Madeline ffitch is the author of Valparaiso, Round the Horn, a collection of short fiction. She was a founding member of the punk theater company, The Missoula Oblongata. She is at work on her first novel, of which "The Vertical Frontier" is the first chapter. Madeline lives and writes in Appalachian Ohio, where she raises ducks, goats, and her small son, Nector Vine.