Jane Beckenham's Story:
Jane Beckenham is the New Zealand half of the writing duo - Janelle Benham. Jane and Ellen met via a romance writing loop on the Internet. Together as Janelle Benham, they have written A Woman of Valor. This book is written by two woman over the internet, in two different countries, and who have never met.
Jane, married with two daughters, lives close to the beach in New Zealand. Life has never been the same since she and her husband adopted their girls from Russia nearly four years ago. A keen traveler, reader, and decorator, Jane now works in the personnel industry. Introduced to the idea of writing when talking with friends on the Internet, it gave Jane the courage to take her first step to realize a lifelong dream.
Ellen Ben-Sefer's story:
E. J. Ben-Sefer is the transplanted American Jewish half of the team currently in Sydney. Fifteen years of life in Israel provided ample time to appreciate the complexity of life in that country. She says she has done it all in a life spent all around the world. She has worked as a nurse in a teaching hospital in Jerusalem, been a member of a kibbutz, a university lecturer, wife, mother, and writer. She "speaks"' to Jane daily via icq and email. Interestingly, they have never met but feel as if they know each other and wrote the book through cyber connections, daily discussing the coming chapters on icq. EJ is currently working on a mystery and contemporary.
E.J. divides her time between writing with four books due out in 2001 with Starlight publications, teaching university, and writing her doctoral dissertation when not chasing after her children. With such a hectic lifestyle, E. J. says the secret is use time wisely and appreciate Shabbos, something Sam learns to do in A Woman of Valor.