Noreen Ayres is the author of three forensics-based suspense novels, and was a Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award nominee. Her stories have been invited into several "Best of (Year)" anthologies. She's won First Prizes and other awards for short stories and poems and has published a poetry collection. A former technical publications editor, she has also taught creative writing at community colleges.Born in California, she now lives in Pennsylvania with a husband and, she notes, too many rescued cats as a result of being a volunteer in "community cat" population control."Reading is my therapy, my yoga, my sport, my time-out, my meditation. Smarter people than I am say reading makes us more empathetic. Why is that good? Because the world is in constant battle to support what civilization has come to know as boosting life instead of defeating it."On the challenge of writing, she says, "Hard-won writing gives something to a reader akin to actual experience in various situations. Author Chuck Palumbo says that's why 'all successful writers once were struggling ones, and ... the successful ones still struggle.' Writing is tough, yes, but not as hard as spreading roof tar on a building in Louisiana heat. I consider myself very much blessed to be able to do this."