John Hanford retired from the United States Army in 1991. He then attended Kansas State University, acquiring a degree in English and special education from Kansas State University. He worked in education until 2009 when he retired from his position as Director of Special Education of Grain Valley Missouri School District. He writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction—his short-story, “A Boy,” was a runner-up for the David Baker Award, University of Central Missouri, 2014. John continues to study writing and other areas of interest. He is an avid photographer, landscaper, and traveler.

Chuck Hocter has retired three times and failed miserably at it three times. He spent 20 years in the USAF, 19 years in a battery factory and 9 months as Chief Dust Bunny Herder in a lint factory. Now he works for a wonderful boss who also happens to be his lovely wife of 43 years, Theresa. His interests are limited to reading, writing, riding motorcycles, and doing whatever the boss says. He is a graduate of the University of Central Missouri with a degree in Creative Writing. He has published a novel—M.O.B. (Mean Old Bastard), available on Amazon. He has started at least six other novels, none of which will be ready for publication anytime soon. Two of his short stories have appeared in anthologies published by Literary Lab. At present, most of his time is taken up by caring for his massive F-350 named BYGGIE, his Ranger LI’L RED, his two motorcycles (unnamed), his dog Butch, and his cat Baby, whose real name is Shiva, The Destroyer. Oh, yeah, and the BOSS.

R.M. Kinder is a retired professor of English (Creative Writing), a musician, and an amateur naturalist. Her most recent publications are A Common Person and Other Stories (Richard Sullivan Short Fiction Award, 2021 University of Notre Dame Press) and A Cat for All Seasons, an animal-fiction novel released for the Christmas holiday. For more publication and biographical details, please visit her website at rmkinder.net. Her blog is Digressions.

B.A.L. McMillan is a Missouri writer originally from Gravel Hill and Delta area but also Cape Girardeau, a Mississippi River town. She had a rural upbringing, but, a voracious reader, traveled through imagination. Since her childhood was peopled with storytellers, she’s fond of local mysteries and beliefs, and an adherent of traditional values. She wants good to triumph in her works and through them to encourage love of our fellow man, and forgiveness. But she also wants to tell a good story. Her primary characters at the moment are Galway Evans and Letitia Dunbar. She thinks of them as close friends and tunes in on what they’re doing. When it’s leading to a story, she tags along and writes it up. She also writes of witches and angels. In those pieces, she often scares herself.

James Henry Taylor’s publications include three collections of short fiction—Sleeping Life and Other Stories (Sweetgum Press 2017), Everyday Wonder, or The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog (Sweetgum Press 2010), and Honeysuckle and Other Stories (Cave Hollow Press 2002)—as well as the novel Convenience Store Vampire (a Barnes & Noble Nook book 2011), and papers in scientific journals such as  Physical Review B, Il Nuovo Cimento, and Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment. He has a B.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D from University of Rhode Island.

Chanda K. Zimmerman’s credits include a short story listed in The Year’s Best Horror and Fantasy for 2006, a children’s non-fiction book, and several documentary films, as well as numerous business presentations and speeches. Her greatest delight when not writing is caring for her eight cats. To learn more, visit her website/blog at chandakzimmerman.com. Chanda has an M.F.A. in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in TV/Film Production and Sociology from Trinity University (TX).