2023 Book Award Finalists

A paralyzing car accident in her teens left Ryan with a new life to build. Rarely looking back, she became a swim coach and a high school teacher, she traveled to India for experimental stem cell treatment, she fought hard to make the Paralympic swim team, she even became a mom. With so many stories

Pam Henry has been writing stories for children since she was a young girl with some success, but during the Covid lockdowns, she had plenty of time to ramp up her efforts. Her three children are all grown and flown, and she lives in Wiltshire with her husband and their young Staffordshire Bull

Claire Dunn (C.F. Dunn) is an English novelist of historical fiction, mystery and suspense. From a long line of Lincolnshire farmers, Claire might have remained rooted to the land, but instead spent her childhood on the move with her Forces family, a period in which she developed a vivid imagination

R. T. Coleman grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she nurtured a passion for reading and writing while nestled among blankets and pillows in her bedroom closet. Her love of science fiction was born when she saw Star Wars in the theater in 1977. Imagine her disappointment when she realized she

Helen works with business owners to build a better life and business using her ‘Commit to Achieve Principles’. A successful osteopath and entrepreneur with experience in both ‘bricks-andmortar’ and online businesses. She retired from her clinical work in 2020 after 20 years of being a therapist

Kirsten Pursell is an American author and sometimes blogger. Released on January 1, 2023, Long Enough to Love You is her fourth book. Previous works include her memoir, On Becoming Me: Memoir of an 80's Teenager, released in 2021, and two other novels: Harvard and Company Clown. Her memoir has been

Marlene M. Bell is Ewephoric about writing mysteries and children's books where she's able to use her personal experiences with sheep and farm everyday life into suspenseful crime fiction. She's an artist, as well as a wildlife photographer especially when it comes to sheep. Her landscapes grace the

Glenn Somodi writes his stories in the short space between lying down and dreaming. The stories are written over many nights, replayed, and rewritten in his head for enjoyment. His mission is to find anyone who enjoys reading the stories as much as he enjoys creating them. He is a proud graduate of

Kathleen Bailey is the award-winning author of The Olivia Penn Mystery Series. She writes mysteries with heart and humor that keep to the traditional and cozy sides of crime. Kathleen has degrees in English, psychology, and physical therapy. She previously worked as a pediatric physical therapist

Pamila Shanti & Neelam River are co-author and illustrators of Nature Flow, a children's book sharing wellbeing practices in mindfulness, yoga and qigong. Since starting their own journey of wellbeing well over fifteen years ago, sisters Neelam & Pamila have been inspired to bring the practices of

Keema Waterfield is the author of Inside Passage, a nomadic childhood memoir set along the wild coast of Southeast Alaska. Waterfield has written for The New York Times, WIRED, Brevity, Scary Mommy, INSIDER, and others. She lives in Missoula, Montana, where she moonlights as a stand-up comic when

Sugandha Sinha, a bull-headed optimist, wool-gatherer, and a Bollywood zealot was born and raised in India, is a master’s in biotechnology, and prefers morbific viruses over a person any day. Now her life revolves around her wiseacre husband and two impish Irish twins. She prefers to write until

Born in Nigeria but educated in England, Robert studied Aerospace Engineering before migrating to Australia in the 1970s. He has worked in academia, research and IT in Australia and the USA but now teaches Maths and Physics at high school. He loves classical music (particularly opera) and attends

Gary graduated from the University of Surrey in the UK with a degree in Engineering, embarking on a career that has taken him all over the world from the Far East to the Americas. He is a graduate of the Faber Academy and Curtis Brown creative writing programmes. Now a father of three, he has

Paul Hollis is an American author of fictional terrorism and espionage. His bestselling and multi-award winning novels in The Hollow Man Series follow a U.S. Government analyst in a trilogy of suspense across Europe. The first two books in the trilogy are Amazon #1 bestsellers - The Hollow Man (also

