Melissa Eskue Ousley is an award-winning author liv-ing on the Oregon coast with her family, a neurotic dog, and a piranha. Her debut novel, Sign of the Throne, won a 2014 Readers' Favorite International Book Award and a 2014 Eric Hoffer Book Award. Her third book, The Sower Comes, won a 2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award. Sunset Em-pire, a fantasy set in Astoria, Oregon, debuted in the best-selling Secrets and Shadows young adult boxed set. Her short stories have been included in Rain Magazine and The North Coast Squid. When she's not writing, she can be found walking along the beach, poking dead things with a stick.