Books and Brews Podcast

Books and Brews Podcast

The Books & Brews Podcast is the place where literature and beer meet. Each month we welcome a new guest author to read and discuss their work. Author Laura Vosika leads in-depth interviews to delve into the motivations, inspirations and preoccupations of each guest. Certified Cicerone® Michael Agnew pours beers specifically selected to pair with the writer’s work. It’s an hour of entertaining erudition that hits your mind and your mouth.

Episodes

April 29, 2025 61 mins

Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!


Michael Modzelewski (Mojo-less-key) grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of a famous NFL football player with the Cleveland Browns, Ed “Big Mo” Modzelewski. Michael graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English Literature. He is the author of five books, including INSIDE PASSAGE, about a two year stay on a wilderness island in the Inside Passage to Alaska. Afte...

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Bestselling author Beth Duke's Anywhen is the ultimate outsider story—a young woman yearning to belong across time itself. With universal themes of love, jealousy, sacrifice, friendship, joy, loss, and forgiveness, this genre-defying novel is a story like no other...one that will stay with you long after the final page. 


Beth read from her latest book, Anywhen, that combines sci-fi, time travel, and historical fiction. We talked a...

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A lifelong Sherlockian, Richard T. Ryan is the author of nine Sherlock Holmes novels and currently working on his tenth.  He’s also written a well-received murder mystery “Deadly Relations which has been produced twice off-Broadway. He pursued graduate studies at Notre Dame where he majored in medieval literature.


Our talk ranged from Knights Templar finding Minnesota in the 1300s to the reasons Arthur Conan Doyle killed Sherlock ...

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Books and Brews: the place where beer and literature meet!
Michael Colon is a novelist and freelance writer, born and raised in New York City. His author's story is about hard work, perseverance, and believing in the power of imagination. His inspiration comes from various societal abnormalities, the beauty in cultural differences, and his  own life experiences.

His debut novel, The Gift from Aelius, is about an artificial intellig...

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John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was 16, hitchhiked through the Algerian Revolution at 19 and was on the team that made the first ascent of Denali’s North Wall at 20, a climb so dangerous it’s never been repeated. He hitchhiked around the world at 22, working as a correspondent in every war he came across. A US Foreign Service Officer for 15 years, he was in the middle of the 1969 revolution in Libya and the war in Vi...

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J.P. Reedman lives in Wiltshire near to Stonehenge. Born in Canada, she has had a lifelong interest in ancient and medieval history, and is often found lurking around prehistoric sites, ruined castles and abbeys, and interesting churches with camera in hand. She became a full-time writer in 2018. 

Series include: I, Richard Plantagenet, 5 books chronicling Richard’s life from childhood to Bosworth, and Medieval Babes, a set of stan...

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Michael C. Keith is the author of an acclaimed memoir––The Next Better Placea young adult novel––Life is Falling Sideways––and 20 story collections, including, Of Night and Light, Everything is Epic, Sad Boy, And Through the Trembling Air, Hoag’s Object, The Collector of Tears, If Things Were Made To Last Forever, CaricaturesThe Near EnoughBits, Specks, Crumbs, FlecksSlow Transit, Perspective Drifts Like a Log on a River, Le...

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    September 18, 2024 62 mins

    Steve Downes is a contemporary Irish poet and novelist, currently living and working in Ireland. Educated in N.U.I. Maynooth, he holds a Degree in Classical History and a Masters in Cultural Anthropology.

    Steve has published poetry; science fiction, including Cosmogonic Marbles, Temporal Tome, Gadzooks Armageddon  and Botolf Tales (the Botolf Chronicles), Warworld: Shadows & Dominions (part 1), Murder on the Alpha Centauri Express ...

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    Kathy Murray is a certified personal trainer with over thirty years’ experience in the fitness industry. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University where she was a member of the 1983 National Cheerleading Championship Team. After college she competed in and won the United States Aerobic Championship in 1986 and spent the year traveling the world as a Fitness Ambassador and worked as a free-lance educator to teach fitness to Eur...

