Joyce Ragland grew up on her dad's family farm - a modernized dairy business - but she could hardly wait to escape. "Get out and make something of yourself," her mother urged. At 17, college. Four university degrees, work in three states and one Canadian province, back to the US, and Ragland found herself downsized. Tired of the academic rat race, she decided it was time to retire back home, and write. After two academic books and various articles, short stories, poetry published during the academic career, she turned to fiction. Then she learned about her alma mater high school - still tiny and classified as rural poor - shaking up the national stage with a robotics team. On the shelf went the fiction (temporarily) and she began research on a YA nonfiction book first called The Life and Times of FRED (fuel replenishing energy-efficient droid), then Team FRED, then she asked students in the story to choose a title. DREAD THE FRED's book launch has sales off to a roaring start, and the author smiling!

Jill Rayl's copyediting skills come from being an avid reader of a wide variety of genres including fiction, history, biography and comparative religion. She holds a degree in International Politics with a minor in West European Studies. She grew up in Oregon and has lived in Arizona, Vermont, Istanbul and Munich and has visited thirty-four countries across four continents. She currently resides in Springfield, Missouri.