Amanda L. Webster (Mandy) grew up in central Illinois, where she spent much of her childhood playing outside, imagining fantastic new worlds, and writing stories. After a brief stint in the United States Air Force that took her to Texas, Hawaii, and North Dakota, she earned her master of arts in professional writing/creative writing from Mount Mary University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has since returned to central Illinois to work as a media manager at a state university while also teaching part-time at a local community college and writing novels in the spaces between. Mandy lives with her two sons and two cats.