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    Like any good soldier’s son, Frank Warner moved with his family from fort to fort, accepted each change, and was ready to move again. Then, in 1960, Frank’s father was ordered to Fort Huachuca (WahCHOOka), Arizona. This was the fifth Army post of Frank’s childhood, the first place he never wanted to leave. So when his father was ordered to Vietnam in 1963, sending Frank and the rest of the family to Pennsylvan...

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    Sharon Bennett Connolly is the best-selling British author of several non-fiction history books. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Sharon has studied history academically and just for fun – and has even worked as a tour guide at a castle. She also writes the popular history blog, www.historytheinteresngbits.com and co-hosts the podcast A Slice of Medieval, alongside historical novelist Derek Birks. 

    Sharon regularly gives t...

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    Robert Heath grew up in different places around the world, beginning in Japan in the late ‘40s. Robert and his eight siblings followed the assignments of their father, a sergeant in the U.S. Army.  He ultimately became an educator for 37 years, serving all grade levels from Pre-K through doctoral programs in South and North Carolina.  He now lives in the mountains of NC, where he loves writing...

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    J.S. Absher is a poet, memoirist, and independent scholar. As a teetotaler—he is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—he can’t add much insight into brews, but he can hold his own when it comes to books.

    Stan’s first full-length book of poetry, Mouth Work (St. Andrews University Press) won the 2015 Lena Shull Award from the North Ca...

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    Theresa Halvorsen has a “don’t tell me I can’t do that,” attitude about life and is an author, publisher, editor, and YouTuber. She’s ‌overly-caffeinated and at times, wine-soaked. The author of multiple cross-genre works, including Warehouse Dreams, Lost Aboard and River City Widows, Theresa wonders what sleep is. She’s the owner of No Bad Books Press and one of the hosts of the popular YouTube channel, the Semi-Sages of the Pages...

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    Peter is the Author of 30 books, fiction and non-fiction and published on 4 continents.
    He is a resident expert and regular of Top 50 USA radio and TV markets including Fox, CBS, ABC, ESPN, Coast to Coast, iHeart and over 100 major radio and TV networks.

    Peter is a multi-award-winning, director, cinematographer, actor and producer on 7 continents
    Peter has written more than 800 articles (self-help and fiction) appearing in major ne...

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    Stephanie Sanders-Jacob is an author and artist from Sandusky, Ohio. Her alien abduction novel, Singing All the Way Up, debuted with No Bad Books Press in July 2023. Her short fiction has been featured by Books of Horror, Hearth & Coffin, Mixer, Mosaic, and Ether Arts. You can find her online at www.sandersjacob.com and her artwork at www.rabbitandrain.com


     Stephanie's Readings:

    • Things were better before I killed my dad – 8:2...
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    M. B. (Michael) Zucker has been interested in storytelling for as long as he can remember. He devoted himself to historical fiction at fifteen and earned his B.A. at Occidental College and his J.D. at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He lives in Virginia with his family. He is the author of four novels: The Eisenhower Chronicles, A Great Soldier in the Last Great War, Theodore Roosevelt and the Hunt for the Liopleurod...

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    November 7, 2023 60 mins

    MJ Williams is the pen-name for the writing duo, Peggy Joque Williams and Mary Joy Johnson. Peggy is a freelance writer and book editor. 
     
    A retired elementary school teacher, Peggy has taught creative writing classes and workshops for Madison College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Continuing Studies. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Sisters in Crime, and the Wisconsin Writers As...

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    RALPH JARRELLS became an author after retirement from more than four decades in marketing, advertising, and publishing, much of it in senior executive positions. He writes mostly historical fiction with religious themes. His first book was published August 4, 2017 when he was 75—a great example that you’re never too old to start a new chapter in your life. 

    His firth book, The Essential Last Supper debuted this month.

    Ralph's Readi...

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    September 8, 2023 61 mins

    DAN COONAN has worn many hats through the years – Conference Commissioner, Athletic Director, CEO, Attorney, Novelist, Senior Congressional Campaign Advisor, Fundraiser, Nonprofit Chairman of the Board, College Adjunct Professor, Political Essayist, Youth Sports Coach, Bartender, Batting Practice Pitcher, Wedding Officiant, Dock Talk Facilitator, devoted husband and father.  

    His books are Presidential Spirits: Part history lesson,...

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