Gloria Williams Lupo grew up in a small southern town in the 1950s and loves to write about those times. In 1954 when she was in third grade, a new boy in her class convinced her that his puppies were cocker spaniels whose hair would get curly and whose ears would grow to be long and floppy. Gloria took one of the puppies and named him Champ. His hair never got curly, and his ears never got long and floppy. He was a mutt, but he was a good dog. He and another of Gloria's dogs, Miss Sweet Potato, are the inspiration for the dog Champ in her middle-grade novel, Jenny Maybelle and the Cocker Spaniel Who Needed a Perm. Many other incidents in the book actually happened. Needless to say, Gloria never tumbled into the air and flew. Yet, she felt like she would do just that after her mom gave her a home perm that made her hair stick out like airplane wings. Now she enjoys carrying the story of Jenny Maybelle to children not only through her middle-grade novel but through presentations at libraries and schools. Gloria is retired from her work in family social services, elementary education, nursing home activities, television news, and reporting/editing for small-town newspapers in southeast Louisiana.