Along with her husband, John, several cats, goats, chickens and a corgi, Joan Donaldson lives on an organic fruit farm in southwest Michigan. She has published two picture books and two historical novels. Her latest book, On Viney's Mountain won the 2010 Friends of American Writers Award for Outstanding Young Adult Novel, and represented the state of Tennessee at the 2010 National Book Festival. In 2008, she earned a Master of Fine Arts from Spalding University in creative writing. When not thinking of stories or farming, she loves to make quilts, garden, and play Scottish fiddle tunes on her harp. Some of PJ's earliest memories are of sitting at her round maple table, red-handled glue pot in front of her, scissors in hand, construction paper everywhere. She went to Bucknell University because it had the best extracurricular craft room she had ever seen, graduated with a B.A. in Spanish, added an art major from Calvin College, and earned an M.F.A. in Writing for Children from Vermont College. When she isn't writing or in her studio making art, she's thinking about writing and making art, with her little dog, Skooter, her by her side.