Rita Schellenberg is a Southern author born and raised in rural Virginia. Her mother, primarily a homemaker raising six children and her father a Korean war vet, taught Rita at a young age that life was not without the struggles that help to shape our character. Although daily living meant work, her family often took the time to enjoy fishing, crabbing, and clamming off the coasts of the Eastern shore. Rita now lives in the foothills of Virginia with her husband, John, and their two rightfully spoiled rescue kitties. She spends her free time gardening, reading, and mastering the art of brick oven cooking—and yes she still visits the shore to fish, clam, crab, and swim in the beautiful briny waters.

After many years of working by day and taking classes at night, Rita earned a PhD and license in counseling and serves as a professor for both religious and secular universities. She has enjoyed a successful writing career in the non-fiction market. Moving forward, she plans to focus on works of fiction grounded in truth believing that it is the truth within the fiction that moves and inspires us, revealing the best and the worst of humanity and all that lies in between. Like Stephen King said, “good fiction is the truth inside the lie.”