Coral Atkinson, Irish by birth, New Zealander by experience, originally trained as a secondary school teacher. She is the author of several education textbooks that are widely used in New Zealand schools along with other non-fiction publications. More recently she has also been writing fiction.

In 1999, Coral and her husband Wolfgang Kreutzer were the inaugural winners of the Listener/ITAG web fiction award. They now run a web design business Dancing Tuatara.

Coral spent a number of years working in book publishing and continues as guest lecturer oat the Whitiriea Community Polytechnic Publishing course. She joined Daphne Brasell Associates as promotions manager in 1991 and subsequently worked as manager of the Lincoln University Press/Daphne Brasell partnership and for Dunmore Press.

Coral, who herself is in mid-life, divorced after 24 years of marriage. She has two sons of 22 and 15 years of age and has faced many of the issues highlighted in this book. She remarried late last year.

Paula Wagemaker was born and educated in Invercargill and attended University in Dunedin. Since then she has worked in the publishing industry in both New Zealand and the United States for over 20 years.

During that time she has held writing, editing, management and training roles in a variety of publishing houses and situations, including three years as tutor of the Whitireia Publishing Course. She has run her own business as a freelance editor and publishing consultant, on either a part-time or full-time basis, since 1987 and has written several small books on the publishing process along with magazine and journal articles on various topics.

Paula moved to Christchurch from Wellington several years ago, after the breakdown of her marriage. She has a teenage daughter, is in a new committed relationship, and like Coral has worked through many of the issues facing 'recycled people'.