Summer Hammond grew up in rural Iowa, and later the Ozarks of southwest Missouri. Raised in the Jehovah’s Witness faith, she home-schooled through high school, and planned to devote herself to missionary work. Instead, her first day of college, she met a Pentecostal-Charismatic boy who loved books like she did. She read Christy aloud to him on their first date. He read her The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. They were frequently observed around the MSU campus, arguing about the Bible, or making out. Summer and Aly went on to have a great many daring adventures, such as, eloping to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, an ex-JW and ex-Pentecostal, married by a justice of the peace who looked like Captain Nemo. They became vagabonds, hauling beer, pizza, and a variety of other party foods in an 18-wheeler, coast to coast with their beautiful orange mother truckin’ cat, Maggie. While big rig runaways, they both achieved their college degrees online. Summer taught 9th grade Reading at David Crockett High School in Austin, Texas. Room #205 became a magic place, where books and hearts were matched. Championed by her students, Summer applied for an MFA in Creative Writing in 2015. She braced for rejection. She is now a proud 2019 graduate with her MFA in Fiction from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.