Sharon Darby Hendry - author
Sharon Darby Hendry’s first manuscript, An Element of Truth, is a true story about a woman con artist. It was translated into a made-for-TV movie, starred Donna Mills, and first aired on CBS in 1995. Glensheen’s Daughter, The Marjorie Congdon Story, is a regional bestseller and is in its ninth printing. Hendry is working on a screenplay based on her latest book, SoLiAh, The Sara Jane Olson Story. All three stories feature fascinating women who chose to live outside the boundaries of the law.

Hendry and her husband divide their time between Minnesota’s Twin Cities and northern Wisconsin.

 Gary Nei - author
Gary Nei is chairman of several publishing companies. He is an aspiring screenwriter and an avid walleye fisherman who resides in Wisconsin and Illinois.

 Del Staecker - author
A lot of middle-aged burnouts dream of chucking it all and running away to write a novel. Del Staecker did just that, leaving behind a thirty-year career to sit in a two-room cabin in Idaho with no phone, no TV and radio reception only a few hours a day – to write his first novel, The Muted Mermaid, by hand.

His yearning to write took hold and a lifetime of stories crammed in his head started rolling out. The day Staecker finished The Muted Mermaid he began writing the sequel, Shaved Ice. His third work, The Lady Gangster, will also be released in 2008.

Staecker grew up in Blue Island, Illinois, a small town outside Chicago, where he shifted between two cultures – the surreal artist’s world of Chicago’s Old Town where the likes of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan hung out at his Uncle Earling’s exotic bird shop, and the normal world of Boy Scouts, Little League baseball and working on his relatives’ farms.

Currently Staecker lives and writes in his Pennsylvania home, which he shares with his wife and the colorful characters in his head.

 Dr Clifton Meador - author
Clifton K. Meador was born in Alabama in 1931 and attended Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating with top honors, he moved to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York for his internship and first year of residency. Two years in the Army medical corps followed before his residency and a fellowship in endocrinology were completed at Vanderbilt.

Meador’s varied medical career includes practicing with the physician who delivered him into this world, directing the N.I.H. Clinical Research Center in Alabama, serving as dean at the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, returning to Vanderbilt to create the teaching service at Saint Thomas Hospital, and teaching as a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt and Meharry Medical College. For the past ten years, he has been the executive director of the Meharry Vanderbilt Alliance. It is no surprise that his expertise in the medical field gives him a best-selling-author status with many popular books.

He is author of 10 books, including Symptoms of Unknown Origin and the best-selling medical book, A Little Book of Doctors’ Rules, now being published by Cable Publishing in a new edition.

Hobbies include woodworking and furniture making, golf (a goal is to shoot his age), and his favorite hobby—writing. Meador is the proud father of seven children.

 Flint Whitlock - Author
Flint graduated cum laude from the University of Illinois in 1964 and followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the U. S. Army. While sailing on the last troop carrier transporting military personnel across the Atlantic by sea rather than air, Flint spent the ten-day voyage reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—a book that greatly influenced his life as a military historian many years later.

Flint served as an officer in Germany for two years before being reassigned to what he calls the “tropical paradise”--Vietnam. After one year in Vietnam, Flint’s final military assignment was at Fort Carson in Colorado. Flint liked the area and planted his roots in Denver.

In 1986, after various jobs including those of a public-relations director for a professional soccer team, journalism instructor, sports columnist, advertising copywriter, art director, creative director, and owner of his own advertising and graphic design agency, Flint began writing military history. Soldiers on Skis; A Pictorial Memoir of the 10th Mountain Division, published in 1992, earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination in history. In 2003 he realized a long-time dream by becoming a full-time author. His books have been critically acclaimed, and he as been honored with several prizes. Included in his very successful writing career are requests nationwide for speaking engagements and numerous television appearances.

Besides Soldiers on Skis, his books include The Rock of Anzio, The Fighting First, Given Up For Dead, Distant Bugles, Distant Drums, Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book, and The Depths of Courage.

