Steve Wiegenstein grew up in the eastern Missouri Ozarks and roams its backwoods and roads every chance he gets. The Black River and the Annapolis Branch Library were his two main haunts as a kid, and they remain his Mecca and Medina to this day. He is a longtime scholar of the 19th century Icarian movement in America, which provided the inspiration for the Daybreak series. He particularly enjoyed weaving the real-life story of Sam Hildebrand, the notorious Confederate bushwhacker who murdered one of Steve’s ancestors--into the first novel in the series, Slant of Light. Steve and his wife, Sharon Buzzard, both academics, live in Columbia, MO.