When it comes to wordsmithing, analyst Janelle may have a more eclectic background than most. After earning B.A.s in professional writing and creative writing from Purdue University, Janelle began a career writing on a wide range of topics including business management, investing, and marine-focused sewing projects before finding her new home at Blackstone. Outside of learning everything she can about the wide world of oil analysis, Janelle enjoys playing D&D with friends and working on DIY projects. Her creative hobbies include knitting, crocheting, moving one of her family’s three cats off of her knitting or crocheting project, making stained glass art, and writing her very first fiction novel.

Gabey holds a Master’s degree in Devised Theatrical Performance from Pig Iron Studios in Philadelphia, which is a fancy way of saying she went to clown school. On weekends you can usually find her teaching or attending some form of artistic performance. On weekdays, you’ll find her curled in bed next to her Corgi, Oatmeal, reading some deeply inspiring work of environmental non-fiction that has likely moved her to tears. If she is neither of those places, she is probably cruising in a late 70’s Mopar with her partner (who restores and preserves Classic Mopars) to get ice cream. Although Gabey attended clown school, she asks that you please refrain from asking her to tell you a joke. She graduated during the 2020 pandemic, and Zoom school was not sufficient.

Jeff came to Blackstone after a long career in the newspaper industry that led from small-town Ohio to Anchorage, Alaska, and eventually Fort Wayne. He’s gone from writing about politics and crime at night to writing about oil during the day! He and his wife have three adult daughters. As a music fan of a certain age, I still have a wall covered with CDs and cassettes (!) and enjoy seeing the seasoned artists who visit The Clyde Theatre. He also enjoys walking their two dogs and tries to enjoy working on his fixer-upper house (one daughter got him a T-shirt that reads, “I enjoy long romantic walks through Menards”).

Holli is a Fort Wayne native, but spent her twenties traveling to as many places she could. That led to her living in Thailand for a year, working for an anti-trafficking organization.

Holli fell in love with words at a young age, and since her dad worked for a book distribution warehouse, he made sure that she and her sister had every book they could ever ask for. Even as a child, she knew she wanted to impact people with her words, even if it meant making them cry over an angsty romance novel, which she is currently working on.

Holli holds a B.A. in professional writing with a minor in literature and an M.A. in writing studies. When she is not learning about engines and writing oil analysis reports, she is working on her first novel, reading, or spending time with her husband and two young kids who keep her on her toes.

Some people don’t discover their passion until late in life, but Deborah was not one of those people. She fell in love with the written word at seven and has known she wanted to be a writer ever since. To be sure, like all children, she went through phases of wanting other things, but writing was always what she came back to. Even while she worked towards her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in theatre, she still spent her spare time putting pen to paper. By the end, her time spent in theatre reaffirmed the written word as her first love.

It never occurred to her that she’d one day turn her craft to writing about oil; but her theatrical education taught her that storytelling demands a certain eclectic curiosity. Over years of world and character development, she has studied and written about a variety of subjects from historical sailing ships to planetary motion to glassblowing to architectural design. Engines and oil were just waiting for her to discover their immense fascinations.

When she’s not translating the story in the oil for you, Deborah is probably writing a story of her own while enjoying a cup of coffee or reading a book while enjoying a cup of tea (Earl Grey, hot).

Sometime around 1987 Susan sat in the driver’s seat of an Alfa Romeo Spider and her life-long love of engines was born. She recently bought a motorcycle, so she can be cool like her teenage son and embarrass him at the local meets. A lover of all things Genesis, when not writing about oil, she can be found digging in her garden, live- streaming volcanic eruptions in Hawaii, or adding to her impressive collection of radioactive vintage glass.  Lately, she’s been irrationally concerned about the slightly elevated iron reading from her WRX’s engine. She’s supposed to be renovating her 100-year-old historic home, but she doesn’t want to, as scraping old paint is the absolute worst. She and her husband share that disastrous money pit with two teenagers and way too many cats.

Lucy is part of a magnificent herd of children who all inherited the family tendency to be jacks of all trades (even if masters of none).

This might mean she’s had less of a career and more of a Series of Interesting Events, but it translates pretty well into fulfilling her designated role in almost every group as The Mom Friend. Formally, she’s been trained in English and history; informally, she knows a little bit about everything from construction (and destruction) to lutherie. When she’s not writing oil reports, Lucy can usually be found reading or writing a new book, turning curtains into costumes, chasing chickens, or eating bread.

Born and raised in Fort Wayne, Katie would love to tell you that she used to live in San Francisco. She is working on not mentioning it so often. She’s been a professional gift wrapper, a college instructor, a digital marketing copywriter, and a project manager, and now she is happy to be able to say she’s a full-time writer, aka her dream job. Katie has been a writer since she knew what words were, and stories and storytelling have always had her attention. Luckily, the other things she likes—cats, goat cheese, and fancy lattes—are good companions to settling down with a story, whether that’s a soap opera or a novel. Other than her two cats, Rupert and Ned, the other love of Katie’s life is her 1870s gablefront Craftsman/bungalow-style house in West Central. 

Before joining Blackstone Ethan worked with animals in Australia, but relocated to marry his true love. He’s survived encounters with man-eating sharks, deadly spiders, venomous snakes, something called a “stinging tree,” and a malevolent seagull who stole all his chips. Since moving, he enjoys great barbeque, great lakes, and free coffee refills.