Every story
has wings
waiting to grow.

Chris C. Johnsen

Forged in Faith Saga · Little Lottie Series

Chris C. Johnsen is an author, educator, and Certified Safety Professional whose writing explores faith, sacrifice, grief, and human resilience. His fascination with Nauvoo grew from family history and time spent walking the city’s streets, studying its historic sites, and learning about the ordinary families who built a community there before being driven west.

Both Chris and his wife, Kaylynn, descend from early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who lived, worked, and worshipped in Nauvoo. Among Chris’s ancestors was his third great-grandfather, Miles Romney, an English convert who gathered to Nauvoo in 1841 and later became a respected Utah architect. These connections inspired Chris to tell the stories of people whose faith was forged through persecution, displacement, loss, and the difficult journey west.

A retired United States Air Force veteran, Chris has devoted much of his professional career to occupational safety, health, and environmental management. His articles have appeared in the American Society of Safety Professionals’ Professional Safety Journal. He has also served as a professor for Brigham Young University–Idaho and BYU–Pathway Worldwide, teaching and mentoring students preparing for careers in occupational safety and health.

Chris writes under the imprint of Ugly Duckling Press, LLC. By Covenant and Cannon Fire is the first novel in his Forged in Faith Saga, a historical-fiction series following families shaped by the defining events of the Latter-day Saint westward migration.

Kaylynn Johnsen

Cherubs · Little Lottie Series

Kaylynn Johnsen is an author of children’s books whose stories explore childhood, family, resilience, understanding, and the wonderfully different ways children experience the world.

She is the author of the Little Lottie series, including Lottie’s Breakfast, Lottie Is a Dandelion, and Lottie Is on the Spectrum. Inspired by children and families whose experiences are not always represented in traditional picture books, the Little Lottie stories encourage empathy, acceptance, and understanding while celebrating the individuality of every child.

Kaylynn makes her middle-grade debut with Cherubs, her first novel for older young readers. Blending science fiction, suspense, mystery, and just enough creepiness to keep the pages turning, Cherubs follows twelve-year-old Sarah as strange, irresistibly lovable creatures begin appearing throughout her community. While everyone else seems enchanted by them, Sarah senses that something is terribly wrong. Cherubs is the first book in a planned series that expands Kaylynn’s storytelling into darker and more adventurous territory while remaining accessible to younger readers.

Kaylynn has been developing her craft for years and has participated in StoryStorm. She was a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), Southwest Writers, and Sisters in Crime.

A mother of four adult children and grandmother of six, life with her U.S. Air Force husband took her and their family to communities around the world and gave her a broad collection of people, places, and experiences from which to draw inspiration.

Whether she is writing about a little girl learning to navigate the world in her own way or a thirteen-year-old trying to convince everyone that the adorable alien creature at their feet may want to eat them, Kaylynn writes stories about young people finding the courage to trust themselves, understand others, and face what comes next.

Her books are published through Ugly Duckling Press, LLC.