Carmen Baca taught a variety of English and history courses, mostly at the high school and college levels, over the course of thirty-six years before retiring in 2014. She is a member of the Las Vegas chapter of the New Mexico Association of Educational Retirees. Her command of both English and Spanish enables her to write with true story-telling talent. Her knowledge of New Mexico Penitentes, traditions, and folklore enables her to tell the story of her father’s entrance into the secret society of the Penitente Brotherhood. Set in the early nineteen hundreds, El Hermano provides historical insight into the life of a rural community which embraced los Hermanos and welcomed their selfless acts of charity. Living on the land left to her by her father, she and her husband enjoy a peaceful county life in northern New Mexico. Since the publication of El Hermano in 2017, she has published 3 more books and 24 short stories in online literary magazines and anthologies.

Not to write is to wrong! After years of bashing my head off a brick keyboard, Firedance Books rescued me by publishing my work. I found myself in a gang of great writers who were all keen to help each other get published. After a whirl of editing and mutual cooperation, one has a drool-worthy agent, one has an Ms with a superb publisher and three of us are already published. For any would-be authors out there - this is the way to go ahead - a book is a team effort. If you go through agents and publishers they will ask for numerous changes and strengthen your work as a result. If you intend to be self-published, make sure you have a gang of good quality editors - they will help you no end. A big thanks to the Writerlot people - you are all heroes

Get Justin's work: justintuijl.com Justin will never use A.I. Read for free at his website.

David Bowmore has lived here, there and everywhere, but now lives in Yorkshire with his wonderful wife and a small white poodle. He has worn many hats in his time; chef, teacher and landscape gardener. His first collection of short stories ‘The Magic of Deben Market’ is now available.

Welcome! I've been writing in one form or another since I was a teenager. I currently live in Florida where I write speculative fiction from the sunny beaches of Jacksonville, FL, but I love the mountains of Virginia where I was born. My works include novels for young and old alike, as well as short stories and poetry. Book three, Remeon's Crusade in my Realms of Chaos series, is out now at your favorite book retailer. Influences on my writing include J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. LeGuin, Diana Gabaldon, Jean Auel, George R. R.Martin and Barbara Taylor Bradford. Remeon's Quest, the prequel in my fantasy, scifi series, Realms of Chaos, is available now. Also check out the award winning Remeon's Destiny, book 1. Sign up for my newsletter at www.jwgarrett.com and receive a free short story, plus exclusive giveaways and previews! Join me on my writing journey!

Told by a high school teacher that he had writing talent, Steve Carr's career as a writer began right after graduation. He spent three years in the Army as a military journalist, writing articles for newspapers all over Florida, and followed that up with four years in the Navy where he taught in the Psychiatric Technician Program at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, training Hospital Corpsmen how to provide care and support in an inpatient setting for young men with psychiatric disorders. He then finished college, majoring in English/Theater and then spent the next 13 years working in non-profit health care development and management, mostly in rural communities, during which time several of his plays that he wrote in his spare time were produced in several states. He gave up the steady income to pursue his dream of writing/producing/directing his own plays and began a theatrical production company in Arizona. He retired early and in June 2016 began writing short stories. Since then he has had over 450 short stories published internationally in over 280 different print and online magazines, literary journals and anthologies. He has over 130 publications and books that contain his short stories listed on his Amazon bibliography. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice. In 2019, he was on the cover of the Inner Circle Writers' Magazine inaugural issue and dubbed "The King of Short Stories." He's a native of Cincinnati but has traveled extensively in the United States and abroad. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia where when he's not writing he frets about his writing peers not getting the attention they deserve. He is the founder of Sweetycat Press, a Facebook Group, that produces publications as promotion tools for emerging writers

Robert Hazel, poet and author, was born in Bloomington, Indiana, son of a physicist and teacher. When he was eighteen, his family moved to the South. HIs first interests were science and law, but while in college he became absorbed in literature. His college career was interrupted by military service, but he later returned to George Washington University for his Bachelor of Arts Degree, and took his Masters Degree at Johns Hopkins University. He has taught at both universities and also at Florida Southern College. His poetry has appeared in The Hopkins Review, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, The University of Kansas City Review, The Western Humanities Review, Harlequin, New Directions 12, and New Directions 14. He left college teaching in 1952 to join the staff of a New York publisher. His first novel, The Lost Year, was published in 1953.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base. Various authors

Umair Mirxa lives and writes in Karachi, Pakistan. His first published story, 'Awareness', appeared on Spillwords Press. 'Anonymous' in Zombie Pirate Publishing's anthology, 'Flash Fiction Addiction', is his first story in print. The publication of these stories is the realization of a lifelong dream he first saw as a kid after reading 'Adventures of a Wishing-Chair' by Enid Blyton. The early dream, a casual hope of one day telling stories to the world himself, became a goal when his mother bought him the two-volume set, 'Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and it had transformed into a burning ambition by the time he'd finished reading 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' by J.R.R. Tolkien. He remains a massive Tolkien fan, loves everything to do with mythology, fantasy, and history, and wishes with all his heart that dragons were real. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading novels and comic books, playing video games, listening to music, and watching movies, TV shows, and football as an Arsenal FC fan.

Pam Van Allen is a retired psychologist living in Northern California. She enjoys writing, drawing, and music, especially the Electric Light Orchestra. That’s Jeff Lynne in the background performing at Wembley in the UK. Dr. Van Allen grew up in the Southern United States. She obtained her doctoral degree from the University of Memphis. She practiced in Memphis for almost 20 years before realizing California was the place to be and moved to Stockton to work for Kaiser Permanente. Besides writing, Dr. Van Allen also rescues cats. She lives with one she rescued named “Tasha.” Her pet peeve is people thinking her last name is “Allen” rather than “Van Allen.”