Born in Chicago, Ben Thieu Long (pseudonym) was active in the Boy Scouts and earned the coveted God and Country Award. He has retired after a forty-year career in human resources. With expertise in conflict resolution and change management, he worked as an internal consultant in manufacturing, telecommunication, education, and healthcare. However, Ben's life journey has not always been positive. He endured abuse throughout his teen years from his father, a World War II veteran struggling with alcoholism. After three years in college, Ben entered the Army, served in Vietnam, and returned a disillusioned young man. He worked ten years on a General Motors assembly line but answered a calling to follow a path focused on helping others and, in the course, found his way home to spiritual restoration and his faith. Ben has earlier published a 13-volume series entitled Thirteen Moons over Vietnam. The stories are based on his military police duty and highlight war's moral, emotional, and spiritual effects. Darleen Long (pseudonym) contributed stories about her journey toward faith. She has retired after a long career in government, business, healthcare, and the legal profession. Also born in Chicago, her years in Michigan and later Arizona reveal how trials and tribulations, happiness and joy, inform her realistic, yet hopeful, outlook on life.
