About Barb

A recent picture of me. (I’m wearing a Brewers jersey!)

Barb Caffrey is a writer, editor, musician, and composer. She holds two degrees, is an inveterate and omnivorous reader, and is the writer of the comic urban fantasy romance AN ELFY ON THE LOOSE (book one of the ELFY duology), available now from Twilight Times Books. (Book two, A LITTLE ELFY IN BIG TROUBLE, is tentatively scheduled for mid-to-late September of 2015 — correction, is now out.)

Her stories and poems have appeared in many places, including GIFTS OF DARKOVER, STARS OF DARKOVER, FIRST CONTACT CAFE, HOW BEER SAVED THE WORLD, BEDLAM’S EDGE, BEARING NORTH, independently at Amazon (“To Survive the Maelstrom,” co-written with Michael B. Caffrey) at the Written Word online magazine, at Joyful! Online, at Midwest Literary Magazine, at e-Quill Publishing, and at Vision online magazine (a publication of the Forward Motion Writers Group).  She reviews books for Shiny Book Review and, more occasionally, at Amazon.com for their Vine program. And once upon a time, she was an opinion columnist and arts and entertainment reporter for both the Daily Nebraskan and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Ranger News; additional op-eds were published by the Racine Labor Paper and by the Racine Journal-Times (under the previous married name).

Now, let’s talk about editing. (Mostly so I can show you the nifty editing graphic N.N. Light made for Barb.)

Thus far, Barb has edited for Masterpiece Comics, the Written Word, ComicsBulletin.com, is on the editorial board of Twilight Times Books and has completed a copy-editing internship at the sports Web site Bleacher Report.  This proves that Barb can edit just about anything.  But her love is for the science fiction and fantasy she grew up with, which is why she’s especially proud of her work with authors Jeffrey Getzin, Stoney Compton and Loren K. Jones.  A partial list of the books she’s edited to date includes:

BARBARIANS AT THE GATE, Christopher Nuttall
WHALESONG, Stoney Compton
INADVERTENT ADVENTURES, Loren K. Jones
PATIENT CRISIS AND CRITICAL THINKING, Carol Whiteside
CONVENTION CAREER CONNECTION: Putting the Pro Into Your Con, Steven Savage
GUILTY OR INNOCENT? PROTECTING YOUR LICENSE THROUGH PROPER NURSING DOCUMENTATION, Rosale Lobo
“Shara and the Haunted Village” (novella), Jeffrey Getzin
ANSELM: A Metamorphosis, Florence Byham Weinberg
The Curse Giver, Dora Machado
The Coal Elf, Maria DeVivo

“Joey Maverick: On Westmount Station”

She’s the widow of Michael B. Caffrey, who was her husband, co-writer, friend, soul mate, and more.   He completed one novel, MAVERICK, LIEUTENANT, in his lifetime, and had nearly completed a second, MINIATURES; both are currently being edited and revised for publication based on Michael’s notes.   One of Michael’s stories in his Adventures of Joey Maverick series, “A Dark and Stormy Night,” was first published by the Written Word in 2005, reprinted at e-Quill Publishing in 2010, and is now available for sale at Amazon.  “On Westmount Station,” the second story in the Adventures of Joey Maverick,  was published by e-Quill Publishing in 2011 and is now available for sale at Amazon.   Michael’s three fantasy stories about Princess Columba and her remarkable cat-familiar were initially published in September 2010 by e-Quill Publishing, but were withdrawn in 2012. “Columba and the Cat” has been reissued through Amazon Kindle as an independent e-book, and the other stories in the Columba Chronicles will follow in 2016.

Barb has vowed that Michael’s work — his words — will live on as long as there is anyone to read them.

She follows politics, loves sports, watches far too much reality TV and is mystified by the “Maury” show.  What all this says about her is anyone’s guess.