As a resident of Virginia, Kathryn Erskine was devastated by the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. In the aftermath of this tragedy, Kathryn was driven to understand how community and family – particularly families with special-needs children – dealt with this violent event, and how our lives might be different if we understood each other better. In writing Mockingbird and telling the story of Caitlin, a young girl with Asperger's syndrome, she walked into the fragile world herself, and like Caitlin, offers us something “good and strong and beautiful”. Kathryn was a lawyer for fifteen years before turning to her first love: writing. She lives in Virginia, USA, with her husband, two children, and her dog, Maxine. Author location: Virginia, USA