Eileen Maddocks was born and raised in the northeast state of Maine in the United States. Her mother, who was raised in the Millerite tradition in the Advent Christian Church, studied and pondered Christian history and theology on her own and became a Sunday School teacher in the Universalist Church. The stories of the Advent Christian grandparents and their church’s tent meetings were family lore but Eileen was raised in liberal Protestantism.

This dual world fostered a need to seek and search spiritual truth. She received a bachelor degree in liberal arts and then married and had two children. Soon a single parent, she worked as a secretary and sales representative to raise her children. Always a spiritual seeker, she went to various Christian churches but did not find the answers to her questions. Then she explored New Age concepts for many years.

Then in 1989, just when the bottom had seemed to drop out of her life, she discovered the Baha'i Faith and subsequently served at the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa, Israel, for 16 years as a researcher and writer. Upon retirement, she returned to her New England heritage and is now a writer and editor living in the bucolic state of Vermont where billboards are banned.

Her best description of herself is that of a curious student, always trying to learn. She endeavours to write in a manner designed to encourage readers to seek and explore for themselves. Her study of the life and mission of William Miller led to a deeply empathic appreciation for him. The author’s cerebral lifestyle is balanced with a serious study of ballet and four seasons of performing in Farm to Ballet, a summer production of Ballet Vermont that brings classical ballet to Vermont farm venues. Every year over 5,000 people watch this dance celebration of life on a Vermont farm from spring through fall. Its performances raise money for many nonprofit agricultural organisations.