Steam on the Horizon (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780989504317)

Melissa Ann Conroy grew up in the wilds of Nebraska in a suburb surrounded by corn and feral turkeys. She promptly fled her hometown at eighteen for college and international travel when the realities of in-state tuition drew her back home. Presently she shares a house with her oldest brother and a fat Basset Hound named Erasmus. At various points of time, Melissa has wandered across Mexico, Honduras, Canada, Spain, Morocco, England, Scotland, Belgium, France and Gibraltar. She spent a month studying abroad at the University of Oxford (which mainly involved eating scones and punting down the Thames), was nearly kidnapped by a camel in Tangier, narrowly missed falling off a cliff in Tegucigalpa, and was held up by a thieving Barbary Macaque in Gibraltar. Melissa has held an odd collection of jobs over the years. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in medieval English literature and taught college-level composition courses for several years. She spend a year in front of the camera as an ESL instructor on a weekly English-learning TV show and worked as a producer for an international education organization. Currently, she is a medical helicopter dispatcher. When she isn't writing, Melissa is usually outside on her bike, putting together steampunk costumes, or spending time with friends and family. She holds a black belt in Japanese sword-fighting, likes to cosplay River Song from Doctor Who, and is a decent low soprano.