About the Author

Vonnie Winslow Crist, BS Art & Education, MS Professional Writing from Towson University, is a columnist for Harford Heart's Magazine, an illustrator for The Vegetarian Journal, the editor of The Gunpowder Review, and a contributor to Faerie Magazine. Among the publications where her speculative fiction has recently appeared or is scheduled to soon appear are: Tales of the Talisman, Aoife's Kiss, Ethereal Tales (UK), Ensorcelled Magazine, Cemetery Moon, Echelon Press eShorts, www.spacewesterns.com and the anthologies, Sideshow 2, While the Morning Stars Sing, Legends of a New Age – Dragon's Lure, Dia de los Muertos, The Lady Holds the Cards, and A Rustle of Wings.

Vonnie is author/illustrator of a children's book, Leprechaun Cake & Other Tales (publisher- Vegetarian Resource Group), and two volumes of award-winning poetry, River of Stars and Essential Fables (publisher- Lite Circle Books). She's also edited two science fiction, fantasy, and dark fantasy anthologies for Lite Circle Books: Through A Glass Darkly and Lower Than The Angels. In addition, she's illustrated dozens of books (for adults and children) for various publishers including Prima Publications, Memory Lane Press, Stonestep Press, Lite Circle Books, Vegetarian Resource Group, and Baker Street Press.

Vonnie's writing has won local, regional, and national awards, including a $3,000 award from the state of Maryland. Her poems have appeared in over 100 American  publications and in magazines in Italy, Canada, Australia, England, and Finland. She has worked as a freelance writer producing book, movie, and restaurant reviews, feature articles, and a kids' column for area newspapers. Vonnie  has done cover, magazine, and newspaper illustration, and is an experienced storyteller. She is a Writer and Illustrator member of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and both a Letters and Art member of the National League of American Pen Women. Until recently, she was a creative writing instructor for both Harford Community College and for the Maryland State Arts Council's Artist-in-Education Program.

Vonnie lives at the edge of a very green forest in a rural area of Maryland with her husband and their dog. She feeds the wild birds, adores toads, tends faery-friendly plants in her garden, and has had several toadstool faery rings sprout up beneath the trees in her front yard.