By the time she hit Grade Four, Laura Tobias knew she was going to be a writer. So did the teachers. It was the persistent daydreaming and invisible friends that tipped them off.

Since Laura grew up knowing no writers – and consequently didn’t know how to be one – she became a journalist instead. First in print and then on TV. Among other things, this meant wearing heavy-duty TV makeup and getting recognized in public, often when buying underwear.  The upside (to the TV gig, not the underwear issue) was it gave her unlimited access to criminals, celebrities and basically anyone else she wanted to pester. And they had to answer her questions!

Much to her disappointment, many of their answers were uninspired or heavily edited. Laura knew she could make up better stories than the ones they told, and she figured the end result would be way more readable and a lot more interesting. Her bosses didn’t buy it. Journalists are expected to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Which Laura did. In as few words as possible. As much as it killed her. For a lot of years.

But when her first child was born, Laura traded one reality (criminals and celebrities) for another (diapers and drool) and decided she would explore the truth in fiction. In other words, she was going to daydream for the rest of her life and get paid for it. So she turned to writing romance and women’s fiction. And her dreams, which just get better, haven’t stopped since.

Laura Tobias lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with a pair of Shetland Sheepdogs, her high school sweetheart (aka The Martian), and her son (Teen Freud) who recently got his driver’s license and is muttering about driving across North America this summer (You’ve been warned). She’s also the award-winning author of 16 books for teens and children writing as Laura Langston. (www.lauralangston.com)

If she isn’t writing or reading, Laura is probably in the garden, spying on people at the grocery store or planning her next meal. Her first word was cookie, her second was book, and her priorities haven’t changed since. She hates lima beans and liver, adores popcorn with too much butter, and thinks travel is the best education in the world.