Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world. Diane Vanden Hoven is a Canadian playwright whose credits include This above All, winner of Theatre BC's National Playwriting Competition, and The Twisted Land, which received an honorable mention in the Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition. Her works have been featured across Canada. George Zarr is an award-winning audio dramatist currently based in Chicago. He is the producer, writer, director, and composer of the Hans Christian Andersen musical The Bell, the four-part comedy Hurry! Hurry! It's Almost Christmas, the mystery collection Dark of the Moon Inn, and the Western comedy musical serial Hoofbeats in My Heart, all four available from Blackstone Publishing. Noelle Dupuis is an accomplished voice actor and audiobook narrator based in Ontario, Canada. Some of the titles she has voiced for Voices in the Wind Audio Theatre include Snow White, Cinderella, A Christmas Carol, Bambi, A Life In the Woods, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Noelle's production company, the First Noelle Productions, also produced full-cast dramatizations of The Bell, The Spirit of Christmas Day, and Hurry! Hurry! It's Almost Christmas! Blackstone Publishing distributes all these titles.