Rachel Rager Biography

Plunged into a musical family at birth, Rachel Rager was exposed to the excitement and magic of musical theater throughout her childhood. Starry-eyed, she attended college musical rehearsals with her pianist mother – imagining herself as the heroine in the spotlight – becoming a hopeless romantic from the start. Though Rachel’s own natural musical gifts motivated her through college and she now holds a vocal performance degree in operatic singing, she has loved writing sweet romance novels for over six years. Creative writing has served as a beautiful escape from the emotional rigors of raising her family.

Rachel published her first novel, By Love or By Sea in April of 2009 and continues to write sweet romance novels. She currently lives in Casper, Wyoming with her handsome husband – the love of her life – where she enjoys curling up by a blazing fire with a good book, getting her own creative thoughts on paper, and singing until the coyotes start howling. She loves picnics in the park and being the mom to three future starlets.

Website: www.rachelrager.com
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Marsha Ward Biography

Published Works: The Man from Shenandoah, Ride to Raton, and Trail of Storms.

Bio: Marsha Ward was born in the sleepy little town of Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up with chickens, citrus trees, and lots of room to roam. She began telling stories at a very early age, regaling her neighborhood chums with her tales over homemade sugar cookies. Visits to her cousins on their ranch and listening to her father's stories of homesteading in Old Mexico and in the Tucson area reinforced Marsha's love of 19th Century Western history.

After fifty plus years in the city, Marsha now makes her home in a tiny hamlet under Central Arizona's magnificent Mogollon Rim. When she is not writing, she loves to spoil her grandchildren, travel, give talks, meet readers, and sign books.

Website: http://marshaward.com

Rebecca Talley Biography

Published Works: Grasshopper Pie and Heaven Scent.

Bio: I was born in Santa Barbara, California. My younger sister and I were raised in Santa Barbara by our maternal grandparents. I spent countless hours playing at the beach. I loved swimming in the ocean, collecting shells, and digging in the sand. One of my favorite memories is riding my pony along the shore with the surf spraying my feet. I still love the moist sea air.

While I was a teenager, I performed as a flamenco dancer in parades and on stage for the Old Spanish Days Fiesta celebration that occurs every August in Santa Barbara. I played basketball in high school and was named Most Inspirational Player.

After graduating from high school, I attended BYU. I had a hard time adjusting to the snow and cold winters, but I had the time of my life living in Deseret Towers, Centennial Apartments, and Riviera Apartments.

While attending BYU, I met my sweetheart, Del, who was born and raised in a rural area of Colorado. We were married in 1985, after my junior year at BYU. I graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications.

Shortly after graduation, my first child, a son, was born while we lived in Utah. My daughter was born two years later.

We then moved to New Mexico for five years before moving out to rural Colorado. We've now been blessed with ten wildly creative children whose talents amaze me and bless my life.

Besides kids, we've also raised cows, horses, rabbits, goats, and sheep. We currently have a small herd of goats and a llama we named Tina (yes, my children have watched Napoleon Dynamite too many times!).

I love living in the country with my big family. I love watching my kids play together, have fun, and develop their talents. We have a performance in front of our fireplace almost every night where our kids sing, do cheers, or act out a play they've written. I love the peace and quiet (okay, maybe quiet isn't quite the word) of the country and having the opportunity to raise animals.

With all the activities, school events, and utter chaos that sometimes rains down upon us, I have to work hard to find time to write. But, I've discovered that because it's important to me, I've found ways to work it in. I've had stories published in the Friend, Story Friends, Our Little Friend, and Stories for Children. I am also the author of a children's picture book, Grasshopper Pie.

Website: http://www.rebeccatalley.com

Jewel Adams Biography

Published Works: St. John Legacy series; Elise's Heart and its sequel, A Heart That Endures; For Love of Angel, Mercedes' Mountain, Against the Odds, and The Journey.

Bio: J. (Jewel) Adams was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. Her hard childhood spurred her imagination and later on those imaginings fueled her love for writing.

She moved to Utah in 1989 and started writing seriously a few years later.

She is a wife and the mother of eight children. When she is not home schooling her children or writing, she loves to curl up with a box of chocolates and read, her favorite books being romance and fantasy novels.

She frequently speak to youth and adult audiences. She has a great love for the youth and because of her own painful childhood, she is always anxiously engaged in helping them to understand how marvelous and special they are.

She also loves doing signings and meeting new people. Jewel and her family live in West Point, Utah. She loves hearing from her fans.

Website: jeweladamsnovels.com
Email: jewela@netzero.net

Liz Adair Biography

Published Works: Co-editor of Lucy Shook's Letters from Afghanistan; and Author of the Spider Latham Mysteries series, The Mist of Quarry Harbor, and Counting the Cost.

