General Fiction

I have lived in Colorado Springs for the last seventeen years. I was born in Chicago, later moved to France (father in the military), returned and moved to Kansas before spending most of my time in Texas (San Antonio area). I have held myriad positions in my life. I like to undertake more than one thing at a time, thus I refer to myself as a #workquilter combining various avenues of income. These include: -Author of nonfiction and fiction. -Certified permaculture designer and previously worked as a registered interior designer. -Suburban Homesteader (have gardens, chickens, bees). -Speaker/trainer on myriad topics. -Global house- and pet-sitter. -Nonprofit consultant, certified grants specialist (proposal writer, donor communications, fundraising strategy)

I am a poet, novelist, and editor living in Colorado Springs. I will graduate from UCCS with my Bachelor's in English in December 2018. In my free time, I enjoy writing, reading, critiquing films and television shows, and going to the occasional concert. I live with my husband and two sons.

Becky Clark is the seventh of eight kids, all born and raised in Colorado Springs, which explains both her insatiable need for attention and her atrocious table manners. She likes to read funny books so it felt natural to write them too. She surrounds herself with quirky people and pets who end up as characters in her books. Readers say her books are “fast and thoroughly entertaining” with “witty humor and tight writing” and “humor laced with engaging characters” so you should “grab a cocktail and enjoy the ride.” They also say “Warning: You will laugh out loud. I’m not kidding,” and “If you like Janet Evanovich, you will like Becky Clark.”

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR D. L. ORTON lives in the Rocky Mountains where she and her husband are raising three boys, a golden retriever, two Siberian cats, and an extremely long-lived Triops. In her spare time, she's building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.

Doug Cook has spent over two thousand hours underwater exploring and photographing life in the oceans. He is retired from a thirty-four year career as a petroleum geophysicist. This career allowed him to explore five of the world’s continents and live in Saudi Arabia for eighteen years. A career highlight in petroleum exploration was participating in ten years of deep-water submersible oil seep studies in the Gulf of Mexico. These seeps have associated chemosynthetic communities of life. As extremophiles, these organisms relate to Doug’s interest in astrogeology and exobiology. Doug has always had a passion for astronomy and space exploration. He now pursues this passion as an author. The beauty of the mountains and geology lured Doug to retire in Colorado. He has two daughters and lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Elizabeth.

Carina Bissett is a writer, poet, and educator working primarily in the fields of dark fiction and fabulism. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in multiple journals and anthologies including Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, Arterial Bloom, Gorgon: Stories of Emergence, Weird Dream Society, Hath No Fury, and the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. V, VI, and VIII. She has also written stories set in shared worlds for RPGs at Green Ronin Publishing and Onyx Path Publishing. In addition to writing, she has edited several projects; the most recent is in the role as co-editor for Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas.

As an educator, Carina has taught at Pikes Peak Community College, Glendale Community College, and Arizona State University. She also participated in the Colorado Writing Project and works with educators to develop writing instruction in college and secondary school classrooms. She currently offers workshops focused on story generation at The Storied Imaginarium. Her fiction has been nominated for the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award and was a finalist for the Ron L. Hubbard Writers of the Future Awards. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award. In her editorial capacity, she’s received recognition as the Winner at the Colorado Book Awards 2022 (Anthology) and as a Finalist in the Fiction: Anthologies category of the 2022 International Book Award.

Raised by a fun-loving, atheist single mom who struggled with depression and mental illness, I spent my childhood backpacking around Europe, visiting yoga communes, eating vegan, living on a houseboat, and then an old pony express outpost in the backwoods of Montana. My teen years took a drastic turn when my mom got saved, got married, and joined an ultra-conservative Mennonite church. Faith, step-parents and unquestioning obedience is a dangerous combination when mixed with mental illness, legalism, and heavy-handed physical correction. I became a confused believer with a heart for Jesus but drowning under a sea of rules, regulations, and legalism. I became a missionary teacher and then a nurse and escaped to the mission field, the one avenue open to single women. I taught VBS on Indian reservations and led school for missionary children in Haiti and Africa. All around me was heartache and disease and glaring need. I longed to make a difference but was limited to working on the mission compound – teaching, cooking, cleaning. Work outside the walls of the compound was reserved for the men. On a furlough, I met my future husband – a new believer who wasn’t looking for a door mat in a wife, but a partner. As he grew in his faith, I reexamined mine and what Biblical womanhood looked like. Timidly at first, but then eagerly as I discovered a new relationship with Jesus Christ based on grace and not performance. I left the Mennonite church and married the love of my life twenty years ago. We have made our home in Colorado Springs at the base of the Rocky Mountains for the last eleven years. We have five beautiful teenagers, two by birth and three through adoption from Haiti. My husband is adopted and God used the time in Haiti to prepare me to understand my children’s culture and language and ease their transitions home. Two people in my family have mild Asperger’s and one has Reactive Attachment disorder, PTSD, and ODD. Our house is not a quiet, well greased machine but a chaotic, happy, crazy, nerve-racking, love-filled oasis where we all try to help each other grow and thrive. I am so thankful for my life – the good and the bad. I feel blessed to have experienced so many unique situations and to love and be loved by so many wonderful and eccentric people. It is from these experiences I draw the fiction stories I write. I like to think of them as fiction with grit – fast paced and entertaining stories that make you want to read till the very last page while at the same time tackling real life issues – Legalism, abuse, divorce, adoption, Asperger syndrome, mental illness, etc. I hope you’ll pull up a chair and stay a while. Drop me a line and share your own story. I’d love to hear it.

Serving America in the US Air Force for 20+ years; spent 12+ years overseas (Korea and Germany) but now living/stationed in Colorado Springs. Interests include books (reading/writing - of course), travel, art, Asian languages, Asian food...my kids.

D.M. O’Byrne’s first job was as a waitress. Now she’s a writer of mystery novels. In between, jobs included English teacher, racehorse exerciser, jockey, accountant, golf resort assistant manager, writer, and editor. Her places of residence ranged from the Jersey Shore to a lengthy sojourn in California, and finally to the Colorado Rockies. Each profession, each location was rife with life lessons, fascinating characters, potential plot lines, and wide-ranging experiences. Sooner or later, they will all end up on the written page. O’Byrne is the author of Dangerous Turf, available on amazon.com, and the sequel, Three to One Odds, was released May 2018. She is now writing a series called the Ryn Lowell Colorado Mysteries published by Black Opal Books. The first book in the series, Death in Trout Fork, was released in October 2018. The second book, The Mountaintop Murders, will be released in May 2019 and the third book, A Killing in Vail, will be released in the fall of 2019. Visit www.blackopalbooks.com for more information. D.M. lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and their cat, Warnie. They spend much of their time riding bikes and enjoying the scenery. Warnie spends his time watching the bunnies out the window, lounging on the sofa, and trying to catch his tail.

I was still living as a man when I moved to in the year 2000. Having been outed as transgender, and fired at the Prep-School where I had been working, I was recruited at the National Librarians' Conference to be the Coordinator of Information and Technology at Mitchell High School, where I was again outed and fired. In 2007, after being outed and fired at CollegeAmerica, I transitioned to living full time as a woman. My storytelling-performances in The Story Project in Colorado Springs and for The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers are viewable on YouTube. I also sing karaoke and do an occasional standup open-mike.