I was born into a wide family of Australian pioneers. Being one of the youngest of my generation, when it came to big amily reunions, I mostly watched and listened; and absorbed with a hild's mind. This gave me a host of characters and stories on which to call when I began seriously to write.

The natural progression was to write Australian Historical Novels, part fact, part fiction.

I have also written mood/inspirational poetry, Easy Reader books for adults with special needs, an all age Easy Reader Picture Book, books on Writing, a book of recipes/memories/proverbs, and a weekly newspaper column. Then there were also the 3 minute radio spots, "Pause a Minute", written and presented on Radio in Roma and Brisbane.

The great factor in my life has been the great love of my life, my husband, Harry. We completed each other and our four daughters made our world perfect - not always easy, but challenging, fulfilling and full of life and love.

Over the almost fifty years if marriage and parish life we shared the lives of the people of the parishes where we lived and worked in New South Wales and Queensland.

These years, living in rectories, at the pivotal point of parish activity -being the voice on the end of the telephone line; the welcoming face at the door; the listening ear when the vicar/rector was out, gave me a wealth of experience. I was allowed to see the person behind the face that was shown to the world. It has been a great privilege to experience this - to be trusted - to share. It has also given me a vast range of character types, situations, events to call on in my writing.

Kathie is wife of Graham, mother (and step-mother) to five beautiful daughters and a business woman, running a full time international business from her home office in Melbourne, Australia.

Kathie is also a Virtual Assistant, VA Coach and Trainer, Public Speaker, Blogger and Author and has published over a hundred articles in various printed and online publications relating to operating a business from home.

She also writes devotionals for Christian publications and is a member of Faithwriters.com.

Tammy Tolman has been speaking and teaching for the past 13 years at major conferences such as Hillsong in Australia and Kidsreach Conference in New Zealand. She has taught workshops at CPC (Children’s Pastors Conference) in the USA in 2004, 2005 and 2006. She has a diploma in teaching and a degree in theology. She has written and produced a Sunday school curriculum that covers the Bible in 4 years, consisting of 16 programs that run for 10 weeks each. They are aimed at the Primary Aged Child. They are interactive in style and teaching, and are used widely across Australia and New Zealand in all denominations. She has produced 3 CD’s of worship music, along with DVD’s and videos that are also widely used. She is a practitioner who ministers in the local Church and in her local schools on a weekly basis. She trains leaders throughout Australia and beyond. She has been instrumental in setting up the Children’s Specialty at ACOM (Australian College of Ministry) which allows people to train and study for a degree in theology with a major in Children’s ministry. She lectures in this College and others.

Tammy has been married for 19 years, to husband David Tolman. She and her husband began a company called "Spot the Difference" which has produced and promoted the curriculum that Tammy has developed over the past 10 years. Her website gives a complete outline of what she offers as a resource to the local Church. She has two children, Sam (boy) aged 9 years and Georgia (girl) aged 6 years. They live in Sydney, Australia.

Jeff is the Executive Editor of HSM Publishing and Trade Sales and Marketing Manager for CMC Australasia.

His love affair with writing started in the late 1990’s whilst walking along the coast at Geelong with his wife. His imagination was fuelled by the scenery and the first of his two children’s novels – The Smuggler’s Den, was born. That book went on to become a best seller.

Paula Vince was born in South Australia and currently lives in Mount Barker with her husband and three young children. Writing has been a lifelong passion and after she completed a degree in English and Psychology at Adelaide University her love of writing and interest in young adult fiction led to the writing of the Quenarden trilogy.

Paula enjoys writing for young adults and is inspired by the energy and enthusiasm they display for life while negotiating this difficult transition. Study, work and life all seem so serious and Paula hopes to help fire their imaginations and lift their moods with her fantasy novels.

Valerie Volk is a former secondary teacher, tertiary lecturer and education program director who is now entering a new life as a writer. Her first book, In Due Season, published by Pantaenus Press in 2009, was a collection of the poems she wrote during the year in which her husband died, and her second, a verse novel titled A Promise of Peaches was published by Ginninderra Press in March 2011. She has been the winner of a number of awards for both poetry and short prose forms, and at last feels she can put 'writer' as her occupation.

Valerie is the mother of four adult children and grandmother of six; she lives in Adelaide but loves to travel - as often overseas as possible. Her chief pleasures are her family and friends, reading, music, films and theatre. Oh, and food  - both cooking and eating. And, of course, writing ....

Stephen Whiteside has been writing and performing poetry for over thirty years. He has written extensively for both adults and children. Many of his poems have been published in magazines and anthologies, both in Australia and overseas. He has recently self-published two volumes of poetry, "Poems of 2007" and "Early Poems and Songs (including "Omeo")".

Stephen works as a medical practitioner. He is married, with two wonderful children.

Allan was the Technical Commercial Manager, Digital Televisions Services, with Philips Public telecommunications Systems.  In 1994 he joined the team responsible for Philips broadband network and the Telstra $4.2 billion engineering and supply contract for the Telstra build of the world's first national FTTN infrastructure.  Allan was on the governments task force for the introduction of digital television. 

He holds a marketing diploma from Harvard university and qualifications in Electronics Engineering from the Auckland Technical Institute, is a member of the Royal Society, a foundation director of the Total Quality Managment Institute of AUstralia and a Rotarian.

Gerard has more than thirty years experience in the book business, mainly in educational publishing, and has a Masters degree in philosophy. He wrote and published two titles which were an application of the ideas developed in his thesis: The Media of the Republic and The Telecard Affair: Diary of a Media Lynching. Details about these books and accompanying reviews can be found on his website.

His real writing passion, however, has always been fiction. After many years delay he set to writing the first novel in a planned trilogy, The Castle of Heavenly Bliss, which was published in 2005. It was followed with the second book in 2006, In This Vale of Tears. The ideas developed in his philosophy thesis also appear in the novels, but indirectly.

He has taken early retirement to devote himself full-time to writing. His next book will be a childhood memoir, Me and Pete: Recalling a Fifties Childhood.