Cat Shaffer, the daughter of a farmer and a school teacher, grew up loving to read and with lots of time on her hands. That love of reading soon grew into a love of writing, and her vivid imagination had her winning her first fiction award in the fourth grade.A native Ohioan, Cat lives in northeastern Kentucky and works in a town even smaller than where she resides. That exposure to small town is obvious in her works, which showcase the myriad characters that populate her Midwestern-set novels.Endless wishing during her formative years for something exciting to happen may be the reason she happily writes mostly suspense, where she can make anything she wants happen at any time she'd like.Reviewers have been generous in their praise of her works; so have readers, which is why she shuts herself away in that attic garret with her beloved Sheltie and semi-beloved cat instead of spending every waking moment watching DVDs of The X-Files.