PREVIOUS AUTHOR SPOTLIGHTS
featuring
Christian Authors of the Pacific Northwest
Shelli Owen
Shelli Owen, the main author-narrator and compiler of this story, is the mother of Mary, who this story is about. Mary—along with her dad, Bruce, and her siblings, Jessika, Rachel, Ruth, and Elijah, as well as family and friends all contributed accounts and perspectives for the writing of this book.
Shelli lives with her husband, Bruce, in the Pacific Northwest where this story took place. She is self-employed as a hopeful writer, artist, and Bible student. Jesus is her first love. When the occasion arises, she loves spending time with her husband, adult children, grandchildren, family, friends, and meeting new people. To see what projects she is currently working on, visit her author website at:
Mary Owen Grimm is now a more mature outdoorswoman and adventurer than this story highlights. She is currently, a Bible Translation and Literacy Consultant with Word Made Flesh, living and serving in Baku, Papua New Guinea (PNG). She is married to Benjamin Grimm, Word Made Flesh PNG Field Director and is the mother of three beautiful children: Joya, Adira, and Isaac.
Rachel Russell
Amazon best-selling author Rachel D. Russell writes contemporary inspirational romance focused on forgiveness, redemption, and grace. She’s the winner of the 2022 Oregon Christian Writers Cascade Award for published contemporary fiction with her novel Still the One. Her
unpublished novel, The Moment of Surrender, is a finalist for the 2023 Cascade Award in the same category. She makes wild attempts to balance writing under publisher deadlines with her full-time career in the federal government. When Rachel’s not cantering her horse down the Oregon beaches, she’s probably interrogating her husband on his own military and law enforcement experience to craft believable heroes in uniform. The rest of her time is spent enjoying her active family, including two college-age sons and three keyboard-hogging cats.
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More information about Rachel and her books is available at her website (https://racheldrussell.com/)
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John Avery
John Avery is a trained teacher with over thirty years experience as a Bible teaching pastor, small group leader, and missionary. He has lived in England, Israel, Africa, and the Caribbean, ministering with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and local churches. He and his wife, Janet, now make their home in Oregon. John likes to hike, snowshoe, and cross country ski. John writes a Bible devotional on www.BibleMaturity.com and maintains a comprehensive resource for all the names of God at www.NamesForGod.net.
Other books by Avery include:
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The Questions of Jesus: Questions Asked by Jesus, Questions other People Asked Him
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The Name Quest: Explore the Names of God to Grow in Faith and Get to Know Him Better
Melanie Dobson
Writing fiction is Melanie Dobson's excuse to explore abandoned houses, travel to unique places, and spend hours reading old books and journals. The award-winning author of almost thirty books, Melanie enjoys stitching together both time-slip and historical stories including The Curator's Daughter, Memories of Glass, and the Legacy of Love novels (legacyofloveseries.com). Five of her novels have received a Carol Award for historical fiction, Catching the Wind's audiobook won the 2018 Audie for Inspirational Novel, and The Black Cloister was ForeWord's Book of the Year for Religious Fiction. Her next time-slip novel, The Winter Rose, comes out in January 2022.
Melanie and her husband, Jon, have two daughters. After moving numerous times with Jon's work, the Dobson family has finally settled near Portland, Oregon, and they love to travel and hike in both the mountains and the cliffs above the Pacific. When Melanie isn't writing, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, dancing, and reading stories with her girls.
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More information about Melanie and her books is available at her website (melaniedobson.com)
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Peg Willis
Peg Willis, a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, grew up reveling in the beauties of the vast forests, the Columbia River Gorge, Mount St. Helens, and the wonders of the Long Beach Peninsula. She and her husband now live in Eastern Oregon. After many years of raising children and teaching music, Peg has turned to writing about the places she knows and loves.
Peg is best known as a teacher of traditional, old-time fiddle music. She has played and taught for a number of years. She is also a weaver and the designer of three "Gorgeous Gorge" cross-stitch patterns: Vista House, Multnomah Falls, and the Mitchell Point Tunnel.
Her work has been published in a number of magazines and regional newspapers. Peg and her husband, Jim, have three amazing sons, three perfect daughters-in-law, and seven awesome grandchildren--all of whom also live in Oregon.
Camille Eide
Camille writes tales of love that readers call ‘more than a romance.’ Her books include both contemporary and historical, and are seasoned with hope, faith, and truckloads of grace.
She's a native Oregonian, wife, mom, grammy, church administrator, and a fan of muscle cars, waterfalls, and tender romance. She claims to have a PhD in Learning Things The Hard Way, which fuels her obsession to blog about the amazing love and grace of God at Along the Banks (www.camilleeide.wordpress.com)
Copenhagen Cozenage
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Kristen Joy Wilks
Kristen Joy Wilks lives in the beautiful woods of the Cascade mountains with her camp director husband, three fierce sons, and a large and slobbery Newfoundland dog. She spent her misguided youth falling in love with Commander Spock via Star Trek reruns, being suspended upside down over a homemade pit filled with gardener snakes, and stampeding herds of elk while on horseback. Now most of her adventures consist of preventing her hubby from filling another wall of their dining room with board games, thwarting her 3 boys’ efforts to sneak their pet chickens onto their bunk beds whenever she turns her back to fold laundry, and trying not to trip over the random teenagers that swarm her house to play all those board games. Kristen can be found tucked under a tattered quilt in an overstuffed chair at 4:00am writing a wide variety of dramatic tales or at www.kristenjoywilks.com.
Peter Iliyn
Peter Iliyn was born in Paraguay to parents who emigrated from Russia. Raised in the Russian culture and language, he continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his BS in electrical engineering and material science. Peter joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in 1976, and has been able to cross barriers throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with his ministry.
Peter has traveled and ministered in over seventy-five countries across Asia, South America, Australia, and throughout Eastern and Western Europe. Currently he is the North American Director for YWAM. He and his wife Luba have four children and live in Jefferson, Oregon.
For speaking engagements, please contact: pete.luba@gmail.com or visit his website at www.outofthefarcorners.com
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