Ruth Lampi has been writing since she could first articulate the adventures of her imaginary friends, and drawing since she could grip a crayon. She earned a BFA in Fine Art from Moore College of Art and Design, where she created figurative and architectural sculptures in clay, paper, wax, and welded steel. After graduation she continued to work with clay, and traveled the nation with money from the Von Hess fellowship, meeting potters and visiting the breathtaking landscapes of the American West and Southwest, whose lines and colors influenced her visual style.Ruth is both a published writer and illustrator. Her illustration credits include character portraits for White Silver Publishing's Chronicles of Ramlar, interior art for Machine Age Productions' Maschine Zeit and Amaranthine, and for the two BadAss Fairies anthologies. For Goodman Games, she has written several adventure modules and co-authored Heroes' Handbook: Eladrin. Most recently, her writing has appeared in Foreshadows: The Ghost of Zero.Ruth grew up in rural Wisconsin, and has been writing since she was the age of the characters in the Blackfeather Chronicles. Ruth invented the prototypes of the Blackfeather children and their friends when she was thirteen. At that time, Ruth directed and acted in a play, wrote and/or outlined an unlikely number of novels, and indulged in a great deal of cartography, world building and costume design. Today she resides in Oklahoma and continues with these pursuits while also living a nomadic existence as a vendor at anime, sci-fi and fantasy conventions.The worlds you'll find imagined in her books are her own, but are influenced by what she loves. In no particular order, some of her favorite writers are Dorothy L. Sayers, Lloyd Alexander, Lois McMaster Bujold, Patricia McKillip, Madeline L'Engle, Ursula Le Guin, and of course C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Ruth also confesses a childhood love of Astrid Lindgren and Carol Ryrie Brink. Ruth's artistic influences include Caspar David Friedrich, Alan Lee, and Howard Pyle, but most especially the fairy tale illustrations of Trina Schart Hyman.