JOHN CONLEE

JOHN CONLEE is a Professor of English at the College of William and Mary, where he has taught for many years. His primary field of teaching and research is English Medieval Literature, with an emphasis on Middle English poetry, Middle Scots poetry, the Arthurian legends, and Chaucer. He has edited important scholarly texts on The Prose Merlin (1998), The Poetry of William Dunbar (2004), and on Middle English Debate Poems (1991).
He has a longtime interest in the history of Children’s Literature and has contributed several articles on children’s authors to various reference works. He also has a strong interest in baseball fiction and films, an interest which he has successfully integrated into his current teaching and research. He is also developing his interest in Celtic Studies, focusing on the earliest surviving Irish and Welsh literary texts.
John Conlee grew up near San Diego and attended the University of Southern California; he has graduate degrees from the University of Illinois. At William and Mary he directed the graduate program in English and twice served as Chair of the English Department. He has been actively engaged in Study Abroad Programs and has taught in several summer programs in the U.K., particularly in Cambridge and Bath. He has been instrumental in developing a scholarship program for William and Mary students wishing to pursuit summer study opportunities in the British Isles.
PBH is proud to offer John Conlee’s series of tales for younger readers, tales focusing on the early years of King Arthur’s reign and the role played by Arthur’s beloved dog, Cabal. There are now four short novels in this series, with more, we believe, on the horizon.
JOHN CONLEE lives and teaches in Williamsburg, Virginia.

ROGER L. CONLEE

ROGER L. CONLEE is a former sportswriter, features staffer, and copy editor for the Chicago Daily News and the San Diego Union-Tribune, and a longtime public relations professional.
By avocation he is an historian and avid researcher, and an expert on American military history, with special expertise in the American Civil War and World War II. His many articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and the Detroit News.
Roger Conlee’s first novel, EVERY SHAPE, EVERY SHADOW (2004), offers a vivid and powerful depiction of the battle for Guadalcanal. This novel has garnered a great deal of critical acclaim, in addition to receiving the Distinguished Honor Award in 2006 from the Military Writers Society of America.
COUNTERCLOCKWISE (2007), Roger Conlee’s most recent novel, is already generating a good deal of critical excitement. It, too, is set during the early days of World War II—or at least it is in part. To some extent, we suppose, that may depend, on the time dimension in which you happen to be living.
Among the many projects Roger Conlee is currently working on is a novel tentatively entitled THE HINDENBURG LETTER, which is largely set in wartime Berlin in the early 1940s.
Roger L. Conlee lives and works in San Diego, California.

See: RogerConlee.com

KIT FOURNIER grew up in suburban New York in the 1930's relatively unscathed by the depression. She coasted through an independent school education and entered Cornell University at 16, bent on becoming a woman chemical engineer. Reality and illness intervened to end her first attempt at higher education, but not her grasp for life.
Love in the person of Art, a serious young soldier, propelled her into what became more than a half-century of adventure, romance, children, and at last, that interrupted education. She graduated from the National College of Education (now National Louis University) in Illinois in 1980 at the age of 54. By that time, she held the surprising title of senior programmer on the staff of a large insurance company. Eventually, she retired as a senior systems analyst, moving with her husband to Williamsburg, Virginia. She lives there today, now a widow, but cheered by two daughters and four grown grandchildren.
In earlier days, KIT FOURNIER's writing was confined to personal correspondence and some journals she kept on extensive world travels with her husband. She jotted down recollections of their sailing adventures to share with other mariners, but did not begin to write in earnest until 2001.
Writing down some of the tales of her marriage slowly became a book: The Soldier and the Baby Doll. (She used her full name, in deference to family history.) In doing it—and with the help of some real authors—she uncovered a passion for storytelling that seizes her still. In the memoir, she related adventures that really happened, aided by her rich memories.
Next, she launched what has become a series of novels—The Reality Map—with Book One: Path to the Park. Here is a heroine struggling to find her own way in the world, to discover what it is that really matters about life.
Still in process will soon come Book Two: Here Be Dragons. This time, we follow the hero through the collapse of his life of ease, love, power, and wealth to a literally shocking finish. This, too, is a search for meaning.
Book Three is even now gestating in the author's mind. Her characters have become real people who will not be denied life.

