Heather Frese

Heather Frese’s novel, The Baddest Girl on the Planet, won the Lee Smith Novel Prize. Coastal North Carolina is her longtime love and source of inspiration, her writing deeply influenced by the wild magic and history of the Outer Banks. She currently writes, edits, and teaches in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tim Hatcher

Tim Hatcher lives on the southern Outer Banks of the North Carolina coast with several beach cats. He has traveled the world as a quality inspector, taught in the field of human resources at NC State University, and was the editor of Human Resource Development Quarterly. He is an avid saltwater angler and a semi-professional, part-time musician, and author of Time and Tide: The Vanishing Culture of the North Carolina Coast.

Jennifer Milder

Jennifer Milder is an American novelist, entrepreneur, and mother of teenagers. She has authored The Epilogue of August. Between those careers, she’s worked as a software consultant, project manager, play producer, non-profit founder, and tutor. She now lives in Washington, DC, with two daughters, two cats, and a dog. Milder grew up in North Carolina, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, and yearns to spend the rest of her long summers back on the Carolina coast.

Victoria Gilbert

Raised in a historic small town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, Victoria Gilbert turned her early obsession with books into a dual career as an author and librarian. Now retired, she worked for over 30 years in the library field as a reference librarian, research librarian, and university library director. Victoria lives outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina with her husband, son, and two very spoiled cats. Victoria writes The Blue Ridge Library Mystery series.

Paul Mila

Paul Mila has expanded his horizons from Brooklyn to Baja and beyond. He traded in his corporate suit for a wetsuit and now devotes his time to writing, scuba diving, underwater photography, and speaking to groups, especially children, about ocean conservation and protecting sea turtles. He is the author of 6 underwater thrilllers and a non-fiction collection of ocean adventures and sea creature encounters. He has also authored children's books that feature his underwater photography of sea turtles and other marine life, while telling educational and fun stories.

Kristen Ness

Kristen grew up mostly in South Carolina, spending days with nature and falling in love with the ocean and it's creatures. She walks the beach at sunrise each summer in search of sea turtle nests as a volunteer for the Island Turtle Team on Isle of Palms. While practicing immigration law, she moonlights in pursuit of her lifelong passion for writing and her obsession with marine biology. Kristen lives in Charleston, SC, with her husband, their 2 children, and a cat. At Loggerheads is her first novel.