Off The Chain

Taylor Dawn began writing as an item to check off her bucket list. She resides in the southernmost part of Illinois, right on the mighty Mississippi river. She enjoys the quiet country life with her husband, son and the many farm animals that make up the rest of the family. Deciding that farm life was just a little too mundane, Taylor began writing romance and fantasy to liven things up, so far so good. Before starting her writing career, Taylor entered the field of cosmetology. When she isn't writing, she can usually be found sitting around a table making people laugh. She has always wanted to be a standup comic. She loves pulling practical jokes, dresses up in a costume every Halloween and believes that dancing is the key to a happy life (even if you aren't a good dancer). She believes that life shouldn't be taken too seriously, we will never get out alive anyway. More than anything, she is a kid at heart, she doesn't believe in bedtimes, eating everything on her plate, or having ice cream only for dessert. Her favorite quote is by Dr. Seuss..."Why fit in, when you were born to stand out."

Katherine Winfield is the author of the Corsica Series, mystery novels set on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Haverford House, the first in the series, earned five-stars from Foreword/Clarion Reviews and was a finalist in the INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award. Recently released, Belle Grove, is the second installment and has received much acclaim. A seventh- generation Washingtonian, Winfield currently resides on a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her books are available on Amazon and local bookstores. For more information about the author go to www.katherinewinfield.com

Bio:  K.J. Howe is the executive director of ThrillerFest, the annual conference of International Thriller Writers. A three-time Daphne du Maurier Award winner, she completed her MA in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. She is an avid traveler who has raced camels in Jordan, surfed in Hawaii, and dove with the great whites in South Africa. She became fascinated by the kidnap and ransom (K&R) world after meeting Peter Moore, a British computer consultant who became the longest-held hostage in Iraq and the only person to survive of the five men who were taken that day.  Her book THE FREEDOM BROKER was featured as a dark delight in TIME Magazine.

Dan Hollifield was born in November of 1957 at almost the same moment that Sputnik II was launched. However, the two events are not, in fact, related. His father was a machinist, graduating from the General Motors Institute in the mid 1950s. After fleeing the harsh Michigan winters for a return to the families ancestral home, Dan's father began working in Oak Ridge, TN making toys for the physicists to play with. Dan's mother is an artist specializing in oils, china painting, glass painting, and multimedia home-crafts.  Few can claim the varied background of Stephanie Osborn, the Interstellar Woman of Mystery. Veteran of more than 20 years in the civilian space program, as well as various military space defense programs, she worked on numerous space shuttle flights and the International Space Station, and counts the training of astronauts on her resumé. Her space experience also includes Spacelab and ISS operations, variable star astrophysics, Martian aeolian geophysics, radiation physics, and nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons effects.Her travels have taken her to the top of Pikes Peak, across the world’s highest suspension bridge, down gold mines, in the footsteps of dinosaurs, through groves of giant Sequoias, and even to the volcanoes of the Cascade Range in the Pacific Northwest, where she was present for several phreatic eruptions of Mount St. Helens.Now retired from space work, Stephanie has trained her sights on writing   The Mystery continues.

Fran Orenstein, Ed.D. is the founder of Sunwriter, a multi-faceted writing project. This award-winning poet and writer wrote her first poem at age eight, submitted a short story to a magazine at twelve, continued to write professionally and academically, and is the published author of fiction novels for children, ‘tweens, teens, and adults, and  poetry. She gives workshops and hands-on presentations for adults and children on diverse writing subjects, including developing characters, writing for children, publishing, and free verse poetry.  Dr. Orenstein has won awards for her poetry and short stories, from the Florida Poetry Society and The American Association of University Women. She has been a member of a number of national and local organizations, including Sisters in Crime, National League of American Pen Women, The Florida and Arizona Poets’ Society, The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, writing newsletters for several of these groups.

Jane Jordan was born in Essex, England, and grew up exploring the history and culture of London and surrounding counties. In the 1990s she immigrated to Detroit, USA, eventually settling in Southwest Florida. She returned to England after a fifteen-year absence, to spend six years in the Southwest of England living on Exmoor. Here, inspired by the atmosphere, beautiful scenery and the ancient history of the place, she began writing. Jane's writes in the dark romance genre. She has four published novels. She also writes short stories and being a trained horticulturist, she occasionally writes for a Florida gardening magazine. Jane returned to Florida in 2013, and lives in Sarasota.

Debbie De Louise is an award-winning author and a reference librarian at a public library on Long Island. She is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, International Thriller Writers, and the Cat Writer’s Association. She has a BA in English and an MLS in Library Science from Long Island University. Her three published novels include Cloudy Rainbow, A Stone's Throw, and Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Solstice Publishing, 2016) that has been on the Amazon bestseller list for cozy mysteries. Debbie has also written articles and short stories for several anthologies of various genres. Her third novel was out in April. It's Written in Stone, the 3rd of the Cobble Cove mystery series..  She lives on Long Island with her husband, daughter, and two cats.

Nancy Quinn was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, but has lived in many areas of the country.  She is an internationally known wildlife artist whose work is noted for its detail and accuracy, and she is the recipient of two World Wildlife Art Championship awards.   Nancy has always had a love of animals and nature.  After college, she worked as a conservation law enforcement duty officer for the state of Florida.  She volunteered her spare time at wildlife rehabilitation centers, bringing their birds and reptiles into the schools to educate children of all ages.   Over the years she has handled many domestic and exotic species, including cougars, leopards, and tigers, and always had interesting stories to tell about her encounters with wild animals.  Upon leaving a suburban lifestyle in the metro Washington, DC area, to live in rural Montana, she discovered a new world of exciting and unusual adventures.  Encouraged by friends and family alike, she wrote her first book, "Go West, Young Woman!"   She now happily resides on a mountainside in Montana with her husband, daughters, dogs, and horses, where she continues to paint and write about her experiences living in the still wild west.

Over the centuries, Frank Bittinger has experienced many existences. In this incarnation, Mr. Bittinger is a vegan who lives and writes in historic Western Maryland, sharing his home with a menagerie of pets, several alternate personalities, and the occasional ghost. One of his favorite pastimes is taking walks in old cemeteries in the evening.

Patricia Loofbourrow, MD is an SFF and non-fiction writer, PC gamer, ornamental food gardener, fiber artist, and wildcrafter who loves power tools, dancing, genetics and anything to do with outer space. She was born in southern California and has lived in Chicago and Tokyo. She currently lives in Oklahoma with her husband and three grown children.