Dave Barry was born in Armonk, New York on July 3, 1947. He received an English degree from Haverford College in 1969. His early attempts at small-town journalism for the Daily Local News in West Chester, Pennsylvania, were directed towards local matters, such as zoning and sewage. In 1975, he briefly attempted to teach business writing to business people. Since then, he has worked as a professional humorist. For many years he wrote a newspaper column that appeared in more than 500 newspapers and for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He is the author of numerous fiction, nonfiction, and young adult books. His novels include Big Trouble, Tricky Business, Lunatics, and Insane… City. His nonfiction works include Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys, Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States, I'll Mature When I'm Dead, and You Can Date Boys When You're Forty: Dave Barry on Parenting and Other Topics He Knows Very Little About. His young adult books include the Starcatchers series and Never Land series.
Ridley Pearson was born in Glen Cove, New York on March 13, 1953. He was raised in Connecticut and attended Kansas University and Brown University. In the early 1970s, Pearson was a musician and songwriter for a rock band, eventually writing more than 300 songs and the score for an award-winning documentary. He is still musically active, playing bass for the "literary garage band", Rock Bottom Remainders. Having honed his craft writing scripts for television shows such as Columbo and Quincy, he turned to writing and published his first novel, Never Look Back, in 1985. Pearson received the Raymond Chandler Fulbright Fellowship at Oxford University in 1991 and has since published a number of… novels, including The Angel Maker, No Witnesses and Beyond Recognition. These works are characterized by an attention to technical detail and forensic accuracy. He has also published many children's books, including The Kingdom Keepers series and a series of prequels to Peter Pan written with Dave Barry.