Teen Fiction

Susan Miura is an author, editor, and speaker as well as a former Chicago-area journalist and public relations professional. She believes book characters should reflect the world in which we live, and therefore includes characters of various ethnicities, abilities, and cultures in her novels. Her award-winning young adult books are clean fiction with suspense, danger, and touches of romance and humor. Susan also writes inspirational women’s fiction and has one children’s poetry book that features several of her wildlife photos. Hobbies include nature photography, hiking, baking, and reading. Susan recently moved to Colorado Springs from a Chicago suburb and loves the sunshine, mountains, and hiking opportunities.

Amber Herbert is a published author/poet living in Colorado Springs with her husband and two sons. She has a BA in English Literature and has worked as a freelance editor since 2018. She writes high fantasy, horror, science fiction, and YA and New Adult fiction. Lipstick Covered Magnet is her first novel.

Kelly is a mixed-race writer who has always gravitated towards stories about crossing boundaries and forging new identities. Her upcoming young-adult novel, Agnes at the End of the World (Little, Brown, Young Readers, 2020), benefited from a We Need Diverse Books mentorship. Kelly has previously worked as a staff writer for Romper, covering issues important to women and families. When she's not writing, she's reading, cooking (with mixed results), or hiking in the gorgeous Colorado mountains. She lives in Colorado Springs with her partner and young daughter.

Bekah Berge fell in love with all things mystical at a young age. Her love of stories led to her writing her first book in her early twenties, and she's never looked back since. When not scribbling down fantastical tales, she enjoys traveling, baking, hiking in the nearby mountains, and brewing the perfect cup of tea.

Inspired by her grandfather who is a published author, Amaya wrote her first book at the age of 12 and published it at the age of 13. Amaya is committed to her craft and writes on a daily basis. She originally started writing her first book on a manual typewriter. She loves to share her love of writing with other people and has been complimented on her use of dialogue at such a young age.

Eileen moved to the Colorado Springs area with her family when she was 8 years old. Although she had lived in three different homes before then, Colorado Springs is where she grew up and has her most fondest memories. After becoming an Army wife she has lived on the west coast, the east, and on the Gulf Coast as well. But now he is back in Colorado, raising her own family in her hometown. She is inspired every day by her children and various friendly faces that help her to imagine a world of stories. She has a newfound love of writing to help bring these stories to life for her young readers in age and in heart.

Holly is a military-brat-who-never-lived-anyplace-for-very-long turned local after marrying her born-and-raised-in-Colorado-Springs husband. Together they are raising, home schooling and trying to keep alive five kids. Culture shock was Holly’s childhood, moving from Taiwan to Norway to England to Turkey to Germany and back to Turkey again, establishing in her a love for travel and for different people and for outdoor cafes and castles sitting in the middle of the sea. Holly is a writer, her stories sprouting directly out of her life experiences, giving voice to a young Old Order Mennonite girl solving mysteries in the middle of Indiana farmland and a young woman returning to Turkey to find closure from her past. Holly currently writes life stories for Good Catch Publishing and has one novel out, The Orphan Maker's Sin, with several books coming out this year through Blackside Publishing.

Serving America in the US Air Force for 20+ years; spent 12+ years overseas (Korea and Germany) but now living/stationed in Colorado Springs. Interests include books (reading/writing - of course), travel, art, Asian languages, Asian food...my kids.

Fantasy author Tai Manivong was inspired to write a children’s novel while she was a third grade teacher, six years ago. But the seed was planted well before when, as a teenager in high school, a class assignment resulted in her first “book,” a story about a girl on a quest in a magical land.
Tai believes a great book is one with believable characters that readers can relate to. With many of her own books’ characters on a journey of self-discovery and finding out where they fit in the world, she hopes her young readers come away from her fantasy novels with a self-acceptance that stays with them long after the book is closed.

When she isn’t writing or being creative, Tai records audiobooks and enjoys spending time with her daughters. They live in Colorado along with their three dogs and two horses. 

I was still living as a man when I moved to in the year 2000. Having been outed as transgender, and fired at the Prep-School where I had been working, I was recruited at the National Librarians' Conference to be the Coordinator of Information and Technology at Mitchell High School, where I was again outed and fired. In 2007, after being outed and fired at CollegeAmerica, I transitioned to living full time as a woman. My storytelling-performances in The Story Project in Colorado Springs and for The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers are viewable on YouTube. I also sing karaoke and do an occasional standup open-mike.