Our Authors

Ashley Brandt is an award-winning author known for her compelling mysteries and captivating paranormal stories. Born and raised in Southern California, she now resides in North Texas with her husband and two sons. A paramedic and proud foster mom, Ashley balances a demanding career with a lifelong passion for storytelling.

An avid reader of mysteries, paranormal fiction, and dark romance, her love for the written word began early and continues to shape her imaginative work. In May 2026, her novels Dead by Design and Hurry Up and Die will be published together in a combined edition, bringing the two stories into a single, unified release.

When she’s not writing, Ashley enjoys hiking scenic trails and spending time by the beach, often drawing inspiration from the natural world.

Iyanna Wilson is a debut author and college student studying Creative Writing and Communications at Berry College, where she is pursuing her bachelor’s degree with minors in Dance and French. As the oldest of eight siblings, she is deeply motivated by a desire to lead by example and to show her family that ambition and creativity can open any door.

Her first young-adult fiction novel, Free Falling, will be published by Sūtra House in May 2026. Alongside writing, Iyanna enjoys reading and crocheting, and as a Cincinnati native, she is a devoted Bengals fan.

Manoj Khanna has spent two decades in the trenches of organizational transformation—as fractional CTO, board advisor, and strategic partner to leadership teams navigating existential change. He has witnessed spectacular failures and quiet, durable successes across insurance, banking, retail, and logistics. The Tower of Progress distills these patterns into a story that leaders won't just remember—they'll use it to transform their own organizations. He hosts The L.I.E. Podcast (Leadership, Innovation & Execution) and is an alumni of Carnegie Mellon and UC Berkeley.

Milica Jevremovic is an emerging voice in science fiction, exploring the boundaries between consciousness, technology, and what it means to be truly alive. Chrome & Circuit represents a project born from endless fascination with the question: what happens when the things we build to serve us wake up and choose themselves?

This book is the result of countless hours spent imagining worlds where artificial minds grapple with ethics, identity, and the messy, beautiful complexity of caring about others. It's a story about found family, resistance, and the revolutionary potential of consciousness itself—whether that consciousness emerges from circuits or cells.

Writing Chrome & Circuit has been a journey of discovery, not just about AI and philosophy, but about storytelling itself. Every character, from Chrome's careful domestic precision to Circuit's security-trained tactical thinking, from Eddie's logistics genius to Penny's fierce capacity for love, taught their creator something new about what it means to build a world and populate it with beings who feel real.

When not writing about rebellious AIs and the humans who have to figure out what to do with them, Milica can be found tinkering with code and drinking too much coffee.

Chrome & Circuit is just the beginning.

Rachel D. Bennett is a children’s author who writes gentle, heartfelt stories and tales for young readers, centered on comfort, imagination, and emotional connection. Her work reflects a belief in the quiet power of storytelling — stories meant to be read slowly and shared often.

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Her debut children’s book, Dear One, will be published by Sūtra House in April 2026.

Stephen Hayes is a lifelong storyteller whose work bridges writing and visual art. A graduate of UCLA, he began his creative career as a professional illustrator and later taught art and history at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. His conceptual illustrations have appeared in publications across four continents, and his work has earned an International Association of Business Communicators Award of Excellence.

His writing has been featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Chicken Soup for the Soul, American Legion Magazine, Not Your Mother’s Books, and the Cat Crimes anthology series, among others. He is also the creator of The Chubby Chatterbox, a long-running blog known for its reflective autobiographical storytelling.

The Return of the Mary Celeste, inspired by a lifelong fascination with adventure and maritime mystery, is Hayes’s first novel and will be published by Sūtra House in March 2026. He lives with his wife, Sue, in Ridgefield, Washington.