Anneliese Rider

There are a few things in life that I really, really love: family, Jesus, biking, teenagers, writing, donuts, and fun. I grew up in Colorado (mountains—YAY), rounded out my teenage years in Indiana (Great Lakes—YAY), and attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, where I earned my BA in Communications, met Curtis (he’s very wonderful), and learned editing and customer service skills from The Greats. Somewhere in there Curtis and I got married, moved across the country, had a baby, acquired a dozen-or-so dogs (mostly gone now), some ducks (they’re gone too, waterfowl is not my specialty), some cats, and 12 acres of woods and streams and apple trees. We live in a one-stoplight town in middle-of-nowhere Michigan where everybody knows everybody (mostly because they’re related), and nothing is open after 9 p.m. I’m thoroughly charmed by small-town life, and wouldn’t chose to live anywhere else on the planet. Curtis is a youth pastor and I’m an author and middle school librarian, and we’re passionate about teenagers—but our real job is raising our son to love Jesus and love people. In all the world, nothing has taken hold of me like Christ.