Anne Warren Smith

I was lucky to grow up in Ticonderoga, a paper mill town in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. I loved the snow in the winter. We skated on the lakes, raced our sleds, and built igloos. My high school class had only 33 students, so every one of us felt special.

I live most of the year in Corvallis, Oregon, where I was Mom to two daughters and a step-daughter. I spend winters in Tucson, Arizona, where I like to walk the desert trails and watch for Roadrunners, a cool bird even though they don't really say, "Beep, beep."

When I'm not writing or reading, I make jewelry with tiny beads, play my harp, or swim laps at the pool. My blog: http://annewarrensmith.wordpress.com.

I teach creative writing classes to grown-ups -- something I love doing. I also lead workshops for kids in the schools and for adults at writers' conferences. My personal essays have been published in literary journals.

The Katie Jordan series published by A. Whitman started with "Turkey Monster Thanksgiving." "Tails of Spring Break" came out in paperback in January of 2012, and the hardback version of "Bittersweet Summer" was published in March of 2012. A fourth book, "Second-Chance Summer," is planned for March of 2013. My earlier books for kids were "Blue Denim Blues" and "Sister in the Shadow," both published by Atheneum.