Our Writers

Michael Chase is a writer and business consultant living in rural Illinois. Born in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1972, Mr. Chase was educated at Bishop Gorman High School and enjoyed a 15 year career in retail management. Michael has a bachelors degree in supply chain management (WIU 2008), an MBA-finance/international business (WIU 2010), and has made a study of the history and practice of sustainable management techniques.

Mike’s passions are coaching football, rooting for the Dodgers, Browns, and Liverpool FC, and cooking. Mike’s addictions are politics and economics. Married for ten years (Christine), Mike has two grown step-sons and four adorable nieces. mschase@curlpublishing.com

Todd Curl, the President of Curl Publishing Inc., is a wanderer, a wordsmith and a practitioner of rational thought (in his own mind). Mr. Curl has an academic background in Pharmacy; Social Thought and Political Economy; Sociology and History.

Mr. Curl enjoys playing tennis on a daily basis and consuming copious amounts of coffee. He was unfortunately born into a life of despair as — being from the Chicago area — he was a Cubs fan by proxy. Though it should be noted that he is gradually weening himself from the misery and futility of the Cubs. todd@curlpublishing.com

John Franklin: A musician and private businessperson who enjoys life.  JF’s background includes touring and recording throughout the US and Canada as a drummer; he  has since added piano to his repertoire. His business experience includes: operating TV and radio stations, real estate properties, retail ownership, business consulting, and food specialties. He also paid Temple and Johns Hopkins enough money that they gave him degrees in Communications (BA) and Marketing (MS).

Living at the beach while playing tennis, kayaking, biking, and swimming; JF is looking for the “human factor” in stories because normal everyday life seems to squeeze and ultimately eradicate humanity from the workplace, where the majority of people live.  In his case, his life was saved by rock ’n’ roll. jfranklin@curlpublishing.com

Stephen Menke, PhD, is the Associate Professor of Enology; Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Colorado State University. Dr. Menke received his Doctorate in Bio-Chemistry from the University of Wyoming in 1992 and ultimately worked as an  Enology Research Specialist for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he supported and consulted with wine-makers and viticulturalists as well as teaching Wine and Food Paring at UIUC.

Dr. Menke then brought his expertise to Penn State University where he was an Extension Enologist helping to promote and foster the burgeoning Pennsylvania Wine Industry and has consulted for dozens of wineries and wine-makers in the U.S. and throughout the world, including: Serbia, China, Honduras and Canada. Dr. Menke believes that Wine and Viticulture is at the forefront of an Agricultural revival in the United States and looks forward to sharing his knowledge of wine, wine-making and proper wine/food paring on the Pigeon.

Tracy Riva is a writer and book reviewer with decades of writing experience. She has published and won awards for her poetry and short stories.