General Nonfiction

As an educator, teacher and high school principal, I moved to Colorado in the '90s to both teach and pastor a small local church, while also working on a novel. After 48 years, I finished Freedom's Tree and self-published through West Bow Press, a division of Zondervan and Nelson Bibles. I taught at Success First, the alternative school at Doherty High School and retired from Coronado High School where I taught English and served as department head. In retirement, I've been a community activist battling against the commercialization of medical marijuana and against the proliferation of smart meters, a wireless industry tool that emits electro-magnetic radio frequency, or "dirty electricity."

I have lived in Colorado Springs for over twelve years after living in the South Pacific as well as Mongolia in Central Asia - and I love it here! The mountains and nature of this region have influenced my writing and inspire me.

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.

Sandra Knauf was born in California and spent most of her childhood in Missouri. She moved to Colorado when she was a teenager and has lived there ever since. She is the publisher and editor of Greenwoman Magazine, a garden writing magazine, which she started in 2010. Her work has appeared in The Denver Post, GreenPrints, Colorado Gardener, and other publications, and she has been a guest commentator on KRCC's "Western Skies" radio show. (KRCC is NPR's southern Colorado affiliate station.) Zera and the Green Man is her first novel. She lives in Colorado Springs with her family, pets, and a big garden.

Twenty years I have lived in this part of the world, including 2014-2018 in Monument, when my son went to Lewis-Palmer High School. I also have been playing tennis in Colorado Springs every year for the last 10 years.

I’ve always had a passion for writing. Early on, I polished my writing skills by passing notes to my friends instead of paying attention in math class. The resulting time in detention gave me lots of time to write more notes. As a young child, I wouldn’t leave home without a pad and pencil just in case my novel hit me, and I had to scribble it down quickly. Sadly, I eventually lost this naiveté. However, as a result of my love of writing, I have an unusual variety of books published. The list includes books for the construction industry and grammar textbooks. (If writing about drywall or gerunds is better than not writing at all, it says something about what drives me.) Fortunately, I also write novels for adults, as well as early chapter books for young readers. This is the writing that feeds my soul. These days, I’m having a ball creating the Australian, Austria, and Mexico books for Pack-n-Go Girls travel and adventure series. The Amazon best selling series is targeted for early readers ages six to nine. In whatever spare time I have, one of my favorite things to do is to connect with my readers. Whether you’re in a classroom, book club, or other group, I’d love to visit in person—time and geography permitting—or on Skype. Contact me at janelle@packngogirls.com.

T. Duren Jones gets out into the wilderness as often as possible, camping, fishing, hiking, desert trekking, and "bagging" peaks—and does he have stories to tell! He's hiked hundreds of trails, completed the nearly 500 miles of the Colorado Trail, and has summitted all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. He's kinda crazy that way. Tim enjoys taking friends, family, and his wife Diane, on wilderness quests with him ... and most of them have survived his escapades. His first book is titled Tales from the Trails. The book is part adventure journal, part travelogue, part motivational encouragement, part stand-up comedy—and includes 26 nearly true outdoor stories from trails and climbs around the American West. Tim and his wife have raised four creative and equally adventurous children. He and Diane enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle together that includes biking, softball, snowshoeing, hunting, and hiking the many wonderful trails in their home state of Colorado. About the book -- Care to be entertained? Humored? Informed? Inspired? (All from wilderness trail adventure stories, featuring those who made it out.) Then this book— Tales from the Trails, published by WordFire Press— is for you! You can order a paperback and/or ebook on Amazon. Tales from the Trails—part adventure journal, part travelogue, part motivational encouragement, part stand-up comedy—includes 26 mostly true outdoor stories from trails and climbs around the American West. This book is for anyone who loves spending time in the outdoors, who wish they could be outdoors more, or who simply enjoy reading about other nuts who spend time outdoors. The author also has a web site and regular blog featuring stories from the Pikes Peak region and around the American West, and is published monthly in the New Falcon Herald Newspaper, as well as in four regional/neighborhood newsletters on the Front Range. He also publishes an annual calendar featuring author stories and photos from wilderness trails.

The author has lived in Colorado Springs since 1977.

Bert moved from Illinois to Colorado Springs in 1974 with his wife Nancy and sons Jeremy and Chad. He now has nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He started as a freelance photojournalist covering action sports and started writing as well as photographing nearly twenty years ago. He has worked as a photographer and writer for rodeo/bull riding, and a track photographer for Pikes Peak International Raceway. As a freelance writer and photographer, he has sold hundreds of articles to dozens of magazines and sold thousands of photographs. He has covered the rodeo, bull riding, and performance horse world for many years and has written on subjects as diverse as the meat packing industry, water rights, and family ranching.

Bruce Brander is an international journalist and author of several books on travel and social philosophy. He has been a staff writer and photographer of newspapers in New Zealand and the United States, was a writer and editor for National Geographic, and for twelve years served as a traveling journalist and editor for World Vision, a global relief and development agency. Bruce Brander lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.