Tallchief: The Hunter [NOOK Book]

Bestselling author Cait London now enjoys life in Missouri, but was raised in rural Washington state. Much of her writing includes that early background amid the sage and sand and the wheat and apple crops.

With rumors of an Austrian princess in her ancestry, Cait is of German–Russian heritage, and is the only member of her family who is not bilingual. However, like Cait, every member of her family has achieved in the creative arts.

"I usually teach myself," she says. "And that is what I did with writing. I believed then, and still do, that artistic elements are translatable -- that given dedication and the eagerness to learn, one can move from one art form to another....

"In some ways, that untrained, do-it-yourself creativity is more pure than when it is taught. 'Live and learn' has always served me well. I have been an artist since I was 10, so it seemed only natural to move into writing, that is, creating pictures on pages instead of canvas."

A reader of mythology, folklore, epic poetry, and history, Cait incorporates her life experiences into her books. She believes that experience in life makes a good writer and those experiences, woven into her books, range from painting houses, gardening, canning, and sewing to researching computer software.

She loves computers, the Internet, creating bookmarks and newsletters, and reading everything, and she attends museums, festivals, powwows, and other rendezvous for research.

Writing historical romance under another pseudonym, Cait enjoyed doing research driving the full length of historic Western trails. She has driven the entire Oregon Trail and loved that experience. She uses this historic background in her contemporary romances.

This love of historical research is especially found in the popular Tallchief series from Silhouette. The original five-book series was designed as a complete unit, and her editor at the time said she had never seen anything like it. Cait designed the Tallchief logo, the genealogy chart, and of course the ancestral stories and the additional Tallchief books.

Where does she get her ideas? "All I have to do is take a long drive, look at an old house or a windmill missing a paddle, and a story unfolds to me," she says. "So those long drives across the West are very profitable, stories sticking to me like lint."

The mother of three daughters, Cait says that three is her lucky number.

She enjoys raising herbs and scented geraniums, driving cross-country, photography, cooking, and generally experiencing life. On her list of future experiences are updating her ballroom, Latin American, and folk dancing, and traveling abroad (and having Robert Duvall as a tango teacher).

Cait creates and maintains her innovative web site at caitlondon.com. Cait enjoys the friendship of many readers who write or email her. She hopes that you will write to her, too.