Randee's Biography

My love of books was born not long after I was. While most young children were tearing out the pages, or using them as coloring books, I was trying to teach myself how to read. As an only child growing up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I had to keep myself entertained. Reading, making up stories, and playing with my pet dogs were some of the ways I accomplished that. I also listened to The Doors, and watched a lot of “Star Trek”, “The Ren & Stimpy Show”, and professional wrestling as a child. If that doesn’t explain how I turned out the way that I did, I have no idea what will.

It was when I was in second grade that I had an epiphany and realized that I was meant to be a writer. Every day after recess, my teacher would read to the class. One day she began Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was hooked from the start, and, by the time my teacher had finished reading the book, I knew I was destined to be a writer. But, until the time came for me to begin writing, I immersed myself in Little House. I ransacked the school library, as well as local used bookstores, so that I could read the rest of the series. And then I kept reading them. And rereading them. But it wasn’t just the books by and about Laura that filled my young life. Laura became my childhood imaginary friend, and my backyard transformed into places like the big woods of Wisconsin and the prairies of Kansas, Minnesota, and South Dakota – places so far removed from south central Pennsylvania that I wasn’t even sure that they were real.

It was while I was in junior high school that I truly began to focus on refining my skills as a writer, and I haven’t stopped since. In the meantime I’ve earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, as well as a Masters and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. When I’m not writing, I’m usually reading, indulging in my passion for Texas country music, traveling, or hanging out with my pets, Daisy and Mr. Snookums G. Cat.