Donna Balon is a former certified public accountant and tax attorney based in Las Vegas who turned to fiction writing. She is the author of *Sam Time* (Desert Day Press LLC, September 2023), a historical fiction novel about a history professor who befriends Ulysses S. Grant. Inspired during a trip to Colorado's old mining towns, she immersed herself in researching Grant and Victorian customs to bring the story to life.

Maggie Shipstead is an American novelist, short story author, essayist, and travel writer.

Geraldine Brooks is an Australian-American journalist and novelist.

Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo was a French Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician..

John Fante was an American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.

Lisa Wingate is an American writer..