For Welwyn Wilton Katz, it was the books of J. R. R. Tolkien that changed everything. As she once stated in Something About the Author (SATA), "I found that it was possible, using words alone, to create a whole world, a marvellously complex and unreal world that other people could believe in." Katz has used her interest in myths, legends, and the supernatural to weave stories that incorporate both current problems most teenagers face-- insecurity, parental divorce to name just two--and timeless mythological themes that play out the conflict between good and evil. Whether on their home turf or transported to another time or planet, her characters deal with evil outside themselves or within, when the protagonist becomes the unwitting prey of evil powers.

Katz, a fifth-generation Canadian, was born June 7, 1948, in London, Ontario, Canada. She credits her Scottish and Cornish ancestors with her abiding interest in Celtic...