General Fiction

Khadija Grant is a proud mother of three little girls and the author of two amazing books. She has published The Influenced, an inspirational book that encourages the reader to look beyond their current situation and to take control of their destiny, as well as an entrepreneurial book for children called You Can Start One Too! Her passion for writing realistic fiction started after she sent stories to her husband while he was deployed in Iraq. After hearing how it impacted his tour, each book she wrote was written to entertain, yet inspire her readers. Khadija is from Cleveland, Ohio, and when she is not writing, you can find her creating doll shows with her children or watching a TED Talks episode. Her dream is to touch as many lives as possible, especially those who come from unfortunate circumstances and help to build them up to become bold enough to fight for their dreams.

Nicholas S. Casale grew up in Palmer Lake, which is a small town in Colorado. Shortly thereafter, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and began working as a paralegal.

From a young age he was attracted to history, myth, religion, and spent several years searching for the religion that best matched his personal beliefs; he is now a practicing Messianic Jew and is happily married to the woman who taught him Hebrew.

He first started writing stories when he was 6 years old. He invented a simple character named "Mousey," who was a mouse and a wizard. While his stories have grown more sophisticated since then, he has always had a love for the themes of that original story; the idea that the weak may overcome the strong through cleverness and imagination.

Bob and Kathy Wernly write as a team under the penname of Kathy Clark for our adult romantic suspense novels and Bob Kat for our YA romance/mystery/time travel series (Timeshifters). We lived in Colorado since 1985 and in Colorado Springs for a year and a half. Several of our series are set in Colorado, including Denver Heroes, and an upcoming series set in Cripple Creek called Breathless. One of our YA novels (Forever Love) is a time travel ghost story set at the Stanley Hotel the year it opened in 1911. We have given workshops and speeches about writing and creativity all over the U.S. Kathy is a past vice-president of Romance Writers of America and a co-founder of Colorado Romance Writers.

John Bryan is a writer, composer, musician, actor and illusionist. He has lived in Colorado Springs, CO since 1984 with his wife Michèle and is the proud father of two sons, Erik and Alex. He is the author of the novel Dark Brother and the short story collection entitled Side Streets and Dark Alleys.

Leah has been writing since she was six years old. Her very first story was written for her mother and Leah illustrated it herself using stencils and crayons. Leah was homeschooled from Kindergarten through 12th grade, and started community college when she turned 16. From there she went on to College of the Ozarks in Missouri and graduated in 2009 with a BA in English. Leah's and debut children's story released under her children's author pen name Julia Joss on November 27, 2012 entitled Blue Hooves and a Broken Wing. Three years later she released her first novel, Unraveling Glenmore, in April 2015. In addition to writing, Leah enjoys playing the piano and the Irish Tin Whistle. She loves reading, drinking coffee, having long talks with friends and fellow book lovers, as well as being outside. Currently Leah lives with her husband and daughter along the front range of the Rocky Mountains.

Ashley Eiman is a professional editor and writer living in Colorado. She loves Downton Abbey, country music, and all things Jane Austen.

John Wesley Anderson, MBA, is a published author, storyteller, and TEDx speaker. He enjoyed a 30-year law enforcement career, retiring at the rank of sergeant after 22 years with the Colorado Springs Police Department, followed by 8 years serving as the elected sheriff for El Paso County, Colorado. After being term-limited as Sheriff, John retired from public safety and was employed in homeland and corporate security for ten years in the private sector. He retired from the Lockheed Martin Corporation in 2012 to launch a consulting business allowing him the freedom to pursue his love of history, writing and the arts. In 2022 John was honored to receive the Golden Quill Award from the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. Although John has traveled around the world, including several adventures on a catamaran sailing the Caribbean, three corporate security assignments into a combat zone on the Horn of Africa and landing on an aircraft carrier at sea in the Pacific Ocean, he remains most fascinated by the rich history and art discovered in his own backyard in the American Southwest.

John Dwaine McKenna is the author of four fiction novels, three of which have been awarded EVVYS for excellence in fiction by the Colorado Independent Publisher’s Association, or CIPA. He writes a weekly newspaper column called the Mysterious Book Report for the Tri-Valley Townsman in Sullivan County, New York where he was born and raised in the beautiful southern Catskill Mountains. During his career, he was a salesman, serial business owner, an investment advisor, and a compliance officer for a nationwide investment firm headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. He retired in 2000 and revisited his writing talents, which had lain dormant since his college days.

He and his wife June have lived in Southern Colorado for nearly five decades.

Patricia Coleman, aka P. R. Morris, is a critically acclaimed author of historical, amateur sleuth, and alternative history short stories and novels. She has received two Reviewers' Choice awards and spoken at national writers conferences. One critic wrote "Ms. Coleman writes with elegance and pizzaz." (Romantic Times). Her latest historical romantic mystery, Tea and Treachery is now on sale. Pat lives in Colorado where she works with Special Needs teenagers and volunteers at the local zoo.

Andria Williams is the author of The Longest Night (Random House, January 2016), a novel set among Army families in Idaho in the late 1950s. The Longest Night has received starred review from Kirkus and Booklist. It was chosen as Amazon's "Debut Novel of the Month" for Jan. 2016. Williams is a Winter 2016 Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Authors" pick. She and her family recently moved to beautiful Colorado Springs, where her active-duty husband is stationed, and they are enjoying Colorado very much.