Hannah Alexander

"You want me to help you WHAT? PARALYZE someone?"

"Only temporarily, of course."

And thus began the writing collaboration known as Hannah Alexander.

Hannah Alexander is the pen name for the multiple award-winning author team Cheryl & Mel Hodde. Their awards include, among others, the Christy Award for Romance, 3 Holt Medallions, a Library Journal Inspirational Fiction Top 5 pick, and Inspirational Reader's Choice Contest. Their recent title A Woman Worth Knowing, was an Amazon #1 Best-Seller in multiple categories.

Hannah means "she whose hope is in the Lord," and Alexander means "servant of mankind." Mel quickly points out "Cheryl is Hannah; I'm Alexander." Cheryl has loved to write since she was 6 years old, fondly recalling rewriting Bonanza episodes in her head at that age. When Mel was ten, his mother said, "Son, as much as you love science and helping people, you should be a doctor," and the idea stuck. As a thirty-year veteran in emergency medicine, Mel makes sure the medical background found in all their books is authentic.

Cheryl and Mel currently are living in Arizona and they love hiking, traveling, going to the zoo, and being in the great outdoors.

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WHEN HANNAH MET ALEXANDER (Cheryl's Viewpoint):

It was a set-up from the beginning, and I wasn't interested. My meddling pastor, Ron, however, had different ideas.

"Cheryl," he said at church one night, "I found a man for you. He's a doctor."

"Are you kidding me? Brother Ron, not interested."

I argued with great vehemence, but when Ron wanted his way, he got it. That night he dragged poor Mel through the church as I tried to escape out the back door. Mel wasn't what I expected, however. He was nothing like the doctors I'd known in the past. He was gentle, shy, intelligent. I got rid of him as soon as I could, of course, but that wasn't the end of it. A few weeks later, while I was eating out with a group of church staff, in walked Mel. Ron gently shoved a young friend of mine from the seat beside me and beckoned to Mel to sit there. The whole staff was in on this set-up. I was amazed, embarrassed, and couldn't think of a thing to say. Neither, apparently, could Mel.

I broke the silence with a discussion of my lifelong passion. "So, you're a doctor? Could you help me paralyze someone?"

You know that "deer-in-the-headlights" look some people get in the presence of serial killers? That was Mel. I saw my mistake immediately. "I'm sorry, it would only be temporary. I'm working on my thirteenth unpublished novel, and I need my character to be paralyzed for part of the story." (You may find the finished product in the Hannah Alexander novel, Urgent Care)

Mel regained color in his face, grinned, and together we brainstormed the pertinent information I needed for the novel. He was so intrigued he eventually read all the manuscripts I had filed away, and when we got married a year and a half later, we formed a team. I began to base my heroes on Mel's strong, ethical, gentle character, and the novels began to sell. We chose the pen name of Hannah Alexander to show that we work together as a unit. I'm the writer who creates our fictional world; Mel is the doctor who researches, edits, even writes some of the medical scenes.

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