Joe Belanger

Even before Joseph Belanger ventured to the northernmost reaches of the State of Maine, came into adulthood, and married a fellow hermit to start a family, he had been writing stories. But the idea to actually do anything with those stories is a fairly recent. And the decision to have any of them published uncharacteristically spontaneous. And that is a decision that he hopes he can continue to make in the future.

He believes that anyone can see their own life as a personal quest. One just has to have the right outlook. And as Joseph journeys on his quest, he hopes that most of the modern world will pass by his small town as long as he is there.

Simon Brading

Simon earned a living in quite a few ways over the years, doing things like ballet dancing, acting, modelling, and voice work before finally settling on writing. He still does some acting every so often, but spends most of his days sitting at his laptop.

A Londoner for most of his life, he moved to Barcelona a few years ago in search of a life that was less focused on work.

Andy Cooke

Andy Cooke grew up in a pub before joining the RAF after going to University in London.  He was disappointed to find out that there were no openings for “astronaut” anywhere in the UK (he wrote to NASA at age 8 asking how to qualify to become an astronaut, but the first qualification was “be American,” which seemed a challenge too far for most eight-year-olds).  At least with the RAF, there were possibilities for remote-controlling satellite spacecraft, even if it would need a lot of luck to control his career path that well.  
During his 17 interesting and enjoyable years in the RAF, he discovered a talent for both sabre-fencing and formation skydiving, although never at the same time.  Captaining the RAF sabre team for a few years, he became nationally ranked at sabre, and managed to represent the RAF at formation skydiving as well.

He is keenly interested in space travel (as you’ve probably noticed), several fantasy worlds of literature, alternate history, skiing, cricket, how the world fits together, and – of course – writing.

David Flin

Once upon a time, David Flin noticed that he had somehow gathered a lifetime of experience without really noticing. Without noticing it, he’s found that he’s usually one of the oldest people in the room, rather than one of the youngest.

As a result, he’s found that he spends more time telling stories than having stories told to him, which is a lot of fun. That, combined with telling bedtime stories for children of a variety of ages led him to start writing some of these down. As is so often the case, “the tale grew in the telling.”

Some of the stories he tells are based on things he has experienced. Generally, these are the most ridiculous parts of the story, the bits that no-one could imagine actually happened in real life.

Sandra Knott

Sandra was born in Birmingham, England, and is very proud of this. She’s a big believer of the saying: “If you don’t try it, you’ll one day regret it.” She was a trained dancer from an early age, and became a successful aromatherapist in later life.

Sandra has three children, and when they were small, she told them amazing stories. When her children grew up and had children of their own, she told them stories. Now, when her grandchildren go to sleep, they ask her to read one of the books she wrote for their parents.

Brad Rousse

Born and raised in southern Maine, coming of age in New York City, and currently in central Europe, Brad Rousse has had a lifelong fascination with the past starting with a chance discovery of the story of the Titanic and his grandfather’s memories of World War II. Brad holds both a BA and MA in history and has shared his passion with audiences from around the world in such varied places as the Statue of Liberty, the Intrepid Museum, and Rockefeller Centre. Brad specializes in the era of the ocean liners, World War II, New York City, and European history but will read anything that catches his interest. When not writing, Brad runs his own ESL business in Prague and enjoys LEGO, video games, and modelling.

Nicholas Sumner

Nicholas Sumner is the author of several books including The Foskits, the Kiwi Bird and the Blue Brontosaurus Escape from Castle Gloom and Defeat the Horrible Horde. He was born in Africa and grew up in Nigeria and England. Before becoming a writer, he earned a living as a photographer and his work is represented by National Geographic Images. He now lives in Canada with a wife, a mob of daughters and a neurotic dog of uncertain parentage. He did have a hamster named ‘Satan’ but it died.