Greetings, fellow adventurer!

Author Preeti C. Sharma here! Magic has always fascinated me, from the witch costume my mother stitched me for Halloween when I was in kindergarten, to butterflies emerging from cocoons, to hot air balloons rising to heaven, dotting the sky like confetti. The best magic, the most everlasting kind, I discovered from my father’s bedtime stories of Aladdin and Sinbad and later during Sunday trips to the library to bring home a stack of books to treasure for the week. I’d curl up in the oversized brown armchair and finish a couple of volumes before bedtime.

In high school, leisure reading time vanished, just like the black and orange witch costume, to the realm of fond memories while I labored over homework in the back room of my father’s store. I’d spend holidays and summers with my nose buried in a book, my parents despairing that I couldn’t learn everything a well-rounded adult needs to know, just from reading. Around that time, a cousin introduced me to romance novels … effectively proving my parents wrong.

I started writing stories almost as soon as I learned to write, spinning fanciful tales and penning real, stamped letters to distant relatives. It took ten years and more, but I finished my first novel and most of its sequel before burying them under the bed never to be heard from again.

Meanwhile, I earned my first black belt and graduated from the University of Texas with a chemical engineering degree. I packed my bags for Houston’s Ship Channel, where I spent my first fulltime job making rocket fuel.

I rediscovered the library after my job moved me to Baton Rouge, just before Hurricane Katrina. They had a phenomenal strategy at the East Baton Rouge Parish main branch, which had a massive YA section and stayed open till 10PM Sunday through Thursday, making it a great place for a single gal to keep herself company while friends were spending time with their families and the martial arts school was closed.

A dashing hero rescued me from the wicked Gustav, who was intent on reducing Baton Rouge to dust, and whisked me away to Atlanta, where we currently make our home, along with a couple of munchkins and an imaginary 2-year-old Australian shepherd rescue we call Billy.