Embrace your inner witch.  Not in a black hat, cauldron kind of way. In a reclaiming-your-power kind of way.

I was five years old when I told my mother I wanted to be a witch for Halloween. She made me a homemade costume, like any decent mom would in 1964. I looked at myself in the mirror and screamed in terror.

From that day until I was a rebellious teen, I rejected Halloween and anything scary. In fact, I was very shy and quiet—a reader of horse books and a collector of realistic woodland collectables. My parents worried about my introversion, but my observational skills and imagination took me to places that were award-winning (this is a teaser for what's ahead).

Since then, I’ve been spinning my love for mystery, family drama, and magical worlds into Witchery Cove short stories to soothe what ails us during these times. For me, that means a reader should be able to sit down with whatever they need to eat, drink, or smoke, and enjoy a story with familiar characters who have problems like them, but with magic. And spice!

I grew up on the southern coast of Maine and now live on the midcoast, but the Atlantic is my home. It’s where I scavenge history and sea stories. I’m just as passionate about the woods and their creatures as I believe strongly that we’re all part of the whole and that we can live more carefully toward the earth. If I’m not writing, I’m out with my dog, Ponce De Leon, trimming our paths, cleaning up a garden, painting, doing fiber arts by the fire, or wildcrafting.

I won the Edgar Award for Buried, the Best Young Adult Mystery Novel in 2007, under my other pen name, Robin Merrow MacCready.

P.S. In case you're wondering, I now see Halloween as my yearly do-over. I dress up without screaming, unless I choose to, and I can be whomever I want to be!