Born and raised a California Girl, Karen Shafer currently resides in a small town outside Sacramento. Married for fifteen years and mother to two growing boys, she juggles soccer and guitar practice with writing deadlines. Extremely introverted as a child, Karen adopted literary heroines as her kindred spirits, traveling with them on journeys of the imagination. Her passion for storytelling translated into a career teaching English to 150 angsty teenagers. She has also used her gift of teaching over the past ten years as a servant leader in the children’s ministry at her home church. In her spare minutes, she enjoys taking photos of wildflowers, learning to ride horseback and having superhero movie nights with her two sons.