Joyce Brogdon | Bill Brogdon | Ellen Bynum | William Schrock

Joyce Sidey Brogdon
Author

Joyce began her writing career in kindergarten, in a small country schoolhouse located on the East Coast of England. She was a foster child from Dr. Barnardos Children's Home in London. Her first writing attempt was a childish poem penned for her beloved foster father. He received it well and encouraged her to continue practicing. At the tender age of ten, she set her heart on writing about the old house that captivated her imagination, in which she lived with her foster family. Throughout the next sixty years she kept the details for the book stored in her mind while she worked on "practicing" and developing her writing skills.

She has written numerous articles and stories for various organizations and local papers over the years, and in 1969 she completed her first full-length book. It was a church history, complete with dozens of photographs for a fund-raising project for her church's new building.

In 2003 she wrote Majuba House, her own story of growing up in England during World War II. It details her life as a foster child, living in a quaint little village in Suffolk, during the time of air-raid shelters, blackouts and incendiary bombs. It tells also of her immigration to the United States as a GI bride, and of her wonderful experience of coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior four days before her 18th Birthday.

Her newest book The Gold Chaser is a biographic account of Edmund Kavanagh. It is the story of a remarkably talented Irishman whose skill as a gold and silver repoussé artist is known in many countries of the world. This book combines a cameo of the artist with magnificent illustrations and descriptions of his famous art works.

She is married to her retired Coast Guard husband, Bill, who in addition to being her best friend and stalwart companion is also an accomplished writer and editor. During his service career they moved often, so her college education was gained from many different Universities. She received her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Texas and her master's degree from the University of Southern Maine. They have four grown children and six delightful grandchildren.

 

Bill Brogdon
Retired Coast Guard Captain, Author

Bill Brogdon was a retired Captain in the U.S. Coast Guard, who graduated from the Coast Guard Academy and served for 30 years as a commissioned officer, including command of three ships. He operated sail and motor boats since childhood and had extensive experience instructing in many aspects of boat and ship operation and navigation.

He began writing in 1978, and after retiring from the Coast Guard he worked as a writer in seamanship, boat safety, and navigation subjects. In all, he wrote over 350 articles for national level boating magazines. He collected and analyzed data from the marine electronic positioning systems in order to understand and explain their capabilities and limitations. He made a specialty of learning, testing, using, and teaching simple methods of navigation, in addition to the electronic ones.

In 1995, International Marine/McGraw-Hill published his book, Boat Navigation for the Rest of Us, featured on this web site. He revised the book in 2001 to reflect the rapid advance in marine electronics technology.

 

Ellen Whitman Bynum
Author

Ellen Bynum was born in Massachusetts and brought up in Florida. She holds undergraduate degrees in English and Spanish, with a minor in French, from Florida State University in Tallahassee. After her marriage to Joseph C. Bynum, the couple moved to Jacksonville, North Carolina.

She received her master's degree in education with a major in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught Spanish in the public schools in Jacksonville until her retirement.

She and her husband of 61 years have enjoyed extensive foreign and domestic travel, including visits to children and grandchildren. On an early trip to the Holy Land, she caught the ideas which led to the writing of a series of fourteen biblical historical novels entitled THE EAGLE AND THE STONE, covering the period between Passion Week in 33 A.D. through 42 A.D. These consecutive novels deal with the Early Church, as seen through the eyes of the Romans The first two are already in print. Book III, The Promise Keeper, will be published very soon.

Ellen says: "I wrote my series for the glory of God and for the inspiration, edification, and enjoyment of my readers; as God wills, I shall keep on publishing."

 

William E. Schrock
Author

William E. Schrock was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1930. He graduated from Lillis High School in Kansas City in 1948 and immediately joined the U.S. Air Force. During his 25 years in the Air Force he was stationed in Germany, Korea, Viet Nam, North Africa, England and all over the U.S  including Alaska. 

He began writing poetry at an early age as a means of focusing thoughts and ideas about life.  Many of his poems were lost along the way, however his later works were saved and are now presented for all to enjoy.