Kelleher, Joan: - "Joan Kelleher Gencarelli was born in London, England and has lived in Hawaii since the early sixties, where her two children and various dogs, cats, ducks and fish thrived. Joan's first career was as a technical writer who created operating procedures and systems requirements for the casualty insurance industry. In 2002, Joan started writing for fun, which resulted in short stories inspired by ten years as an Ex-pat's wife in Beijing, Seoul and Bangkok. Childhood memories of WWII evacuation were incorporated into a short story, Evacuation - There and Back which became part of the BBC WWII People's War archives. Among other stories, one published in the literary journal, The Rainbird, was awarded the Golden Plover Award from the Windward Arts Council. In 2006, she received the Lorin Tarr Gill Honorable Mention award for non-fiction. Joan is an avid traveler and longs to visit the few places on her list that she has not yet seen, take in the sights, meet interesting people, sample the foods on offer, and shop."