I am an author of three novels, all published by Matador, with a fourth to be published later this year. I spent over 25 years as a writer of short fiction for women's commercial magazines and was published extensively in the UK and internationally. Completing an M.A. in Creative Writing with

OWEN LEVY is the author of two well-received novels, the seminal A Brother’s Touch, set in the early days of the Stonewall liberation movement, and Goodbye Heiko Goodbye Berlin plays out in the early turbulent days after the Fall of the Berlin Wall and move toward German Reunification. A Fellow of

Paul Hollis is an American author of fictional terrorism and espionage. His bestselling and multi-award winning novels in The Hollow Man Series follow a U.S. Government analyst in a trilogy of suspense across Europe. The first two books in the trilogy are Amazon #1 bestsellers - The Hollow Man (also

Cassandra Aston is a lover of all things fantasy. She reads more than she writes, but writing has been her passion for most of her life. As a child, she wrote short stories and novellas for friends and classmates, often giving them as gifts. She grew up on a ranch outside of Austin, TX and spent

About the Author Gayle De Blake lives with her family in Los Angeles. This is her first book. The storyline came into mind as she was turning 50 and planning a trip to Malta. It took over 5 years to complete the story about Alissa, her husband Todd, his sister Kate and her husband David. Drawing

Olga Tymofiyeva, PhD, was born in 1981 in Kyiv, Ukraine. After having lived in Ukraine and Germany, she now lives in the US and works as an Associate Professor of Neuroimaging at the University of California in San Francisco. The award-winning novella Just City is Olga’s first fiction book, which

Lisa Baker has been teaching music and theater for 15 years. She has always enjoyed writing, starting with her high school creative writing class, which mostly has been a pastime until recently. She graduated from Grand Canyon University, summa cum laude, with her B.S. in Elementary Education with

A self published author of a children's novel titled 'Old Hige' and a graduate of Met Film School with a Master's Degree in Screenplay Writing.

Richard Cobourne writes with a production background in the broadcast, corporate, music and global events, and communications industries. He has worked in the business-of-show all over the world for many years – and as a result has a deep understanding of the shenanigans of the industry that

Amanda Sheridan is a retired civil servant who lives with her husband and their two beloved rough collies on the beautiful Ards peninsula in Northern Ireland. She loves motorsport and fast cars, country life and a good book to read. When an idea nagged her back in 2017, she thought it would make a

John Danenbarger spends much of his time writing in Italy. Born in Atlanta, he graduated from University of Kansas with a degree in English and Creative Writing. With a backlist of short stories, Danenbarger established the Salem Massachusetts Writers' Club. After living in Oslo, Norway, Stockholm

Pepper Anne is a 7th generation Texan, where she and her family currently reside. She gained experience working alongside private investigators where she learned to find information about stories of interest and eventually expose their cover-ups. Her first book, The Notorious Texas Swindler, is

Hailing from the unpredictable snowstorms of Quebec, Canada, I'm a medical mystery detective (fancy words for "pathologist, MD") by day and a dreamweaver of historical fantasy by night. Pencil on paper makes me cry and laugh, and every book I write is living another life! I have a PASSION for

Born in Montreal Canada, my career took me on many exotic travels. My first book is a compilation of observations I took while travelling the Canadian Arctic.

Roxanna Mason is a debut paranormal romance author and formally trained actor from Los Angeles, California. It was her deep love of storytelling that led her to study theatre and that same love of storytelling that drove her to write her first novel. When not writing, Roxanna is binge watching

Louiseee with three e’s has been writing short stories which mirror her view on reality for many years. Amy the G.O.A.T - Greatest of all time is her first novel and was released on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com in late April 2023. Her message to the world is to approach life as a goat would; be

When the award-winning indie author Florian Bushy visited the “ECO-92 - Earth Summit” in June 1992, his environmentalist side flourished. Since then, he has written books, produced more than 100 educational short documentaries for schools, and sorted his recycling at home to make a difference in