Carol Ayer was born in Berkeley, California, in the early 1960s.  She grew up in Orinda, California, and graduated from UC Berkeley.  Her publication credits include Woman’s World magazine, two Chicken Soup series books, The Prairie Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and flashquake.  She has won awards from WOW-Women on Writing, Artella Magazine, and Brady Magazine.

Roy A. Barnes writes from southeastern Wyoming. His poetry and prose have appeared at The Goblin Reader, Swimming Kangaroo, Heritage Writer, C/Oasis, Literary Liftoff, Poesia, The First Line, and Skive Magazine. Roy’s favorite baseball player is Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, and his favorite team has always been the New York Yankees.

Glenda Beall reinvented herself in her late fifties, and followed her life-long passion. From writing as a child sitting high in a chinaberry tree, she came full circle and began publishing her work in 1995. She presently serves as Program Coordinator for the North Carolina Writers’ Network West. Glenda is on faculty at the John C. Campbell Folk School. She also teaches at a junior college and in a church adult education program. Her classes are for senior adults who want to write about their lives for their children and grandchildren. She is a multi-genre writer, having published poetry in literary magazines, essays in anthologies and slick magazines. One of her stories will appear in Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers. In her “spare” time, Glenda writes articles for the Valley River Humane Society newsletter and for local newspapers. She also maintains a blog for her writers’ group: www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com.

Betty Wilson Beamguard writes full-time, specializing in magazine features, short fiction, and humorous essays. She has received over 30 honors for her writing, and her work has appeared in Women in the Outdoors, South Carolina, Sasee, ByLine, The Writer and more. In her humorous novel, Weej and Johnnie Hit Florida, two middle-age women spend a week in Florida trying to lose the jerk who is following them. Her most recent book is the biography of a woman who drives a draft horse with her feet – How Many Angels Does It Take: The Remarkable Life of Heather Rose Brooks. www.home.earthlink.net/~bbeamguard.

Renie Burghardt, who was born in Hungary, is a freelance writer with many credits. Her writing has appeared in 60 anthologies, like the Chicken Soup series, Chocolate for Women, Cup of Comfort series, Guideposts books, God Allows U-Turns, God’s Way books, and many others. She has also been published in magazines like Mature Living, Mature Years, Midwest Living, Missouri Life, Cat Fancy, Angels on Earth, and others. She lives in a beautiful rural area and loves nature, animals, reading, writing, hiking, gardening, nature photography, and spending time with her friends and family, especially her three granddaughters. You can visit her blog here: www.renieburghardtsworld.blogspot.com.

brenda wise byrd  is a grandmother who still lives in the Alabama town where she was born. She began journaling as a young teen and her joy in writing developed from that early beginning. Widowed at 26, she has seen life from a perspective none of us would choose, but one that has given her a greater appreciation of life and everyday pleasures. Much of her writing comes from observing the people and nature around her and transforming those “snapshots” into life lessons and inspirational moments. She has been locally published and is now seeking a broader audience.

Steve Cartwright  is a cartoonist, illustrator, writer, and is kind to dogs. He works out of Atlanta and his art has appeared in several magazines, newspapers, books, various websites for commercial and governmental clients, and scribbling – but mostly drooling – on tavern napkins. He creates art pro bono for several animal rescue groups and was awarded the 2004 James Award for his cover art for Champagne Shivers. The Cimarron Review and Stories  for Children covers display his illustrations. See his website www.angelfire.com/sc2/cartoonsbycartwright where no pixels were injured during the production.

Al Carty is a Californian retired to the high plains of New Mexico. He grows garlic and chilis and roams the piñon-juniper hills and writes about the thoughts he finds there.  He has been romancing the Muse for a long time. Sometimes she dances for him and sometimes she hides among his thoughts. Since he discovered that rewriting makes her smile, his stories and poems have been accepted by Menda City Review, 5th Story Review, Written Word, Anthology Builder, Sage of Consciousness, and Cause and Effect Magazine.

Sally Clark lives in Fredericksburg, Texas, with her husband, their children, and their grandchildren. Sally has practiced for retirement her entire life. When she finally achieved her goal in 2001, Sally began writing stories and poetry for children and adults. Her work has been published in the Chicken Soup series, the Cup of Comfort series, and several of June Cotner’s gift books. Her poetry for children appears in Blooming Tree Press’ Summer Shorts and Sweet Dreams. In the Christian field, Howard Books, Integrity Publishers, and Tyndale House have published her stories and poems.

SuzAnne C. Cole writes from a studio in the woods in the Texas Hill Country. She’s published more than 350 poems, essays, short stories and articles in commercial and literary magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. She’s been both a juried and featured poet at the Houston Poetry Fest and once won a haiku festival in Japan.

TJ Coles  was raised and lived most of his life in the Pacific Northwest, in a large town that preferred to think of itself as a small town. He spent most of his summers on his grandmother's ranch and has worked as a logger, in mining, as a forest fire fighter, and as a security guard. TJ has been telling stories since he was eight years old. Some of them have even been true. A number of magazines and dozens of online publications have published Coles’ work. His day job is in civil engineering.

