Authors & Illustrators represented by Don Congdon Associates

Edward Abbey (1927-1989) was born in Home, Pennsylvania, in 1927. In 1944, at the age of 17, he set out to explore the American Southwest. Bumming around the country by hitchhiking and hopping freight trains, Abbey developed a love of the desert which would shape his life and art for the next forty years. After a brief military career, Abbey completed his education at the University of New Mexico and the University of Edinburgh. Abbey worked as a park ranger and fire lookout at several different National Parks throughout his life, experiences which provided material for his many works. He died at his home in Oracle, Arizona, in 1989, and is survived by his wife and five children.   

Joel Achenbach is a reporter for The Washington Post, and the author of six previous books, including The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens and Why Things Are. He started the Washington Post's first blog, Achenblog, and has worked on the newspaper's national Style magazine and Outlook staffs. He regularly contributes science articles to National Geographic. A native of Gainesville, Florida and a 1982 graduate of Princeton University, he lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.  

Susanne Alleyn, granddaughter of children's author Lillie V. Albrecht, is the author of the Aristide Ravel historical mystery series, set in revolutionary Paris; The Executioner's Heir, biographical fiction about real-life 18th-century Parisian executioner Charles-Henri Sanson; A Tale of Two Cities: A Reader's Companion; and A Far Better Rest, a reimagining of A Tale of Two Cities. She is currently working on the fifth Ravel mystery; the sequel to The Executioner's Heir; and various nonfiction projects. Susanne lives in New York State. 

Jill Althouse-Wood grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the University of Delaware with a BFA in Fine Arts, Jill returned to Pennsylvania where she enjoyed a fifteen-year career as a textile designer. After leaving the fabric industry, Jill resumed painting, and she also began using her experience in multiple art forms to teach workshops in journaling and creative thinking. She has designed and facilitated workshops for women's shelters, schools, health facilities, community centers, and Woman-to-Woman, a local event that benefits the YWCA and domestic violence services. Jill recently concluded a three-year term on the board of the Lancaster Literary Guild. 

Website

 If daydreaming were an Olympic sport, Sarah Andre would be buried under medals. She lives with her husband in Southwest FL and is a 2014 and 2011 RWA Golden Heart® finalist in Romantic Suspense. When she's not writing she's either sneaking chocolate, exercising like a demented fool or playing with her two naughty Pomeranian boys. She loves talking to booklovers of all genres. 

Website

Adele Budnick was born in 1963. After graduating from the University of Utah with a degree in Journalism/Broadcast Newswriting, she did what so many graduates do—pursued a job in an entirely different field. Thus, in 1986, she became a flight attendant for America West Airlines. During the nearly seven years she worked for the airline, she read hundreds of books (most of them romances), including one in particular about getting a romance published.

In 1990, Adele decided to write her first romance novel, though it took her three years to actually sit down and do it. In the spring of 1993, Adele resigned from America West Airlines to pursue writing full-time. She finished in April 1995, the manuscript, My Darling Caroline, and two years later, her hard-working agent sold it to Berkley/Jove. My Darling Caroline, released in October of 1998 as Adele Ashworth, went on to win the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA Award for Best First Book of that year. She lives in Texas with her family, spending most of her hard-earned money at Starbucks, where she's frequently seen chugging down coffee while typing out another fantasy that she hopes romance readers will someday enjoy.