Joanna has always loved stories – even from an early age, when the Headteacher complained to her parents that she had read all the books in the school library. Joanna went on to study English at Exeter College, Oxford and later returned to the University to train as a teacher.

After ten years in education, she set up an award-winning poetry gift business. During that time, she wrote thousands of poems to order and her rhyming verse was filmed twice by the BBC.

Unable to resist the lure of the classroom, Joanna recently returned to Oxford as a mature student to study creative writing. The Eights is her first novel and is inspired by the first cohort of women to matriculate at the University in 1920.

Ira Wesley Kitmacher is a published author of books on American Pacific Northwest (“Haunted Graveyard of the Pacific,” “Spirits Along the Columbia River”, “Haunted Puget Sound,” and “Pacific Northwest Legends and Lore”), and European (“Monsters and Miracles: Horror, Heroes and the Holocaust”) history and folklore. Also, two of his history and folklore books have been adapted for grade school readers (“The Ghostly Tales of the Pacific Northwest,” and “The Ghostly Tales of Puget Sound”).  He has also written a book on ancient lessons in resolving conflict (“Solomon’s Steps).

Ira served as a professor for over a decade, teaching graduate-level courses at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Portland State University in Oregon, and undergraduate courses at other colleges.

Ira is a retired senior U.S. government executive, attorney, cruise ship onboard historian (Puget Sound, Snake/Columbia Rivers, New England), tour guide (“History and Haunted Olympia”), commissioner on the Thurston County Historic Commission, and a member of The History Writers Association. He has been featured on television programs, documentaries, radio shows, podcasts, in newspapers and magazines, at national and regional conferences, and at museum and book events. Ira holds Juris Doctor, Master of Science, and Bachelor of Arts degrees.

Ira has a passion for history and folklore.

 

 

Naomi Kelsey has won two Northern Writers’ Awards and the HWA Dorothy Dunnett Competition, as well as being shortlisted for several further awards including the Bristol and Bridport prizes. Her writing has been published in Mslexia
magazine. Her debut novel, THE BURNINGS, will be published by Harper North in June. She is represented by Anne Williams at the Kate Hordern Literary Agency. She’s often distracted from writing by her job as an English teacher, two small children, and a large Labrador, not to mention her enormous TBR pile.
She tweets @naomikelsey_ and you can find her on Instagram @naomikelseybooks

Kaitlin Felix writes Norse historical fiction and fantasy. Raised on the Texas-Mexico border, she now resides in Switzerland with her small family. Her credits include the short story Wave Runners in Althingi: The Crescent and The Northern Star (Outland Entertainment, USA), and the audio drama The Seeing Trees (AltStories podcast, UK.) In her downtime, Kaitlin enjoys crocheting, video games, and collecting too many boxes of tea.

Douglas Skelton is the author of the Jonas Flynt/Company of Rogues series (Canelo) set in the early Georgian period.

He also pens a contemporary series featuring journalist Rebecca Connolly (Polygon) which also reflects historical events.

In the past he has written historical true crime.