Ginger B. Collins’ sailing tales have appeared in Cruising World and Living Aboard Magazine. Both The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Cincinnati Inquirer have published her articles in their Sunday Travel Sections. She has two pieces of short fiction scheduled this summer in Pig Iron Press, a flash fiction story this winter in LunchHour Stories, and a story in Voices of… anthology, coming early in 2009 from LaChance Publishing. Recently retired from Atlanta to Canada’s Cape Breton Island, Ginger and husband, Melvin, plan a retirement of sailing local and distant shorelines. Her web site is www.GingerBCollins.com.

R. Scott Comegys lives in Shreveport, Louisiana, where she is a late-bloomer Boomer. Vintage 1952, she is a single mom with one daughter in college and a son in high school. She toils by day as a civil servant, fondly recollecting manual typewriters with tri-carbon inserts. And, although life is good with digital cable, she dearly misses the Indian Head TV test pattern.

Carole Creekmore, a Baby Boomer who grew up in rural eastern North Carolina, is a widow with two adult children, two lovely granddaughters, and an English Bulldog, Okie. With degrees in English from Wake Forest University, she teaches composition, literature, creative writing, and humanities at an Atlanta area college, writes prose and poetry whenever inspired, and enjoys traveling, genealogy, and photography. She has had several articles and poems published over the years, as well as the essay “Holiday Expectations – Then and Now” recently published in Silver Boomers.

Barbara Crooker has been writing poetry for more than 30 years, with credits in magazines such as The Christian Science Monitor, Margie, Poetry East, Smartish Pace, Nimrod, River City, Yankee, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry International, The Denver Quarterly, America, Highlights for Children, and anthologies such as Good Poems For Hard Times (Viking, edited by Garrison Keillor), Sweeping Beauty:  Contemporary Women Poets Do Housework (University of Iowa Press), and Boomer Girls (University of Iowa Press). She has two full-length books, Radiance and Line Dance, both from Word Press.  She grew up in the mid-Hudson Valley in the fifties, went to college in New Jersey in the sixties, and now lives and writes in rural northeastern Pennsylvania.

Barbara Darnall, the daughter of a high school English teacher and a West Texas lawyer and rancher, has been surrounded by words all her life and grew up telling stories and writing scripts for her playmates to perform. She graduated from Baylor University with B.A. and M.A. degrees in drama, and taught at the college level for several years. She writes poetry, articles, and personal narratives, and has written and directed numerous short dramas for her church. She has copyedited one book and several manuscripts, and, as a tax consultant for more than thirty years, she particularly enjoys the letter-writing contests she occasionally gets into with the IRS!

Mary Deal,  a native of Walnut Grove, California (in the Sacramento River Delta) has lived in England, the Caribbean, and now resides in Kapaa, Hawaii. She has published three novels: The Tropics: Child of a Storm – Caught in a Rip – Hurricane Secret, an adventure trilogy; The Ka, a paranormal Egyptian fantasy; and River Bones, her first thriller which is set in her childhood hometown area. Down to the Needle will be her next thriller due out early 2010 and set along the California coastline. Learn more about Mary, read short stories, novel excerpts, and writing tips on her web site: www.writeanygenre.com. 

Gail Denham, a native Oregonian, has showcased her state with poetry, short stories, and photography for over 30 years. Her work has been published in national and international magazines. In addition, she enjoys leading writing workshops. Married, with four sons and (almost) 13 grandchildren, plus two great-grands, she and her husband now live in central Oregon where Denham was raised. Life was quieter and slower when Denham grew up in Redmond and even in the years they brought up their family. She definitely appreciates the simple life best.

Terri Kirby Erickson of Lewisville, North Carolina, is the author of a book of poetry entitled, Thread Count. Her work has been published or accepted by The Broad River Review, The Dead Mule, Pisgah Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Paris Voice, Old Mountain Press, Thieves Jargon, Forsyth Woman, and the Hickory Women’s Resource Center anthology Voices and Vision: A Collection of Writings By and About Empowered Women.  The Northwest Cultural Council also selected her work in 2006 and 2007 for an international juried poetry exhibit.

Joanne Faries, originally from the Philadelphia area, lives in Texas with her husband Ray. She considers herself fortunate to be able to pursue a writing career after eons in the business world. Published previously in Doorknobs & Bodypaint, Joanne writes short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. She has works on ALongStory Short.com,  Associatedcontent.com, in Shine magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul Kids in the Kitchen, and has started a novel. Joanne enjoys reading and movies, and is the film critic for the Little Paper of San Saba. She is a member of Trinity Writer’s Workshop in Bedford, Texas.

Margaret Fieland, born and raised in New York City, has been around art and music all her life. Her poems, articles and children’s stories have appeared in, among others, Main Channel Voices, Echolocation, and Stories for Children Magazine.  You may visit her web site, www.margaretfieland.com.