Cheryl and Mel Hodde (pronounced Hoddee), is a Christian marriage writing team, under the pseudonym of Hannah Alexander, to incorporate their two names into one. Their pastor, the Brother Ron organized a romantic date for they. Mel is a doctor, and Cheryl was excited, because she needed to paralyze someone, in fiction of course like she explained to him after his initial shock. They have loved working together ever since that first meeting. Their specialty is medical romantic suspense. They dreamed of their chosen professions since they were children. Mel remembers the decision he made when he was ten years old to become a physician. At the time his dream was to be an old-time country doctor who knew all his patients as well as he knew his own family, prayed for them, and sometimes even accepted chickens for payment. Although his career didn't develop in the way he expected, he can't imagine anything more rewarding, especially now that he is able to incorporate his knowledge into novels with his wife. Cheryl remembers composing songs and stories before she knew her ABC's. When she wrote her first romance novel in 1985 she realized that no romance, and no life, can be right without Christ at the center, and so that was how she wrote—with Christ at the center. After she and Mel got married in 1995, they worked together on rewrites of her previous manuscripts. Together they generated ideas for a own story. With Mel's medical input, encouragement and help with plotting, and Cheryl's writing skills, they developed their first novel together, and called it Sacred Trust. Bethany House published it in 1999. Cheryl and Mel live in the Missouri Ozarks, where they like to set the majority of their books.