ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kentucky Connection: I grew up in a small town in Kentucky, a town much like Mountain City. As I have written and told stories, I almost begin to believe that there is no such thing as fiction--or, as a good friend of mine said recently, maybe everything is fiction.

The Name's the Thing: Like Callie Harp, I was named for my mother's dreaded aunt. My full name is Mautrecia Ann. I go by Trecia, but I don't know why I never just called myself Ann. No one ever pronounces my name correctly or spells it right. I finally just shortened it to Trece, but I answer to just about any variation of this name inherited from my great aunt Mautrecia.

The Birth of the Story: I clearly remember a night almost thirty years ago when I was supposed to be getting ready to go to Portland to hear Buddy Fite play jazz guitar. I love Buddy Fite's music, but my old portable typewriter was on the desk in the bedroom, and the rain pelted down on the roof of the A-frame house my partner and I had rented, and it reminded me of Kentucky. I sat down at that typewriter and I began what would become almost thirty years later When Lois Lane Sings. While that story perked in me, I wrote The Laws of Eleanor and Portrait of Peninsula Woman.

About the Author: According to Brenda Miles, Vancouver, WA., and Gayle Borchard of Long Beach, WA.