LeAnne Bristow began her love affair with books at an early age. She often hid books inside her desk and read during class. A teacher actually commented on a report card that "She would do much better in class if she would stop reading." When she outgrew Laura Ingalls Wilder and Beverly Cleary, she graduated to Walter Farley and Judy Blume. Then her favorite aunt gave her an old box of Harlequin romance novels and she was hooked. After reading the entire Americana series by Janet Dailey, LeAnne dreamed of becoming a writer.

But as often happens with dreams, life gets in the way. She fell in love with an Arizona native who packed her up, stories and all, and moved her from her small town in central Texas to a smaller town in southern Arizona.

LeAnne spent the next 20 years corralling three of her own children and a classroom full of kindergartners. Then one fateful day, her husband found her box of stories. She couldn't bear to throw the box away,so she began the long, arduous task of rewriting and editing.

When she’s not arguing with the characters in her head, she enjoys hunting, camping and fishing with her family. Her day job is teaching kindergarten, but now that her three kids are grown, she’s determined to teach her granddaughter how to catch lizards and love the desert as much as she does.

Cheryl Harper discovered her love for books and words as a little girl, thanks to a mother who made countless library trips and an introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House stories. Now she spends her days searching for the right words while she stares out the window and her dog snoozes beside her.