About the Author

For nearly eight decades LaVerna J. Conrad has dedicated herself to the passionate pursuit of writing. Even before beginning elementary school, she was deeply connected to the written word...whether listening to the local librarians read at story hour while soaking up the sights, sounds and smells of the place, or making her own books and stitching them together with needle and thread. Her earliest memories revolve around writing and reading. In junior high she had her first chance at editing when her mother, who had left school in 8th grade, asked LaVerna to edit her letters to make sure they were grammatically correct. Deeply curious and highly observant, LaVerna embraces all life experiences as interactive training opportunities that provide grist for her writing mill. During a police ride-along purchased at a charity auction she found herself sitting in a squad car with the officer guarding a body while waiting for the coroner to come and pick up this man that the EMTs could not resuscitate. Married for 60 years with four grown children, LaVerna has a varied and diverse work history ranging from making dinner for the neighbors, who were turkey farmers, to being a telephone operator to cataloging and classifying books and materials for the local school district where she learned how to put the essence of a 400 page book on a 3 x 5 card.