MAC LAIRD is now living in Williamsburg, Virginia after a long career with the U.S Navy in telecommunications and electronics. He wrote his first book about the people and 40 years in the life of a cabin of pine logs and limestone on a mountain site overlooking the Shenandoah Valley. During that period he remained with Defense and State Department telecommunications management, shifting from engineering studies to business management at University of Maryland and earned an undergraduate degree in business there before pursuing graduate studies in business at George Mason.
His interest in the Valley sent him to the local libraries in the Shenandoah and in Williamsburg to study 17th century Native American life in that area and in Williamsburg, eventually retiring to Williamburg in 1991. Going beyond recorded history, he uses archeological studies of Eastern Civilizations to give him a glimpse of the daily affairs of the people here in North America before the Europeans made contact in the 15th century.
QUAIL HIGH ABOVE THE SHENANDOAH. It's fascinating to learn how the author built his cabin, log by log, stone by stone; it's entertaining to meet his mountain neighbors. It's fun to read of the fishing expeditions and poker games at Quail High. But what this book will leave you with is a calmness, a sense of having just had a leisurely walk through the Shenandoah. Mac Laird's humility and overriding philosophy about life shine through the book -- especially his refusal to allow the building process to mandate deadlines or spoil the pleasure of the task.
THE NEXT BOOK, a short novel, is coming soon about the life of the 14 year old son of the Chief of the Saponi tribe in western North Carolina. He travels the wilderness to Williamsburg at Virginia Governor 's invitation to learn the English language and the Christianity of the Anglican Church. It is a time of massacres on the frontier and retaliation by both settler and Indain, further complicated by a tidal wave of European immigrants, and fast diminishing hunting grounds of the Indians. This book is an exciting adventure in human endurance, outdoor skills and survival. It is also a sad penetrating glimpse of a fading culture based on a deep respect for all things natural.

ALECK LOKER, a ninth-generation Maryland native, is a freelance writer and photographer now living in Williamsburg, Virginia. As an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary, he majored in Physics, which led to his more than thirty-year career as a scientist and flight test engineer for the U.S. Navy.
Aleck Loker is an avid student of early American history, especially the Colonial period and the colonies near the Chesapeake Bay. He has written several short works dealing with the local history of St. Mary’s County, Maryland. His biography of Captain John Smith—FEARLESS CAPTAIN: The Adventures of John Smith—written for younger readers, was published in 2006 by Morgan Reynolds, Publishing.
WALTER RALEGH’S VIRGINIA: ROANOKE ISLAND AND THE LOST COLONY (2006) presents Aleck Loker’s account of one of the most mysterious chapters in early American history, the story of the ill-fated attempt in 1586 to establish a settlement on Roanoke Island. This first English settlement in the New World, which pre-dates Jamestown by twenty years, disappeared virtually without a trace.
GRAVE MISTAKES (2006) is a mystery novel for adult readers (the back cover warns of the novel’s “strong sexual content”) that spans a period of 18,000 years. The arrival in North America of a prehistoric clan provides the backdrop for a modern tale of a sexual psychopath and the Williamsburg archaeologist who solves the murder of his one-time fiance.
A MATTER OF SPACE (2003) is an exciting adventure novel for younger readers that draws upon the author’s own experiences as a scientist and flight engineer. This coming-of-age tale blends large doses of science, history, and adventure into a narrative that will excite children of all ages.
ALECK LOKER is currently working on a series of “Profiles in Colonial History” and is also writing a third novel.

See: members.cox.net/aleck.loker/

SALLY STILES worked for fourteen years in New York City as an editor and writer and, later, as an advertising executive. In addition, she has published over a hundred magazine articles, several books, and short stories.
After leaving New York, she and her husband, David, lived in Nigeria, Michigan, New Hampshire, Tanzania, British Columbia, Washington State and, currently, in Williamsburg, Virginia. She has taught writing at Lebanon College in New Hampshire, at the Simon Fraser Writing and Publishing Program in Vancouver, B.C., and for the Christopher Wren Society at the College of William and Mary.
Sally Stiles holds a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Vermont College.
Her volunteer work has included, among many other things, running a women’s shelter; a craft store; numerous golf tournaments; and an after-school enrichment program for primary school children in East Africa.
Sally Stiles’ latest publication is HAIKU GUIDE TO THE INSIDE PASSAGE (2006),
which documents a trip she and her husband made on their boat from Puget Sound to Skagway in Alaska. The book is written three-line haiku and is vividly illustrated with photographs. HAIKU GUIDE is available from Pale Horse Books, or may be purchased through Amazon.com, or from www.peacoatpress.com.