Carole Estby Dagg lives and writes in her home in Everett, Washington and in her "writer's shack" on San Juan Island.

My grandmother, who claimed some talent as a mystic, predicted that I’d grow up to be a writer. I didn’t think I could write, but I loved to read, so I became a children’s librarian. When the economy slashed budgets for libraries, I became a certified public accountant. Later yet, I found my way back to libraries and became assistant director of Everett Public Library. For twenty-seven years I didn’t write anything more exciting than annual financial reports, building specifications, and grant proposals.

I thought about other writing, though. I filled banker’s boxes and filing drawers with research materials on books about women I admired—including my own Great-aunt Clara and Great-grandmother Helga. Someday, when I worked up the courage, I would try writing about them.

Someday came fifteen years ago. I started taking writing classes, and began my collection of rejection slips. Eleven years into writing, I won the Sue Alexander Award for most promising new work—thank you, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators! The prize was announced to major children's book publishing houses and paid for a trip to New York City. My first book comes out the year I turn sixty-seven years old. Gram, you were right; I’m sorry you didn’t live to see your prediction come true.

A few facts:
I was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 25, just twenty-four years after women won the vote. When my father came home after WWII, we moved to Seattle, where my two younger sisters were born. Next to my sisters, books were my best friends.

By the time I was sixteen, I had attended a dozen schools in Washington and Idaho and went on to nine years of college (all in Washington and British Columbia), earning degrees in sociology, library science, and accounting, and taking additional coursework in education, writing, and public administration.

Although I spend most of my time writing and reading, I’ve had some real-life adventures, too. I have tip-toed through King Tut’s tomb, sand-boarded the dunes of western Australia, ridden a camel among the Great Pyramids, paddled with Manta rays in Moorea, and smelled the penguins in the Falkland Islands.

I am married with two children, two grandsons, and a bossy cat who supervises my work. I write in my study in Everett, Washington, and a converted woodshed on San Juan Island. Two other books are in the messy draft stage, and more to come after that!