Even before I could read, I wanted to tell stories. I'd block out a comic strip and draw stories with stick figures. Later, after I started school, I would climb the willow tree in my backyard, where I'd write in my journal and make lists of favorite words. As a teenager, I wrote poetry and my own Nancy Drew mysteries, but I never imagined being an author. I didn't think authors were real people. I became many other things when I grew up--a teacher, wife, mother, but all the while, I was writing...Linda Crotta Brennan is the Award-winning author of Marshmallow Kisses, Flannel Kisses, North Carolina: Rookie Read About Geography, The Black Regiment of the American Revolution, and a contributor to The American Notable Women Series. Her latest book, Women of the Golden State: 25 California Women You Should Know was published in Fall 2009. Women of the Empire State: 25 New York Women You Should Know is due out soon.