Susan McLeod resides with her husband John in Alplaus, New York. She is originally from Southold, Long Island, New York. In the fall of 1975, she moved to Troy, New York, attending Hudson Valley Community College’s nursing program, and received her A.A.S.

Lisa Riddoch lives in Liverpool, UK with her husband, two teenagers and her doggy writing companion, Dex. She works full time as a programmer manager for a large retail company, but her passion is reading and writing.

A.B. Taylore is an imaginative storyteller and high school biology teacher who believes that the natural world is the greatest source of wonder. By day, she guides students in Grades 9 to 12 through the intricate beauty of cells, ecosystems, evolution, and the delicate systems that sustain life. By night – and in every spare creative moment – she transforms that same sense of awe into fantastical tales born from boundless curiosity.

Mari, pronounced Mary, Miller is a retired oral communication educator of thirty-three years, having taught at private and public high schools and at the collegiate level. She has been a speech coach and drama director and presented at communication, education, and technology conferences across the country. She now divides her time between Iowa and South Dakota.

Freeman Smith, aka Dan Freeman, is an artist and writer born in the United States. He has lived in various cities including Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York City. Over the years, he has published novels under different pseudonyms and has discreetly placed many of his stories in various books at numerous libraries nationwide.

Dr Mel Baker is an author, speaker, and storyteller whose work explores resilience, identity, and the courage to rebuild. Drawing on her own lived experience, from early childhood trauma to frontline chaplaincy and military service, Mel writes with clarity, compassion, and unflinching honesty.

Peter Oloche David is an entrepreneur, researcher, and author whose work examines the powerful intersection of science, history, technology, and global health systems. His intellectual pursuits are driven by a central conviction: that understanding humanity’s greatest challenges requires both historical depth and forward-looking innovation.

Eliezer Sobel, 73, is the author of The Silver Lining of Alzheimer’s: One Son’s Journey Into The Mystery, a joyful memoir of caring for his mother, Manya, whose ordeal with Alzheimer’s lasted twenty years, until she finally passed away at 95. His story shines an unusual light on what has become an epidemic of dementia around the world, which most accounts largely tend to depict as purely tragic. Instead, Eliezer discovered that as his mother’s memories as a Holocaust survivor began to vanish, what emerged was the innocent, radiant, and loving young girl she had once been.

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1944. I hold degrees from the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and Yale Divinity School, and was the recipient of an NEA grant. My novel Skywater was named an American Library Association notable book, and my memoir Grace Period was a Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist. After fifty-plus years of writing and raising a family in Los Angeles, I now reside in my hometown.

Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Lawrence Bub immigrated to the US as a child. His family settled in Denver, Colorado, where he still resides. Despite stints as an undergraduate at Harvard University and as a radiology resident and fellow at the University of Washington, he remains a Colorado kid at heart. An avid skier, hiker, and mountain biker, the mountains are his happy place. Returning to his love of writing later in life, Lawrence discovered that our stories, like old friends, pick up right where we left off.