Author: Author's Answer

Melissa Payne is the bestselling author of The Secrets of Lost Stones. For as long as she can remember, Melissa has been telling stories in one form or another—from high school newspaper articles to a graduate thesis to blogging about marriage and motherhood. But she first learned the real importance of storytelling when she worked for a residential and day treatment center for abused and neglected children. There she wrote speeches and letters to raise funds for the children. The truth in those stories was piercing and painful and written to invoke in the reader a call to action: to give, to help, to make a difference. Melissa’s love of writing and sharing stories in all forms has endured. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and three children, a friendly mutt, a very loud cat, and the occasional bear.

Emma Palova was born in the former Czechoslovakia. She is a Lowell Michigan-based author now and is very excited to share her memoir, “Greenwich Meridian” with readers. Her memoir comes out on November 12th and talks about her and her family’s epic emigration to the U.S. Some of her previous works include her collection of short stories that she wrote during her studies at ICS in Montreal and at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Currently, she is participating in the National Novel Writing Month where she will be working on the third book in the Shifting Sands Stories series: Steel Jewels. In addition to being a novelist, Palova is a screenwriter and journalist who has written for a number of publications, including Czechoslovak Newsweek and Prague Reporter.

Liza Wiemer is an award-winning educator with over twenty years of teaching experience. Her second young adult novel, The Assignment, was published by Delacorte Press on August 25, 2020. To date, The Assignment will also be published in Russia, Poland, Italy, and South Korea. Hello?, her debut contemporary YA novel, was named a Goodreads Best Young Adult Novel of the Month. In addition, Liza has had two adult nonfiction books published and several short stories included in the New York Times bestselling Small Miracles series. She has had articles published in various newspapers and magazines. A graduate of UW-Madison, Liza has two married sons and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, Jim.

Loren Rhoads is the author of five novels, including a space opera trilogy and a paranormal romance duet about a succubus who falls in love with an angel. She’s also the author of a nonfiction travel guide to cemeteries, as well as a cemetery memoir called Wish You Were Here. Her most recent book is a collection of horror/dark fantasy/science fiction short stories called Unsafe Words.

Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong (Sourcebooks, 2014) and co-editor of Hong Kong Noir (Akashic Books, 2018). She is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books and the Asian Review of Books. Her work has also appeared in The Frisky, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and the South China Morning Post. She received an MPhil in Government and Public Administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she researched emerging women’s rights over 100 years ago. Born, raised, and now based in the Chicago suburbs, Susan is an elected trustee of her public library.