About the Author
Once upon a time, a girl was born in Vancouver, Washington. Her parents named her Ranae, which meant reborn, as if they knew she would spend her life reinventing herself over and over again. At the age of two, she contracted the measles, which screwed up her eyes. Soon, she had to wear glasses. Not normal glasses, but big, thick cat-eye glasses that made her feel like a freak. In a word: awkward.
The doctor’s said she had a “lazy eye,” which meant she had to wear a patch over the eye and made her awkwardness even worse. In school, other kids laughed at her and made pirate jokes.
The good news is that Ranae didn’t have to wear the patch for long. She loved books and would escape to other worlds by reading as much as possible.
She would spend long hours letting her imagination run wild. The books she read inspired her to start writing her own stories and drawing pictures to go along with them.
Ranae dreamed of becoming a professional writer. But unlike some of her friends, her parents didn’t pay for college. So, she had to come up with another plan. She enrolled in Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon. She worked full time during the day and attended classes at night. She paid every nickel of the tuition herself and earned a degree in Communications.
Over the next several years, Ranae worked as a documentation writer, as an assistant to the president of a steamship agency, and wrote a humor column for a Portland newspaper, The Downtowner. Whatever job she had, writing played a big part. It was a rich learning experience. And yet, something was still missing…
What she really wanted to do was write fictional stories with complex characters–a process that came purely from the wellspring of creativity. Ranae decided she wanted to write novels. And then…
Just when things were rolling along nicely, she managed to thwart progress by meeting and marrying the wrong guy. Yes, it happens. In every life, a little rain must fall. Ranae often refers to this period as “the time of the great sickness.” But in the end, she realized that that challenging experience taught her a lot about herself–and about other people, which, as it turns out, is good experience for developing well-rounded characters.
She had been living in Seattle for a while when she met another man–the perfect man–and fell in love.
She now lives with her husband on the Olympic Peninsula where she experiences nature and wildlife every day. It is here that she began to write … on her terms.
Natural landscapes run deep through Ranae’s writing life. A birder and a gardener, she moves through the world in a state of awe. Her work reflects that reverence, illuminating the beauty of ordinary lives—what drives people, what sustains them, and what ultimately matters.
For Ranae, the act of creation is a gift, though it often feels like a burden. It takes courage to follow instincts, no matter the cost. To keep pushing ahead, to keep asking, “What’s next?”