Elizabeth "Doc" Fortin
Always chasing dreams. From the time she sat in trees to read undisturbed by her little sisters or brother, to the late nights with a flashlight and good book under the covers after lights-out, Elizabeth has been obsessed with what-if lives of who's-its characters in every genre. During her "growing up" years, she worked in food service at an exclusive hotel night club while earning her Associate degrees that focused on math, computer science and business courses, and when on a whim she entered a cake decorating contest and won, her successful business-owning family convinced her to open a bakery (she has always been involved in artistic endeavors). Meanwhile, she had a son and daughter, raised them, and still always had a book on her nightstand.
Finally, her children old enough to need less than her full-time attention, often literally hanging on her apron strings, she made a huge life choice to hone her obsession into a master craft by spending five years earning her secondary teaching certification in English and History, another two earning her MA in curriculum and teaching, running a marathon on Kiawa Island to make sure she had enough tenacity left before she completed eight years of graduate school and earned a Ph.D. Throughout her career, she spent decades teaching Western Civilization, Speech, Drama, Resources, Literature and all forms of Writing, including poetry, often to English as a Second Language college students, followed by the teaching of "incorporation of literacy instruction into all core subjects" to future teachers in graduate school. She has presented research and given speeches about teaching, reading and writing subjects at numerous events both state-wide and nationally, and did her Ph.D. internship with a former Senator who was working as a Federal Lobbyist, so knows a thing or two about how politics actually function. At the same time, she continued to grow her own depth and scope as a fiction writer by joining the Mid-Michigan chapter of the RWA, the International RWA, and the International Reading Association. When not working, she was attending writing and reading conferences across the country (Michigan, New York, Missouri, Florida, New Orleans, and California). As all good writers know, the more you read, the better you write. Well, the same goes for the teaching of literacy. To teach writing, one must master the craft. With that in mind, Elizabeth flew to London and obtained her Coaching Certification from the Behavioral Institute because it was the best of very few places that offered such training at the time. She went on to become a classroom literacy coach, helping teachers learn to improve their writing instruction. She's also a certified life coach if you are feeling overwhelmed by her workaholic personality at this point. An outgoing people person, Elizabeth met some lifelong friends along the way, and still beta reads back and forth long distance for her POTL critique group, pals for going on three decades--though it's unclear if any of them will admit it's been that long or that they have aged a day. They visit each other when possible, and she is still in the process of convincing them to move to her beautiful and beloved AZ. Elizabeth has lived in VA, KA, CA, and MI, so from coast to coast, the heartland and the Midwest. Now retired from her day jobs, she lives in the foothills of the Magnificent Santa Catalina Mountains with her Irish husband, Patrick "Kent" Hinds, and her personal life coach, Hudson (AKA Maltese). She writes, paints, plays around lovingly on the piano passed down from her mother, feeds the fish in her pond, and the feathered wildlife in her Sonora Desert back yard, or dabbles with crafty DIY projects. She also does what she loves most; she writes and edits well-written manuscripts. As the founder and driving force behind Tell-Tale, she takes great pride in her work and that of her fellow staffers, editing and artistic auxiliaries, formatting assistants and most importantly TT 's diversely talented authors. Perhaps now you can better see why the company slogan is "We Publish Books for the Eclectic Mind..." 
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