Heliand Author Biographies:

Biographies are written by the authors. This helps readers to get to know the authors better by hearing in their own words how they describe themselves. Author Bios are in alphabetical order.

Authors are arranged in alphabetical order by last name.

Chen, Mary

Mary Chen graduated from Scripps College, CA with a BA in Philosophy and French. She enjoys writing short fiction and poetry and dabbles in painting. She enjoys a wide range of favorite writers from witty Oscar Wilde to romantic Daphne du Maurier to Christian thriller Frank Peretti to deconstructionist Coco Fuso.

Clarke, Karen

I live in Buckinghamshire and am a part-time library assistant . I write whenever I can escape from the children and have previously had a few articles published. I've recently been awarded 2nd place in two fiction competitions, which was very motivating and am currently working on a novel provisionally entitled 'Elephant Moon.'

Collins, Tim

My name is Tim Collins, I am 49 years old. When in my teens I won a scholarship in voice at the Peabody Conservatory of Music for a year. When 18 I joined the US merchant marines, where my first ship was on the SS Green Springs carrying military supplies to Nam.

I left the Merchant Marines as a Ship's Engineering Officer after 10 years. I then worked as an Industrial Lab Tech at a community college. Here is where I picked up my AA degree. After 10 years there I, wound up being the Shift Engineer for a Large Hospital in Baltimore Maryland.

Starting about 7 years ago I started writing short stories. I would drop them off at various sites and got positive responses about them. When I saw the opportunity to submit a story to Heliand Publishing I picked out one of my shorter works and mailed it in. Recently my father had published a book of poems he wrote concerning the last days of my mother who was suffering from Alzheimer's. So I believe that a bit of writing skill does run in my family.

Graziano, Claudia

Claudia Graziano is a freelance writer and editor and long-time San Francisco resident. As a freelance writer, she writes primarily for technology companies and publications. As an aspiring fiction writer and essayist, she writes for the occasional online 'zine. Claudia is also the author of a children's picture book, Meerkat's Safari, published in 2004 through an independent press.

Gross, Ted William

Ted Gross was born and raised in New York City and in 1978, moved to Israel, and currently resides in Jerusalem.

He began his writing career in University as the op-ed editor of the University paper and wrote a series of 8 editorials during that year. While in Israel, he wrote two children’s books. “The Letter & The Crown”; was published in Israel, while the second, and more successful, was published in the United States by United Synagogue entitled, “Of Rabbit’s Wool & Camel’s Hair”. While teaching comparative religion, he also had articles on polemics and religion published in Midstream Magazine, one of which was re-printed in an anthology “Smashing the Idols” published by Jason Aaronson Publishers.

However, by the time the children’s books were published his family was growing, and he began work and was active in high tech from 1985 until 2001. There he functioned as a CTO – Chief Technological Officer - in three different companies, managing to take two companies from start-up phase to a buyout and a successful IPO respectively.

After having taken the last company to a successful IPO, six children and a peaceful divorce, it was time to leave high-tech and try and develop some of ideas in writing. At that point, Israel embarked on "Operation Defensive Shield", and since Ted is a reserve battlefield medic, he ended up in Jenin, and the battles that took place there became front-page news all over the world. "Three Weeks In Jenin" was written soon after, though unfortunately the contract was cancelled once the United States entered into its current war with Iraq.

He currently has a literary agent, and is working on the “Chronicles of the Children of Heaven” (a fantasy work), on another non-fiction book entitled “Last Times” and on a cooking book entitled "Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen", (as well as a short story from time to time). To make ends meet, Ted owns a real-estate investment firm in Jerusalem.

Usually one can find Ted either putting out fires in his kitchen, or walking the byways of Jerusalem with Rainbow, his golden retriever, pondering the silence of the heavens.

Hael, Elysian

I was born and raised in Pleasant Grove, Utah. My first influences in literature were at the age of twelve with Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman and their Dragon Lance series. I then become consumed with Fantasy novels. I read everything by Weis and Hickman that I could find. I then moved onto David Eddings and Robert Jordan.

I didn’t get a passion for writing until I went on a religious mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a missionary there isn’t a lot of time for writing but I enjoyed the religious literature that I read and wanted to write. When I returned to Utah in 2001, I was twenty-one and ready to write. I haven’t stopped since.

I graduated with a Bachelors in English Literature from Utah Valley State College in 2005. I spend my spare time writing or reading literature.

Hubley, Teresa

Teresa Hubley was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the U.S. She lived in several places in the U.S. and spent three years in Liberia while growing up. She has a doctoral degree in Anthropology and works as a research associate for the University of Southern Maine. She has been writing fiction since her teens and once won third place in a student writing contest at the University of Iowa. She lives in rural Maine with her family. She reads widely and voraciously, when she’s not holed up in the basement with her laptop writing and drawing or outside kayaking or snowshoeing.

Messenger, Laura

Laura is twenty-three years old and lives outside Manchester, in the UK. After studying philosophy at Durham University, she now works for a government department responsible for standards of education in Britain. She spends all her spare time and money either expanding an eclectic record collection, or backpacking to various places across the globe. Her main literary influences are Neil Gaiman and Jeff Noon, although she will also admit to being a fan of Agatha Christie.

Ramirez, Jeannette

Jeannette Ramirez and her husband, Rafael, have five grown-up children, none of whom were ever trapped in their car seats. They live in Cincinnati where she recently completed an MA in liberal arts and does freelance work for magazines. She has just completed and will soon publish a book of limericks, Literati Limericks, and is currently midway through an historical novel.

Montfort, Simon

I was born in Texas, on a date that is now significant for a certain act of infamy performed against two towers, but I have lived in such diverse places as Seoul and Johannesburg. My interest in medieval history began with the discovery of a book on the Albigensian Crusades. By the time I'd finished absorbing all of the brutality, oppression, and intolerance contained within that book, I was hopelessly fascinated. Since then my library has expanded, but almost every book is devoted to the centuries between 1000-1400.