Authors

Martha Tolles is the author of the popular Katie/Darci series published by Scholastic. They have sold over two million copies. The first Katie book was published in 1965 by Thos. Nelson and titled Too Many Boys. It was inspired by her family since she and her lawyer husband had five sons and one daughter. The book was later re-titled and published by Scholastic in 1974 as Katie and Those Boys. Two others followed, Katie for President in 1976 and in 1984 Katie’s Babysitting Job. The Darci series came next and included Who’s Reading Darci’s Diary and Darci and the Dance Contest, both published by Lodestar/Dutton and later Scholastic. Two of her titles, Darci in Cabin 13 and Marrying off Mom, were selected for the IRA Children’s Choice list.

Mark E. Scott is a recovering banker living in downtown Cincinnati. In various work iterations he has, in no particular order, served in the U.S. Navy, flipped steaks at a chain restaurant, waited tables, repossessed cars, and delivered boat propellers to boat shops. For reasons not always clear, along the way Mark tried his hand at full-contact Kung Fu fighting, a sport at which he was mediocre at best. More productively, he also managed to obtain undergrad and graduate degrees in secondary education and business, respectively, the latter being the most useful of the two.

Mark (M.L.) Hoffman grew up in New Jersey, in a small town called Fairlawn. He found sports to be his first love, followed by competitive bodybuilding, and then, believe it or not, writing poetry. Although he has been writing poetry on and off since high school, he has only dedicated his full attention and time to it for about the last two years or so. Once his father passed away, he promised himself not to take life for granted, and decided right then to devote all his time and energy into what he loves most-writing poetry.

Mark Warren owns and runs nationally renowned Medicine Bow Wilderness School in the Southern Appalachians of Dahlonega, GA where he teaches nature classes and primitive skills of the Cherokee. Mark has taught survival courses to thousands of schools and groups all over the country. In 1980, the National Wildlife Federation honored Mark as Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year. In 1998 he became the U.S. National Champion in whitewater canoeing, and in 1999, he won the World Championship Longbow title. Another passion for Mark has been researching the West for more than 60 years. He has presented as a western historian at top western museums around the country.

Mardi Oakley Medawar is the daughter of an Eastern Band Cherokee father and Louisiana French mother. Her first novel, The Glory Days of Buffalo Egbert, published under the title, People of The Whistling Waters, was written for her father while he was undergoing treatments for cancer. Her father enjoyed reading but didn’t care much for historical fiction because he didn’t like the way Indian people were portrayed. Mardi decided to write a book for him, handing him a new chapter after each treatment. He lived long enough to finish the final chapter and then challenged Mardi to have the book published. It took four years to keep that promise. At the awards banquet, when the novel won Best First Novel of the Year from Western Writers of America, Mardi accepted the award in the name of her father, Walter Allen Oakley.

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR MARCIA MULLER has written many novels and short stories. Her novel Wolf in the Shadows won the Anthony Boucher Award. The recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award—their highest accolade—she lives in northern California with her husband, mystery writer Bill Pronzini.

MacKinlay Kantor was born in Webster City, Iowa, in 1904. He began to write seriously at sixteen, became a newspaper reporter at seventeen, and published his first book at twenty-three. Over the next half-century, he went on to produce more than forty works including novels, short story collections, novels in verse, novellas, histories and children’s books. His best-selling historical novel, Andersonville, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956. MacKinlay Kantor’s other accomplishments included Hollywood screenwriting, patrolling the streets with the N.Y.P.D., and combat correspondence (RAF and USAF) in two wars, for which he was awarded the Medal of Freedom.

Mack Maloney (Brian Kelleher) has written more than 50 novels including the best-selling Wingman series and the Codename Starman military mysteries, as well as three nonfiction books, Mack Maloney’s Haunted Universe, Beyond Area 51 and UFOs in Wartime. Mack is also the host of the nationally syndicated radio show and podcast “Mack Maloney’s Military X-Files.”

New Mexico native Melody Groves lives the life of a full-time freelance writer. She travels the world, meets amazing people, and writes about it all. Born and raised in Las Cruces, southern New Mexico, she spent a few years “growing up” on Guam and in the Philippines.

Micah S. Hackler, originally from a small Kansas farming community, was the son of an exploration geologist. The family moved often, living in Colorado, Ohio and Oklahoma, just to name a few states. He always loved the Rocky Mountains. A family trip to Mesa Verde in 1965 started a life-long interest in the Pueblo Indian culture. He resolved to one day be a writer after consuming every novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs.