Michelle Houts holds degrees in special education and speech-language pathology. She is the author of several fiction and nonfiction books for young readers, including the award-winning The Beef Princess of Practical County, The Practical County Drama Queen, and Winterfrost. Erica Magnus has enjoyed applying her fine art skills as a freelance artist to children's books as author and illustrator, for film and television as concept and creature design artist, and as a teacher. Happily back in Athens County, Ohio, where she raised her daughters, she now works from her Amesville studio. Meadows and woodlands surround her tiny home, where she lives with her first and deepest love, nature.