety of publications and newspapers, including The Arizona Republic and USA Today. Kyle serves as the Arizona Authors Digest editor-in-chief, and as an associate editor for two national medical magazines. Beyond the reach of his nine-to-five job, he works as a manuscript editor, ghostwriter and freelancer.
Contact Kyle at: kylepatton.az@outlook.com
Coordinators
Ken Weene
Southern Arizona Coordinator
A New Englander by birth and disposition and trained as a psychologist and minister, Ken Weene has worked as an educator and psychotherapist. Besides writing, Ken's earlier interests included whitewater rafting, travel, and playing paintball.
Ken's short stories and poetry have appeared in numerous publications. An anthology of his writings, Songs for my Father, was published by Inkwell Productions. Three of Ken's novels and a set of two short stories are published by All Things That Matter Press. Another novel, Broody New Englander, has just been published.
Contact Ken at: Ken Weene
Tribal Liaison
Roland Rick Church is an enrolled member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation and is a former Tribal Council member as well as a Director of Public Safety for his tribe. A decorated Marine Corps Vietnam combat veteran, he has been a state trooper, special undercover investigator, fraud unit supervisor, Tribal Police and Fire Commissioner, and has owned private investigative agencies in Wisconsin and Arizona that included criminal defense work and drug cartel exposure.
Rick has a Masters degree in Forensic Psychology and has taught criminal justice to both undergraduate and graduate-level students. His books feature a Native American private investigator named Noel Two Horses, who runs his agency out of a mystery book shop. Books in the series include White Doe, War Party, Counting Coup, Drums along the Fox, Bear Child, Dark Bull, and Dog Soldier.
Contact Rick at: noeltwohorses@gmail.com
C. Alex Smith
Northern Arizona Coordinator
C. Alex Smith published a political blog on the Daily Kos. Later, she served as the host of Speculative Fiction Picks, a podcast for Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror, and is a co-founder of the Flagstaff Writer's Connection. A former OB-GYN at North Country HealthCare in Flagstaff, Cherrie has been writing science fiction and alternate history since 2008. Two of her manuscripts took second place at the Arizona Authors Association Literary Contest.
https://www.arizonaauthors.org/members/c.-alex-smith
Social Media Director
Award-winning author Vijaya Schartz never conformed to anything and could never refuse a challenge. She writes strong heroines, brave heroes, and cats. She likes action and exotic settings, in life and on the page. She traveled the world and claims she must be a time traveler, since she writes with the same ease about the far past and the far future. With over thirty-five titles published to date, Vijaya Schartz writes action adventure laced with sensuality and suspense, in exotic, medieval, or futuristic settings. Her books collected many five star reviews and literary awards, including First Prize in the Arizona Literary Contest. She makes you believe you actually lived these extraordinary adventures among her characters. Coffee Time Romance Reviews says of White Tiger: "exceptional tale that belongs in a place of honor on keeper shelves everywhere"
Contact Vijaya at: vijayaschartz1@cox.net
2024-2025 Board
Our History
The Arizona Authors Association is a nonprofit group founded in 1978 by Boyé Lafayette De Mente, a flamboyant and brilliant author, adventurer, and entrepreneur. He wrote many books on Japanese culture and language, and was also an associate publisher of the Tokyo Journal, the oldest English-language magazine in Japan.
Boyé also wrote a memoir entitled, Once a Fool! From Japan to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep! Boyé made that incredible journey when his friend Ben Carlin was circumnavigating the globe in his jeep, Half-Safe. He asked Boyé to accompany him on the last leg of the journey. Boyé jumped on it, and their names were enshrined in the Guinness Book of World Records. Boyé died in 2017.
Arizona Authors Association co-founder, David Rich, was a practicing attorney and helped to form the Association. He wrote its first charter and bylaws and contributed valuable advice, photos, and more over the course of more than 40 years. His photo of a cactus was used to redesign our newsletter header. He has served on the board, written for the newsletter, and is still writing books on travel, myths, and more.
The Arizona Authors Association would like to thank our members, Peter Bernhardt, David Rich, and Patricia L. Brooks, for contributing Arizona landscape photos to the Association, some of which were used on this website.