Born and raised in Romania, Carmen Micsa moved to America in 1995, where she and her future husband Catalin Micsa have made Sacramento their home. Carmen Micsa has earned BA and MA degrees in English (Creative Writing) from Sacramento State University. She published her first book Change Your Grip on Life Through Tennis in 2016. She also published articles in a few local and national publications and a memoir piece Grandpa's Garden in the anthology From Sac Home Myths & Other Untruths with some of her graduate school classmates. In 2020, Micsa published her first poetry book The PR - The Poetics of Running, A Book of Poetry in Motion. Her pandemic project kept her sane and motivated to write and publish. In 2021, Micsa published her second poetry book Morsels of Love, A Book of Poetry and Short Form. In 2022, Micsa published the anthology Holistic Journey Towards Wellness with 20 other authors with essays on positivity, health, fitness, and cooking. Besides writing, Micsa enjoys being a mother to her two beautiful and kind children Alex and Sophia. She is also the broker/CEO/founder of her real estate company, Dynamic Real Estate, Inc., and prides herself on being organized and efficient in leading a balanced life. Micsa is an avid runner, who has completed 16 marathons, including London, Boston, New York City, Chicago, Berlin, and Tokyo. Besides running, Carmen loves to play tennis and pickleball with her husband and her two teenage children Alex and Sophia. She also likes to swim, bike, and practice Pilates. For more info on her books, please visit Carmen Micsa's website at www.carmenmicsabooks.com and her blog www.runningforrealestate.com. I'm Jenni, and I write fiction, creative non-fiction, and the occasional piece of literary criticism. I was born in Salinas, California (also the birthplace of John Steinbeck). Maybe there's something in the water there?I'M CURRENTLY WORKING ON revamping The Dante Deception into a stand-alone series (long story), and a non-fiction trilogy on Grand Duchess Hilda of Baden, Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mikhailovna of Russia, and Princess Augusta of Brunswick.WHEN I'M NOT WRITING, I'm usually reading, jogging, doing genealogical research, or sewing. I'm a bad cook and a worse baker. I always burn things, even brownies. Someday I want to have a garden even though I've killed every plant I've ever had. This includes ferns and other plants specifically labeled "hard to kill" by your local florist.SPEAKING OF GENEALOGY, I have some brick walls that I'm hoping you guys can help me smash through. Ever heard of a dude named Frank Rivers, who died in Los Angeles in 1912? He was my great-great-grandfather, and the guy's parents are next to impossible to find. Didn't help that he told different origin stories to different people. The census has him born in (wait for it) Michigan or New York. It also has him born anywhere from about 1838 to 1845. Frank either didn't know the truth or was deliberately misleading people throughout his life. I love you, Frank, but you're killing me.I EARNED BACHELOR'S DEGREES in English and History from the University of California at Davis, and an MA in English/Creative Writing from California State University, Sacramento, where I won three Bazzanella Literary Awards in fiction and critical analysis.I'VE WORKED AS A senior editor, advertising copywriter, and USAID grant program coordinator. And they said it would be impossible to find work as an English major. As an editor, I helped write and revise web copy for clients on any number of topics. You haven't lived until you've been on deadline to write 10 expert-level pages on oscilloscopes or diamond saw blades in, oh, an hour. There's also nothing like the stress of proofreading a catalog that will go out to a 10-million-name mailing list. No pressure.MY SHORT STORIES HAVE appeared in Gargoyle, the Portland Review, The Copperfield Review, the Sacramento News & Review, Strange Summer Mysteries, Tales from the Dark Forest, The Darkness Within, and other publications.