Shirley Rousseau Murphy is the author of over 40 books, including the award-winning Joe Grey cat mystery series and three other novels for adults, the Dragonbards Trilogy and more for young adults, and many books for children. She grew up in southern California, riding and showing the horses her father trained. After attending the San Francisco Art institute she worked as an interior designer, and later exhibited paintings and welded metal sculpture in the West Coast juried shows. Her work could also be seen in many traveling shows in the western States and Mexico. "When my husband Pat and I moved to Panama for a four-year tour in his position with the U. S . Courts, I put away the paints and welding torches, and began to write," she says. After leaving Panama, they lived in Oregon, Atlanta, and northern Georgia. During that time she wrote her children's and YA books, winning five Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists awards.Murphy now lives in Carmel, California, to which she and her husband moved when he retired as Chief U.S. Probation Officer for the Northern District of Georgia. She has so far published 19 books in the Joe Grey series and is working on another. She welcomes email from her readers, which can be sent to srm@srmurphy.com or through the contact form at her website www.srmurphy.com.