ABOUT
Val Cates is a teacher, author, and one of the founders of Writers 4 A Purpose.
​
Val is an equal opportunity writer. She does not confine herself to a specific genre, format, or audience. She appreciates all of these things for the uniqueness they offer.
​
When Val is not writing, she spends most of her days educating the next generation of writers in her English-Language Arts classroom. She also enjoys spending time with her family, eating copious amounts of chocolate, awaiting her overdue letter from Hogwarts, and wondering if her teaching superpowers could be useful in the Marvel Universe.
​
Val lives in Pennsylvania, where winter is too cold, summer is too humid, but fall is heaven on earth.
Matthew S. Conrad is an author, husband, father, and U.S. Army Veteran. After suffering a debilitating injury as a member of the Army 82nd Airborne, he inspiringly overcame a myriad of obstacles: the loss of a beloved career, physical injury, addiction, and mental health issues.
After receiving help from Veterans Affairs, he was able to establish a new lease on life, and with a renewed sense of purpose, he turned to writing as a way to express his feelings and creativity.
His poetry collection, Insanity Vol. 1, details the turmoil and determination that reforged a broken soldier to the man he is today.