Laura Langston wanted to be a writer by the time she was in Grade Four. Unfortunately, she didn’t know any writers so she decided to become a doctor instead. Then it occurred to her that doctors cut people, and cut people bleed, and blood is messy. So Laura became a tidy, no cutting, no bleeding, bank teller. Except, she’s lousy with numbers and she was terrified the place was going to be robbed.

She wasn’t a bank teller for very long.

After traveling through Europe and Russia, Laura returned home and became a journalist. Working for the CBC was a perfect gig because Laura is incredibly nosy. She met a lot of people (famous and infamous) and she was allowed – encouraged – to ask them anything she liked. The problem was sometimes their answers were . . . well . . . boring. Laura knew she could make up better stuff. But journalists are expected to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Which Laura did. Always. Until the day she decided it would be way more fun to make things up and get paid for it.

So she traded one notebook for another and started writing novels. Today, Laura is the award-winning author of over twenty books for teens and younger children including The Art of Getting Stared At, In Plain Sight, Lesia’s Dream and Mile-High Apple Pie. Her books have won numerous awards, been translated into nine languages, and routinely appear on readers’ choice lists.

When Laura’s not writing, reading or walking her Shelties, she can usually be found spying on people at the grocery store or twisting herself into a pretzel in yoga class. She lives on Vancouver Island in a messy yellow house with her high school sweetheart (Mr. Petrol Head), her son (the Cave Dweller), and two Shetland sheepdogs (aka Team Sheltie). Her daughter, Ms. Uptown Girl, lives across the water in The Big City but returns to the island for regular visits (and home cooked meals).

Laura also writes women’s fiction and romance as Laura Tobias.