Bio: Liz has raised seven children in Ferndale, Washington with her husband Derrill Adair, who works in construction management. Liz spent years teaching remedial reading and overseeing a tutorial business. She took time off to be a full-time mom, and during that time ran her own bakery adjacent to her home which produced delicious pies, cinnamon rolls and carrot cakes for restaurants and delis in two counties. Presently, she is fulfilling a lifelong dream of writing. She has four mysteries published through Deseret Books and a Western published by Inglestone Publishing.

Stacy Gooch Anderson Biography

Published Works: The Legend of the Star, The Santa Letters

Bio: Stacy Gooch-Anderson moved often during her growing-up years, living in Phoenix, Anaheim, Chicago, Denver, and St. Louis, and finally ended up in Salt Lake City, where she currently resides with her husband and four sons.

She attended the University of Utah before turning her focus to raising her family. She never abandoned her love of writing, however, and later returned to her roots as a journalist, winning several awards through the Society of Professional Journalists for her feature writing and investigative skills.

She is currently a corporate trainer for new writers and spends her extra time publicly speaking, teaching, and editing a newsletter for her church.

She enjoys reading, learning, anything creative, and soaking in the sunshine with her friends and family.

Anne Bradshaw Biography

Published Works: Famous Family Nights, Terracotta Summer, its sequel Chamomile Winter, and Please, No Zits! & Other Short Stories for LDS Youth.

Bio: Anne was born in Caernarvon, Wales, to London's Eve and Fred Tozer. She grew up in Cheshire, England. After marrying Bob Bradshaw, she lived in Daventry, Leiston, Southport, Tamworth and Sutton Coldfield. The Bradshaws currently live in the USA and have four children, David, Linda, Jeff and Pete; and many grandchildren.

Anne's hobbies include family, walking, computers, herbal gardening, aromatherapy, photography, and genealogy.

"I've had some great experiences researching ancestors," she says. "I descend from people named Tozer, Barclay, Styles, Pattison, Guppy, Whall, Burgess, Tibbs, Minter, Scarfe, Godfrey, and Short, to name a few. The singer, Phil Collins, is in there too, on the Tozer line. He's my Dad's cousin's son."

While living in England, Anne sent articles and stories about British youth to the Church magazine, The New Era, a high quality glossy magazine with worldwide circulation. She also contributed Ensign British Isles Insert articles about members from the United Kingdom. Since living in America, Anne has authored four published books; co-authored two screenplays and two non-fiction books; and written countless articles.

"Writing is an exciting and satisfying experience," Anne says, "and is something I've wanted to do since childhood. I've kept a box of ideas and jottings for a long time, knowing one day they would get into books. And they did."

Anne's favorite things include walking in the rain on fresh cut grass; watching crashing waves before a storm; and sitting by a log fire on frosty winter nights.

Anne dislikes clusters of empty, tangled coat hangers that refuse to disengage; loud, fast-spoken TV ads; and anything cruel, unkind, unjust, or prejudiced.

Below are Nadine Drommond and Carolyn Croxton, who introduced The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into Anne's life in 1964.

Anne's Website

Candace E. Salima Biography

Published Works: Forged in the Refiner's Fire, 13 and 0: Reflections of Champions, Out of the Shadows...Into the Light, Policosanol (Health), and Oregano (Health)

Bio: Publisher, Author and Public Speaker, Candace E. Salima was born right smack dab in the middle of twelve children. In a family comprised of his, mine and ours, Candace can barely remember a time when reading wasn't an integral part of her life. Her love of books, reading and writing, was born of hearing her mother read nightly from the James Herriot series about a veterinarian's mishaps in the British countryside. She thrived in a family of readers, began writing original stories at the age of eleven and has never looked back.

The daughter of a father who survived the invasion of Hitler's war machine in his homeland and a mother who is an often controversial conservative columnist, Candace spent her childhood on the back of a horse or trudging through the mountains and valleys of the American west. Born in California, she lived in Nebraska, Montana, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico . . . all before she was twelve-years-old. As an adult she lived in Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona, and another short stint in California before making her home in Utah.

She met her sweetheart at Brigham Young University in 1983. Ten years later she appeared on the Phil Donahue Show in defense of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which precipitated a reunion with him. In 1995, Alvin and Candace were married in the Bountiful Temple and settled in Utah Valley. Unable to have children, Alvin and Candace shower their love and attention on their nieces and nephews.

In the course of her life, Candace has been a reporter, a writer of health booklets, a screenwriter, and a teacher. Her philosophy in life is simple . . . everything can be turned into a good story. Hence her nine day rafting trip down the Colorado River, hiking the Colorado Rockies, or horseback riding in the northern Wyoming Grand Teton mountains. A love of BYU football, basketball, swimming, movies, plays, concerts and socializing with family and friends round out her life. All this, and she still prefers to be curled up on her couch with a good book, a cup of hot chocolate and a blustery Winnie-the-Pooh day brewing outside.

Candace's Website
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