Current Location

Boston, MA

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Writer

Biography

L. Annette Binder was born in Germany and grew up in Colorado. She lives in New England with her family.

The Vanishing Sky is her first novel, inspired by her family's experiences in World War II Germany. Her collection of stories, Rise, received the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Literature. Her fiction has appeared in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, One Story, American Short Fiction, The Southern Review, Third Coast Review, Fairy Tale Review, and others. 

Awards/Honors

Education/Training

A.B., Harvard University
M.A., UC Berkeley
J.D., Harvard Law School
MFA, UC Irvine
graduate of Mitchell High School, Colorado Springs

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Speaker Availability

No

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Author's Website

Biography

Marie Loerzel is the author of Rock the Kasbah: A Memoir of Misadventure, a memoir about her life as an expat living in Morocco with her family during Arab Spring. She has since moved back to Colorado Springs where she continues to write her blog of the same name. These days, when she's not writing you can find her refusing to iron work shirts for her husband, embarrassing her 4 kids, wrangling her 2 wily dogs, dancing, daydreaming about traveling to pungent exotic places and just generally screwing things up royally.

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Speaker Availability

Yes

Speaker Topics

Morocco - Writing (books or blogging)

Pseudonym

K. D. Huxman (for children)

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Freelance writer, freelance editor, poet

Biography

K.D. Huxman’s first love, after reading, was space. She wanted to be the first veterinarian astronaut. In college, she studied biology and was in Air Force ROTC. After college she became an Air Force officer. But rocketing to the stars was not to be. She married a fellow Air Force officer and settled into raising a family. But she never forgot her love of books or science. Many of her books have a science fiction or fantasy element. K.D. went on to earn an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Norwich University. Her first picture book is Dragon Talk. Her second picture book, Grizzelda Gorilla won an EPPY for Best Children’s/YA Ebook. Both picture books are from Dragonfly Publishing. She writes non-fiction for children at Apprentice Shop Books. After travelling around the country with the Air Force, K.D. settled in Colorado. On a clear night she enjoys looking up at the stars, dreaming, and writing.

Awards/Honors

Education/Training

M.F.A. Writing for Children, Vermont College/Norwich University
Bachelor of Science in Biology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Organizations

Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
Pikes Peak Writers

Speaker Availability

Yes

Speaker Topics

I love to talk about writing and the business of writing. Please contact me with an idea and I will see what I can put together for you.

Birth Year (-Died Year)

1929-2021

Birth City

Durham

Birth State

NC

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Novelist, literary critic, editor, university professor

Biography

From The Gazette obituary, Oct. 3, 2021:

Alexander L. Blackburn of Colorado Springs, CO., educator, novelist, literary critic, editor, and artist, passed away Sunday, October 3, 2021 after a short illness. Alex was born in Durham, NC. in 1929 to Elizabeth Cheney and William Blackburn. His father was a teacher of writers at Duke University. His youth was greatly shaped by this environment of imaginative writers, including such future luminaries as William Styron, Mac Hyman, and Reynolds Price. Inspired by his father, Alex carried a passion for writing across his academic training at Andover, Yale, UNC Chapel Hill, and University of Cambridge, England, where he earned his Ph.D. in English in 1963.

After graduating from Yale, Alex volunteered as an enlisted man in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and worked his way to the rank of First Lieutenant. He served proudly, and remained for eight years in the Army Reserve.

After stints teaching creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania and World Classics at the University of Maryland's European Division, he made his home in Colorado Springs in 1973 and pioneered in the teaching of those subjects at the newly formed UCCS. At UCCS he also founded and edited Writers' Forum, a literary journal devoted to discovering and publishing new writers from the West. Alex retired from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs in 1994.

As an author and editor, Alex has published and edited more than 30 books and was a recipient of numerous national and international awards and citations including the Frank Waters Award for Excellence in Literature in 2005. His novel, Suddenly a Mortal Splendor, was runner-up for the 1996 Colorado Book Award in Fiction. His The Voice of the Children in the Apple Tree, a Pulitzer nominated novel, received the International Peace Writing Prize. These two works, along with his novel The Door of the Sad People, a coming-of-age story placed against the background of the Colorado coal mining wars long remembered for the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, make up his literary opus, the trilogy Age of Atoms, an epic novel that casts a critical eye on American warfare in the twentieth Century. Blackburn has also won book awards from the University of Colorado, the Academy of American Poets, and the Chancellor's Award for outstanding service to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Bloomsbury Review quoted: "Alexander Blackburn is one of the most important writers in the American West today."

Alex is survived by his loving wife of 46 years, Dr. Inés Dölz-Blackburn, author and professor of Spanish Language and Literature. 

Awards/Honors

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Speaker Availability

No

Birth Year (-Died Year)

1960

Birth City

Yonkers

Birth State

NY

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Email (Public)

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Writer

Biography

I grew up between Key West, Florida and Whitefield, New Hampshire, but spent most of my formative years in New York State’s Adirondack mountains. I attended Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, Arizona. Upon graduation, I entered the U.S. Air Force as an officer and served in missile warning and satellite operations. I was stationed at Cavalier AFS, North Dakota, then Falcon AFS/Schriever AFB, CO (moved to Colorado in 1985). I've been writing about the paranormal, supernatural and the "weird" since childhood, and have belonged to several Pikes Peak and Denver area writers groups. I have been associated with the PPWC writer's conference since it's beginning (1992). I have been interviewed on local and Internet radio and presented to local writer's groups. Also see: https://fpdorchak.wordpress.com/about/.

