public static Author newAuthor(String line) {
        Author a = new Author();
        
        try {
            Scanner sc = new Scanner(line).useDelimiter("\\s*:\\s*");    // create new Scanner 
            sc.next(); // skip first token
            a._index = sc.nextInt();   
            a._authorName = sc.next();
            a._address = sc.next();
            a._city = sc.next();
            a._state = sc.next();
            a._zipCode = sc.nextInt();
            a._phoneNumber = sc.next();
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Improperly formatted data file");
            System.exit(0);
        }
        
        // create object
        return a = new Author(a._index, a._authorName, a._address, a._city, 
                a._state, a._zipCode, a._phoneNumber);
    }