Laura Davis

Laura runs an English Language Center in Quebec. She grew up in the Eastern Townships. She is a sociologist by training, and holds a graduate degree from Concordia University in Montreal. She is passionately committed to defending human rights. Writing fiction has been compulsion since she was a child. She lives with her long time partner and best friend, Donald McCulloch, and their two cats, who graciously allow them to share their living space.

Peter Spotswood Dillard

Peter Spotswood Dillard was born near the Great Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee. Raised in rural Tennessee and West Virginia, he is a direct descendant of the Shawnee chief Keigh-tugh-qua, or Cornstalk, who fought at the battle of Point Pleasant in 1770. Though he does not claim tribal affiliation, Native American themes and ideas are central to his writing.

After earning a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Tennessee, Dillard moved to Philadelphia and earned a Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught for several years there and at Villanova University before taking up the craft of writing. Currently he lives in Tucson, Arizona.

A Southerner by birth, in his heart Dillard is a Westerner. He has spent much time in the Southwest, especially in the Sonoran Desert. For him, the desert is a place of mystery and power that challenges us to discard what we thought we knew and create new meanings. It and its inhabitants are the chief inspiration for his fiction.

Steven Duff

Steven Duff retired in 1996 from a 32-year career as a music educator in Scarborough , Ontario . During his tenure in Scarborough , he was active as a teacher, conductor, music festival adjudicator, and administrator. Following his retirement, Mr. Duff moved to Parry Sound , Ontario , to begin a new career as a writer and artist; as well as freelance writing on such varied topics as history, transportation, and the arts, he has had four published novels to his credit prior to The Osterling Weekend.

When not writing or painting, Mr. Duff enjoys sailing and maintaining an outsize collection of classic boats, as well as reading, engagement in community affairs, and listening to music without preoccupation with upcoming rehearsals and concerts. He is a grandfather of two and lives with his wife Debra and their toy poodle Bruno.

G.L. Graber

Raised in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada , Geraldine Graber entered a convent in Toronto , Ontario at the age of sixteen and taught elementary school in Ontario and B.C. during her seventeen years as a nun.

After leaving the convent, Geraldine majored in English and studied at universities in B.C., Alberta , and Ontario and received a doctorate from Oregon State University where she taught writing to international students before taking a position in the education department of Eastern Washington University . In 1996, after retirement, Geraldine began a second career as an educational consultant. It was in this capacity that she went to Chad and Cameroon to train teachers and develop English programmes.

Currently, as president of an NGO, Geraldine is working with a Chad educational association to establish village schools, training programmes for women and physically handicapped, and evening bilingual literacy programmes.

Royalties from the sale of Nuns Don't Cry go to the African projects.

Glynn Compton Harper

Glynn Compton Harper is a native of Texas. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland and served in the US Navy in nuclear submarines during the era of the Cold War and Viet Nam when he made submarine patrols above the Arctic Circle and in the Mediterranean. He left the navy in 1967 and worked as an engineer in Texas, then entered the Episcopal seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1978 and served parishes in California, Texas and Louisiana. He is now retired and serves part-time as vicar of a historical Episcopal Church in the town of San Augustine.