When I was a kid, I lived 24 different places in the state of West Virginia, including an abandoned post office, a tent, and a red cargo van. Now I live in a regular old house, which I love even though it has fake bricks in the living room. I've got two cats, three dogs, a horse, and a partner who's really good at cooking. I love writing, but I also love my other job, which is teaching special education. In fact, I wrote my first novel, LIVVIE OWEN LIVED HERE, as part of a class project I assigned to my students!

      

LEFT: Chilling by the river (Photo by Jake Lilly)
RIGHT: Sharing a good book with my friend Mike (photo by Beverly McCoy)


A few of the places I've lived
(All photos by my sister, Jennifer Lynch):





And my deep, dark secret ...



Many of the characters I write about have bratty little sisters. But according to the photographic evidence, it's possible that the bratty little sister in my own story was ... well ... me!

LEFT: Me, Jennifer, and Heather.  RIGHT: Heather, Jennifer, and me. We liked to put Jennifer in the middle so people would stop referring to us as "three little stair-steps." I mean, that gets old, people. (Mertie Dooley took both these photos and Jennifer Lynch rediscovered them.)