Bill (Allen Billy) Crider was born July 28, 1941, in Mexia, Texas. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1963, a Master's degree from North Texas State University in 1966, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. Crider taught in high school for two years, followed by college teaching at Howard Payne University. From 1983 forward, he taught at Alvin Community College, where he chaired the English Department.

Crider is a prolific writer who writes in a variety of genres, including mysteries, westerns, horror, and young adult novels. He was best known for his mystery novels, particularly the "Sheriff Dan Rhodes" series. Crider is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Private Eye Writers League, and the Western Writers of America. He has been awarded the "Anthony Award" for best first novel (Too Late to Die), and the "Golden Duck Award" for best the best juvenile science fiction novel of 1998 (Mike Gonzo and the UFO Terror).

Bill Crider passed away on February 12, 2018, at his home in Alvin, TX, from cancer.

Robert Skinner was born in Alexandria, VA in 1948. He has degrees in history (B.A., Old Dominion University, 1970) and library science (M.L.S., Indiana University, 1977) and studied creative writing at the University of New Orleans from 1990-1992. He authored or co-authored four different books dealing with the career of African-American novelist Chester Himes (a mutual love of Himes brought Skinner together in friendship with Bill Crider) , and six novels set in Depression-era New Orleans. Those hard-boiled crime novels feature Wesley Farell, a gambler and bon-vivant who is also an African-American man passing as white. They were published between 1998-2002.

Skinner's stories have appeared in Xavier Review, War, Literature & the Arts, Louisiana Literature, STORYGLOSSIA, and PlotsWithGuns.com. He is a regular contributor to FIRSTS: The Book Collector's Magazine, for which he has written essays on Elmore Leonard, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Benjamin Capps, Bernard Cornwell, and Robert Morgan, to name a few.

In 2013 he retired as University Librarian at Xavier University of Louisiana after 26 years in service there.