Sometimes called Captain Hammock, E. T. "Todd" Ellison is an award-winning writer, designer, consultant, websmith, traveler, tinkerer, guitar picker, songwriter, cook and general purpose generalist...not necessarily in that order. He is also the proud father of four children, currently has five grandkids, and still owns the doughty Big Red, who has been in the family since 1991. When not otherwise occupied with permasteading, his favorite recreation is taking 2-wheel sojourns on a venerable Honda Gold Wing.

ETE loves roads. In a 6-month search for a place to build a post-collegiate life, he ranged through the West with spouse, two small kids and a German shepherd, all packed into a converted Metro step-van. Against all odds, the crew landed in the Los Angeles area, not far from the foothills where he spent his youth. And in the Los Angeles area he stayed for more than three decades.

For a decade after first exurbing in 1996, his home base was a chunk of mountainside in the community of Bear Valley Springs, a ways outside of Tehachapi, CA. He now splits his time between there and a wee permastead in the Columbia Gorge area of the great Pacific Northwest...suggesting a diagnosis of Geographic Schizophrenia might be appropriate.

Recipe Rangers in the West is his third literary collaboration with Barbara Montgomery. His first novel, The Luck of Madonna 13, was released in a collectible hardcover Chronicler's Edition by Wynderry Press in August 2002. It earned a Book of the Year award from ForeWord Magazine and was picked by January Magazine as one of their Best Books of 2002. Selections of his quirky short fiction can be found at the Orphans Eleven Literary Orphanage.

Known to some as Berry Princess, Barbara Montgomery is a writer, poet, gardener, desktop publisher, cook, traveler and was recently publisher/editor of a popular community web portal. Barbara has three children who make her feel very proud (and wonder at the world of the next generation). She gets around, most days in a prim yet zippy Honda called Grace (short for Amazing Grace).

Barbara grew up in a military family which moved around quite a lot. She attended 12 schools between first grade and her senior year. In the summer before her sixth grade year, the family traveled from Homestead, Florida to Fairbanks, Alaska and has lived in such places as Puerto Rico, Iran, Alaska, England, Nebraska, Arizona, Southern California and Washington. Arizona is currently her home.

All of this moving about used to make her feel somewhat “antsy” if she stayed in one place very long. Although Barbara currently lives in Arizona, who knows how long she’ll stay.