Our Staff


Let us introduce ourselves. . .
Our Praetorians are the moderators of our forum board, the subject matter experts of topics discussed within the site. They are responsible for education and enforcement of our Terms of Use policies, forum participation rules, feedback and support. Our Centurions support our site by offering ideas and opinions for the betterment of the site and our membership. In addition, both participate in contest voting and site improvement topics. Below is a list of our staff members with a brief resume of each.

• Administrator & Praetorian AMETHYST AKA Elizabeth DiBenedetto
  
  Liz makes her home in Florida, USA and has a prowess for writing and camraderie. While she works for the 9-1-1 system, she is also a published author and always brings to us a keen sense of interpretation and camraderie with a fun, yet, serious flair as well as Moderator experience. She misses her mother, loves her daughter and is now a grandma! She writes with the aspirations of someday creating something that might out-live her, but then again, she did that when she had Kelly! She is still trying to figure out who she is and who she'd like to be! You can find some of her works at various poetry forums under the pen name, Poetprincess.
  
  
• Administrator & Praetorian Cleo_Serapis AKA Lorraine Kanter
  
  Lori makes her home in Massachusetts, USA where she was born and raised and enjoys nature and the four seasons. "There's nothing like an Autumn walk in the park, a summer stroll along the seashore, a spring rendevous in the garden, or a cold winter's night cozied up by the fire!" She started to write poetry in October, 2002, and did attempt a few novels in the mid-late 90's. With the exception of a few poems, Linda Balboni ignited her MUSE with her poetry and art. She was Lori's inspiration to join poetry forums.
  
  Lori was first published in July, 2003 in Shadow Poetry's chapbook, "An Array of Triolet, The Poets Respond", which includes eight of her triolets. Since then, she has been published in five additional Shadow Poetry chapbooks and also won their 2003 Shadows Ink poetry competition, the prize being her first published chapbook, Chimerical Cleo. You can also find a sampling of her poetry and short stories in various Mosaic Musings chapbooks.
  
  In January, 2004 she created the poetry fixed form known as Swap Quatrain for R&M poets and in December 2004 a second poetry form called the Trois-par-Huit (Three by Eight), followed with a third variant form called the Quatre-par-Huit (Four by Eight) some months later.
  
  She has been a Banker, an EMT and is currently a project manager with special emphasis on financing initiatives and payment systems. "I have always had a fascination for ancient civilizations and enjoy learning and sharing new ideas and challenges. I am thrilled to share with you the talent and desires of our team here at the Mosaic. May we initiate your intellection by expression?"
  
  
• Administrator Imhotep AKA Peter Clark
  
  Like the original, "Imhotep" likes to be mysterious. You may not find him posting works of poetry or prose, but he is most definitely wandering the halls of our ancient civilizations, keeping the network up and running and maintaining the forum board's 'technical aspects'. He manages and owns the site with Cleo , even though he'd tell you, "I'm only technical, Cleo's the content!"
  
  
• Praetorian Eisa AKA Eira Needham
  
  Eira is better known as 'Snow' which is the English interpretation of Eira. Her life began in Seven Sisters, a small mining village, in South Wales. She now makes her home in Birmingham, UK.
  
  Her career as a primary school teacher was interrupted when her first son was diagnosed with autism and severe asthma. She decided to devote her time to him and after giving him 21 years of care, he now lives an independent life in a residence for autistic adults. Her youngest son left home in 2002 to study Chemistry at Nottingham University, leaving her with 'empty nest syndrome' which aroused a desire to write poetry.
  
  Today she makes and decorates items for selling at Craft Fairs. Her most unusual interest is breeding Leopard Geckos and Corn Snakes. Any spare time is spent on the internet interacting on Poetry Forums, learning from others and trying to improve her poetry. Through this interaction she has made treasured friendships all over the world. She's had her work published in Dreamer's Reality Anthology of Poems, Illuminations, Mosaic Musings Chapbooks and achieved a few 'honourable mentions' in recent poetry competitions. She finds poetry therapeutic and addictive, playing a big part in her life.
  
  
• Centurion Arnfinn AKA John Macleod
  
  John makes his home in New South Wales, Australia. John writes: "G'day my friends! I think one thing is important - Have no malice towards others. The next is to enjoy life. Lastly... Think about ourselves. Work towards survival. Stick around and interact with friends. We all can learn so much."
  
  
• Honorary Centurion Charon AKA Emerson "Butch" Sollars
  
  Butch makes his home in Nebraska, USA and loves to write adventurous stories as well as poetry. Butch earned his AS and BSBA in Management from Missouri Western State College. He is a published author. Butch has served on many boards in Kansas City, Wichita, Des Moines. His most rewarding was the TrustFoundation (an organization founded at his place of employment, whereas instead of giving to the united way, they contributed funds to their own foundation, the company matched, and he used the monies to help people in his own communities. It was all volunteer work - absolutely no money was used for admin costs).
  
  In 1994, Butch survived a plane crash in McCook, NE. He has been a teller, loan officer, loan collector, repo-man, accountant, asst-controller, systems engineer, consultant, data processing manager, manager of network computing, manager of pc support and help desk, and is currently a disaster recovery coordinator and assistant vice president.
  
  Butch first started working on computers in 1967, as a ground school instructor for the US Navy. He worked on flight simulators, as well as taught the first time jet pilots basic jet instruments and emergency procedures. At one time he was considered one of the leading experts on System/36's and how PC's could interface with them. He was a highly recruited programmer before becoming a manager.
  
  "I am eternally thankful for meeting the founder of this site through Poem Kingdom (now Poetropolis); she and Lori Beal were the first two people, outside of my wife, who encouraged my writing. Before then I was always told it was a waste of time and effort."
  
  
• Centurion JLY AKA John L. Yelavich
  
  John makes his home in New Jersey, USA and is a published author. He has a BA in Economics from Heidelberg College and an MA in Economics from New York University. John is currently a Quality Assurance Manager for a Mechanical Engineering Company and has previously held jobs as a Teacher, Counselor and Sales Manager. John has always had a love for English and originally wanted to be a Sportswriter for a major Newspaper. He studied journalism in college and wrote for the college newspaper and was director for the yearbook, making his new role at MM the wonderful fit.
  
  In August of 1998, John's life changed dramatically. He suffered a near fatal accident; actually having a near death experience. Subsequently, he has participated in research studies with the Near Death Institute. As a result of his bedridden incapacity for 5 months, he began writing, particularly about his recent rehabilitative experiences.
  
  John's other interests include: Gardening, landscape design, watching sports on TV, devoted fan of the NY Yankees.
  
  "Since 2000, I have been diligent in writing poetry and have worked at it each and everyday. I am fond of poetry that rhymes and much of my poems have a prose like nature. My Lifelong goal has been to write a best-selling romance novel."
  
  
• Centurion Psyche AKA Sylvia Maclagan
  
  Sylvia was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but grew up in the southern region of Patagonia. She moved back to the city to study journalism, counseling and philosophy. Her poetry collection "Patagonia Lost" has been published by Mosaic Musings and is on sale at the bookstore. She now lives alone, or, better said, with her cat Scarlett. She had three children by her first husband, and has two grandsons, who are musicians and live nearby. Her second husband was also a prolific writer of prose and poetry. Sylvia continues to write in English and Spanish, as well as translate for a living. She loves nature and books, as well as making new friends!