My own personal experiences of what they now call living off the grid, and my love of the past inspires me as an artist and writer. The old ways are quickly being forgotten, so I draw upon these memories to tell my stories of earlier times. My husband and I, plus one of our four grown children, live on our farm in northern Missouri. I am very thankful for my family, my upbringing, and my country life. Betty is the author of Dreaming of Missouri, a historical fiction book for all ages. Visit Betty at her Goodreads page |
Elanor McMahill Best
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A native Missourian, Elanor graduated from Osborn High School and Chillicothe Business College, then completed the prescribed course of Studies in Illustrating and Related Art from Art Instruction Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota. She retired as a secretary from Cameron Mutual Insurance after twenty years of service.
Elanor married the love of her life, Morris G. Best in 1954. They were married fifty years before his passing. They have four children, eight grandchildren, and five great grandchildren. Encouraged early in life in her art by her mother, she is known for her paintings and several murals in the area. Visit Elanor at her Goodreads page |
Haylee Streuss
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Haylee Streuss is a Portland, Oregon native who now lives surrounded by her Amish friends in rural Missouri on a ten-acre hobby farm. She and her husband make their living driving the Amish, which is the inspiration for her writing. The Amish people and culture have so much to offer. Haylee is a happy, hippy, home schooling mama to six, and a green smoothie drinking, chocolate addict. In her rare spare moments she enjoys teaching, speaking, crocheting and being outdoors. |
Jamie Stevens-Beel recently relocated to a remote acreage in northwest Missouri where she tends to her animals, picks wild blackberries, hosts monthly locavore potlucks and writes both prose and poetry. Her work has appeared in the publications Wholeness and Healing, Country, When Smoke Filled the Sky, and the anthology A Crack in the Air. Currently she is at work on an adult fable about a little gypsy girl and the orphaned wolf cub she befriends. |
Vanessa is a recent transplant to Missouri. She volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care. Vanessa currently has three books available for purchase - Surrendering Spirits, The Case of the Missing Crown, and The Christmas Gift - and she has many more simmering in the back of her mind. vanessakmullins.weebly.com |
Vila Gingerich, author of Growing Toward the Sun, grew up in Mennonite communities across the Midwest. She spent seven years doing volunteer work in Romania and now lives on fifty acres in Missouri with her husband, cats, and an overgrown veggie garden.
She was a winner of the 2014 Highlights for Children fiction contest and her work has been published in Highlights for Children and Purpose magazines. She is currently working on the second book in the Celeste series, Full Moon, Half a Heart. Vila teaches sixth through eighth grades in a private Mennonite school. She tells her students that everyone has a special talent, good books take you places, and sometimes it’s okay to add on your fingers. www.vilagingerich.com |