Tamora Pierce, American author best known for young adult fantasy starring young heroines, was born Dec. 13, 1954, in South Connellsville, Penn. Her father worked for the telephone company and her mother wanted to be a teacher. She had two younger sisters, Kimberly and Melanie. She grew up with plenty of books to read, cats and dogs and homing pigeons.

Tamora started writing stories in the sixth grade. Her dad heard her telling stories as she did dishes and suggested she write them down. She wrote stories of young teenaged girl warriors and heroes.

At the age of nine, the family moved to California in a VW bus where dad was transferred with his job. She attended college at Penn in Philadelphia on a full scholarship studying psychology which she never got her degree in. She took several graduate courses and her sheepskin just reads “Bachelor of Arts.”

In 1976, she moved to Kingston, N.Y. to live with her boyfriend. Then, she moved to Idaho, invited by her dad and stepmother to live with them for a while and got a job as a housemother for teenaged girls in a group home. Then, back to New York going to work for a literary agency. She met and married Tim Liebe, a comedy writer and actor, webpage designer/administrator and consumer electronics writer.

Her first book series, The Song of the Lioness, made a name for Tamora. The first book of this series, “Alanna: The First Adventure,” was published in 1983. She has won many awards for her books, including the 2013 Margaret A. Edwards Award.

Tamora loves her life with a successful career in writing and a loving husband living in upstate New York with their many cats, birds, pigeons, raccoons, squirrels and one opossum. The life she dreamed of but never thought she would have.