About the Author

Before I became a writer, I was a reader - and still am.

I was born in Peterborough, New Hampshire into a family of bookworms, and spent most of my childhood holed up in the library or in my bedroom, reading.  My mother used to say that if Heather had her nose in a book, the house would have to burn down around her before she'd sit up and take notice!  Those are the best books, though, aren't they?  The ones that take your imagination by storm and spirit you off into a different world?

My father was an elementary schoolteacher and principal, and every night before bed he'd read to me and my two younger sisters.  He's a talented actor (he performs in plays on Cape Cod all the time) and always came up with great voices for the characters.  I think his finest role was as Aunt Sponge in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, performed in our living room.

I was also fortunate enough to be born into a family of what my grandmother called "big talkers" - talented storytellers, especially the women.  I loved to hide behind chairs and sofas when my mother and grandmother and aunts got together and eavesdrop on their stories.  My grandmother's were the funniest and the best, and I begged to hear about her childhood in rural Nova Scotia over and over again.

I wrote lots of stories growing up - including a whole novel during rest hours at summer camp one year - and my sisters and I would often put on plays.  Since I was the oldest and bossiest sister, I always got the lead.  Our middle sister, who was skinny and had short hair (the dreaded "pixie cut"), always got stuck with the boy parts, and we made our little sister take the animal roles.  Once, memorably, she was even a vegetable (the pea in The Princess and the Pea).  We had a lot of fun.

The summer after I turned 11, my family moved to England for a while, where we lived in a 300-year-old cottage.  To this day I dream about that house - its cheerful pink kitchen, two-foot-thick stone walls, and especially its thatched roof full of birds.  I still think it's the perfect house.

In college, I majored in English Literature and German.  As a lark during the final quarter of my senior year, I signed up for a children's literature course.  The instructor, a wonderful children's librarian who quickly became a dear friend, rekindled my delight and passion for this genre, and it was then that I decided I would write books for young people some day.

Before that time came, however, I spent a year at the University of Cologne, Germany, as a Fulbright scholar, and when I returned home I married my college sweetheart and became a journalist.  I loved working in the busy newsroom at The Christian Science Monitor, where I wrote and edited feature stories and eventually became the Children's Book Review Editor.  After my two sons were born, I launched a freelance career, and have since written for a number of newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Family Life, Child, and Publishers Weekly, where I was a contributing editor for many years.

Several years ago my family and I moved from New England to the Pacific Northwest.  Today, although the little house we live in here in Oregon is not made of stone, nor does it have a pink kitchen (I'm considering it) or a thatched roof nested with birds, it's as cozy and full of happiness as that English cottage of my childhood - just right for a writer like me!