Author Bio

“Writers are born, not made . . . you’re born that way, though, of course, you don’t know how to do it yet. You don’t know what kind of talent you’ve got.”

Susan Mary Cooper
Author of THE DARK IS RISING.

The delivery room nurse was the first to notice–then grabbed my infant body before I floated through the open window.

After a careful examination, the doctor straightened and smoothed his contemplative frown. “Ah . . . a most unusual condition,” he said, wiggling my big toe. “You’re going to have trouble keeping this one’s feet on the ground.”

Dutiful parents filled a prescription for shoes of lead, but I wanted Dorothy’s.

“That girl needs to get her head out of the clouds,” Father complained.

“She’s too skinny,” Grandmother insisted, shaking her head. “You need to feed her books.”

My parents bought more than a few, but it wasn’t enough. Mother took me to the public library and handed me a card. I regarded it with suspicion.

“There aren’t any pictures on it,” I frowned. I was six.

She pointed to shelves lined with thousands of stories and smiled. “Pick out whatever you want.”

My head spun—and somewhere deep inside a voracious beast growled.

“I can take whatever I want?”

“Yes—as long as you treat the books nicely and return them on time.”

“How many can I have?” I shot back, racing for the children’s section.

It turns out the limit is whatever two scrawny arms can carry on a crowded bus ride home. As I devoured books, the inexplicable longing for something more was grounded.

The printed page is an unlimited, open-ended ticket to anywhere. I’ve navigated Oz and Narnia, Middle Earth and the Aegean Sea. I’ve hopped off-world with a tiny prince, danced with crocodiles, and cavorted with dragons.

It’s been an amazing ride, but after so many years of enjoying the extraordinary tales of others, my story beckons. And while the feet find good purchase on the ground these days, I promise the imagination still soars.

The adventure awaits . . . if you haven’t brought your magic shoes, I’ll lend you mine.

D. D. Falvo lives in the Midwestern United States, inhabiting a 100-year-old house with her best friend/husband, two daughters, a sassy cat, and the ghost of a stubborn Irish setter.

StarDust is an adult science fiction and fantasy series that celebrates individuality and compels us to question the scope of our limits. Lumen is the first of seven books exploring the consequences of intolerance in any world—whether imaginary or real. The sequel, Without, is nearly complete.

Of all the abilities a man can possess, what he believes is the most powerful.