Awards/Honors

Education/Training

Bachelor of Science in Physics (astronomy emphasis), Northern Arizona University

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Interviews

Organizations

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers - Pikes Peak Writers

Speaker Availability

Yes

Speaker Topics

Indie publishing - Indie publishing panels (I have a series of blogs titled, "Going Indie -- What I've Learned (So Far), parts 1-8 - Any topic that might touch upon my fiction titles, e.g. the metaphysical and paranormal

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Author's Website

Biography

Jennie Marts is the USA TODAY Best-selling author of award-winning books filled with love, laughter, and always a happily ever after. Readers call her books “laugh out loud” funny and the “perfect mix of romance, humor, and steam.” Fic Central claimed one of her books was “the most fun I’ve had reading in years.” She is living her own happily ever after in the mountains of Colorado with her husband, two dogs, and a parakeet that loves to tweet to the oldies. She’s addicted to Diet Coke, adores Cheetos, and believes you can’t have too many books, shoes, or friends. Her books include the contemporary western romance Hearts of Montana series, the romantic comedy/cozy mysteries of The Page Turners series, the hunky hockey-playing men in the Bannister family in the Bannister Brothers Books, and the small-town romantic comedies in the Lovestruck series of Cotton Creek Romances . Jennie loves to hear from readers. Follow her on Facebook at Jennie Marts Books, or Twitter at @JennieMarts. Visit her at www.jenniemarts.com and sign up for her newsletter to keep up with the latest news and releases.

Education/Training

Bachelors Degree in Human Development and Family Studies, Colorado State University

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Organizations

Pikes Peak Writers - Romance Writers of America - Pikes Peak Chapter of Romance Writers of America - Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers

Speaker Availability

Yes

Speaker Topics

Topics include book clubs, writing, the craft of writing, and the occupation of writing. Jennie loves guest speaking at book clubs that have read her book

Birth Year (-Died Year)

1960

Birth City

Pasadena

Birth State

CA

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Occupation(s)

Author and Academic Advisor

Biography

M. R. Hyde celebrates and explores the known and spiritual world through writing on themes of mercy, justice, humility, and joy. Her religious writing has been praised for its accessibility and her fiction for its absorbing, unusual, original, and humorous nature. M. R. Hyde has written for religious purposes for over three decades and writes fiction for the sheer joy of words. M. R. Hyde has lived in Colorado since 2006 and Colorado Springs since 2008. She is an active member of the Pikes Peak State College writer’s group Nearby Universe. She was an active participant and featured reader of the Colorado Springs Writers Reading Series. 

M. R. Hyde is also an active artist, having shown at several branches of PPLD in 2008, Cottonwood Center for the Arts in 2022, and with a show at Library 21C in July 2023. View the online gallery and where fine art reproductions are available.

Online, M. R. Hyde maintains an online web gallery here, a fiction and art blog here, and a Bible study blog here.

Her books are available for purchase online at Amazon, Smashwords, Lulu, and other fine retailers.

Education/Training

Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts, Point Loma Nazarene University
Master of Arts in Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Speaker Availability

Yes

Pseudonym

Shelly Goodman Wright

Birth Year (-Died Year)

1971

Birth City

Downey

Birth State

CA

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Author - Teacher - Homeschooling mom

Biography

As a young, vicious reader, Shelly Goodman Wright spent most of her time, either in the restricted reading section of the library, or scribbling away in journals. Shelly’s first novel A Light into the Darkness earned a Puddly Award in 2013 and in 2015 was nominated for Family Fiction's top ten books. In 2016, she completed and published her third novel in the Twisted Roots series and started teaching creative writing classes at High Country Home Educators. Currently she is working on an apocalyptic romance which can only be described as a cross between Left Behind and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Shelly lives in Colorado with her husband Tim, three daughters, two dogs, and three guinea pigs.

Awards/Honors

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Organizations

Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group - Fiction Foundry

Speaker Availability

Yes

Speaker Topics

I love writing. Just give me a topic and I can speak for hours. My passion is helping others tell their story. I'm not so strong on the grammar side, but can efficiently show another writer how to grow in the craft of writing. Telling vs Showing...active voice, passive voice, tense shifts (more conceptual). I also love working with young writers and building on their passion for the written word. I know a lot about writing critique groups as well and have been a part of one since 2009--the best way to grow as a writer :-)

Pseudonym

A. M. Burns

Birth Year (-Died Year)

1965

Birth City

Niagra Falls

Birth State

NY

Current Location

Florissant, CO

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Writer

Biography

A.M. Burns lives in the Colorado Rockies with his partner, several dogs, cats, horses, and birds. When he’s not writing, he’s often fixing fences, splitting wood, hiking in the mountains, or flying his hawks. He is past president of the Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group.

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Organizations

Colorado Springs Fiction Writers Group

Speaker Availability

Yes

Speaker Topics

Writing and falconry

Birth Year (-Died Year)

1973

Birth City

Enid

Birth State

OK

Current Location

Colorado Springs, CO

Author's Website

Occupation(s)

Christian radio producer

Biography

Ashley Hodges Bazer is the author of the epic sci-fi series, The Crown's Call, which explores the onset and aftermath of a religious holocaust in a space opera setting. She also dabbles in young adult fantasy, bringing chess pieces to life in Checkmate and mixing up fairy tales with fun twists in Once Upon a Heist. She lives in Colorado with her husband and three children. After earning her bachelor’s degree in theatrical stage management from Arizona State University, she went on to work for Disneyland in that capacity. Currently a content producer for an international daily radio program, she’s become a pro at balancing work, writing, and mom duties. And she's a real duchess! Learn more about Ashley and her upcoming books at www.AshleyBazer.com.

Awards/Honors

Education/Training

Bachelor of Arts in Theater (stage management)

Local Authors Genres

Published Works

Published Works Book Jackets

Organizations

Pikes Peak Writers

Speaker Availability

No