Melissa Dudek is the author of two novels, Wildfire Summer (iUniverse, 2001) and Catchers, Cows, and Nachos (iUniverse, 2005). Several of her one-act plays have been produced on stage and her full-length work, Serenity, was a prize-winning selection at the 2003 Carolina Contemporary Playwrights Festival. She has spent the last twenty-plus years working in the sports industry, including a ten-year stint in Minor League Baseball and her current position as an assistant director of media relations for the Cavaliers of the University of Virginia. She grew up in Southern California, but currently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia.