Susan Cooper is one of my favorite authors. Discover her and her books at her website.

J.K. Rowling is of course one of my personal heroines. Here is the link for her official website.

Ember lives in an area of North Carolina that was the original home of the Cherokee Indians. Cherokee Indian legends will be referenced in my books, and I will also have some Cherokee Indian characters in future books. Learn more about Cherokee culture and history here on the cultural page of the official Cherokee website.

In the second book, the Cherokee language will be part of the story. To learn words in Cherokee try these two links.

Cherokee/English dictionary-- Type in an English word and it will give you the Cherokee word!

If you want to scan through a list of words translated into Cherokee, this is the site. It also shows how to write the word in Cherokee!