James D. Wolf Jr. is a writer and journalist currently working for the Monticello Herald Journal in Indiana. His work has appeared in some of the country's largest newspapers—including The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Herald and the Des Moines Register—as well as in various literary journals. One of his prized possessions is a collection of his mother's recipes that his sister put together as a Christmas gift for the four siblings after their mother died unexpectedly at 59.