Paula Altenburg

USA Today bestselling author Paula Altenburg grew up in rural Nova Scotia knowing that at some point in her life she was likely to be a fiction writer. Swapping Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey books with her father guaranteed she wasn't going to be the next Jane Austen, much to the dismay of her English teacher mother. A degree in social anthropology from the University of King's College and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, confirmed that writing was the most logical career path for her.

She's worked in the aerospace and defense industry, which surprises everyone who knows her. She writes because she can't keep a secret, and getting to pass everything off as fiction makes a good compromise. Happily married, with two terrific sons, she continues to live in rural Nova Scotia but makes a point of traveling as much as she can.