Michael The Brave and The Silver Apple

Susan Ogden Benting grew up picking and chopping cotton, irrigating fields of cotton and alfalfa, riding horses, and working cattle on a farm and ranch in New Mexico, USA.By the age of 19, she had traveled around the world alone, living with residents of each country she visited, following a year as a Rotary Exchange student in Australia.Susan received a degree in Athletic Training at NMSU and was a licensed massage therapist and Realtor. She is the mother of two and grandmother of four.An artist, editor, lyricist, proofreader, poet, songwriter, short story and screenwriter, Susan met Takezo online while playing bridge during the COVID-19 pandemic. They continue to collaborate, although they have yet to meet in person.Takezo Art’s real name is Constantin Mircea Roșu, a Romanian writer, engineer, painter, and musician. He writes under the name of his painting business, Takezo Art. Always moving between logic and wonder, his background is in engineering, but his heart belongs to stories, colors, sounds, and the silence that surrounds them all.Constantin writes when he is inspired, not by routine but by a spark—a memory, a voice, or a fleeting moment. His fiction often explores distant worlds, inner storms, and the invisible threads that bind peopleto one another.In collaboration with Susan Ogden Benting from the United States, he hasco-authored many books, a body of work born from friendship and a shared passion for imagination and storytelling.He also composes love songs, paints when he cannot write, and plays the guitar when words feel too heavy. For him, art—whether in words, paint, or music—is not an escape from reality, but a way back to the essence ofbeing human.