Flint and Dr. Mary Ann Watson, a college professor and clinical psychologist, were married in 1978 and have three grown children. To stay in shape, Flint skis, plays tennis, and referees high school soccer. His website is www.flintwhitlock.com.

Terry Barnhart - Author
Terry L. Barnhart first lived in Greensburg, Pennsylvania—a suburb of Pittsburgh. When Terry was thirteen, his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Terry attended Arizona State University and the University of Colorado, majoring in business administration and electrical engineering. In 1974, Terry founded Barnhart Advertising & Public Relations.

In early 1980, Terry first took flying lessons at the Centennial Airport in Denver and became familiar with Jeppesen navigation charts. He went on to get his license and flew high performance, single engine aircraft for over fifteen years.

In the 1990s, Terry and the Jeppesen Corporation’s affiliation began, and so did Terry’s interest in writing the story of Elrey B Jeppesen, “Capt. Jepp.” Over lunch one day, Terry broached the subject with Jepp who stated, “I suppose what you want to do is make a movie and make a bunch of money.” Sadly, and despite his vehement denial and reiteration in having only an interest in writing Jepp’s life story, Terry was never able to personally interview Jepp.

In 2005, Terry teamed up with Flint Whitlock, and the two friends combined their passions for history and flying into a best-selling book, the rags-to-riches story of Elrey Jeppesen, the Father of Aerial Navigation. Readers of Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book will find themselves highly entertained with thrilling stories of daredevil barnstormers and wing-walkers, the fledgling beginnings of the giant aviation companies, and the gentle, charismatic man who lived and loved those early days of flight and went on to found the Jeppesen Corporation--a company without equal in the field of aviation.

Larry Verkeyn - web design
I was born in "Spurior", WI and was raised as a flatlander in Antioch, IL. I grew up a Green Bay Packer fan in the 70s. Being surrounded by Chicago Bear fans, I learned to live with loss and ridicule.

I learned to smoke at 9. I learned to quit 30 years later.

I started working at 10 as a live "scarecrow" for a local farmer and made $10 a day, 5 days a week. I was the wealthiest kid I knew. Then I was fired for sleeping on the job. I learned the importance of hard work, and the cost of a nap.

At 16 I left home…involuntarily. I learned to honor my mother, or at least not call her a bitch. I also learned that I can sleep sitting up on a park bench and nobody will bother me, and that I drool in my sleep.

I moved to Milwaukee, WI, at 18 with a plan to put myself through 4 years of art school. I learned art school costs a lot of money, so I got a job at the art supply store instead. I learned that artists are a weird bunch…and that I fit in.

I started a dot COM business during the boom years with some friends and made a ton of money fast. I learned I could lose a ton of money quicker than I can make it.

I met Larry, my perfect partner, and we've been together for 17 years. We live with Keela, a rot/lab mix who doesn't quite understand yet that I am the pack leader, and Daryl "mama" kitty who somehow allows us to be in her presence no matter how human we are. I learned that dogs never remember the bad times, and cats never forget them.

Debbie Zime - Graphic Design
I grew up near Superior, WI, the youngest of six, blessed with great parents and siblings who remain closer than any other family I know.
I graduated from UW-Stout with a Bachelors of Science Degree in Fine Art, Graphic Design concentration. After working in the Duluth, MN, area for 8 years, I started my home business, “Dezime Graphics”. I wanted to work less to see my two girls grow up (currently 16 and 13). I am fortunate to have flexibility with my schedule and still fulfill my graphic obligations. I spend most of my free time maintaining every aspect of household duties, financial balance, driving to soccer, basketball, volleyball, track, etc…and enjoying the solitude of country living. I love hunting, fishing, cabin life, and riding Harleys (not necessarily in that order).
My husband (for over 17 years) has been my best friend, providing me with all the greatest moments during our adventures together.We are looking forward to some elk hunting trips and Canadian fly-in fishing trips in the future

Vivienne Aho - editor
Our West Coast editor, Vivienne Aho, has a wit as sharp as her editing pencil.  Authors beware!