Spyker, Shan L.: - Shan L. Spyker makes art, screens t's + writes books! Her passion for writing was first ignited when she discovered the world of publishing through her love of music, when at age 14 she created her first zine, and her drive to write, design and publish has never diminished. She grew up along the shores of Lake Erie in NE Ohio and earned a BA in studio art, and later, an IT degree with a concentration in web design and development. Following college, she worked for several non-profit organizations, serving as both publication editor and author/writer for fundraising campaign literature. Today she owns and operates her own independent business, offering design and writing services to small businesses, academic publishers, and non-profit organizations, as well as consulting and interior book design services to independent authors. She lives with her family-all artists and creatives in their own right-and their two very unique felines and an aquatic frog named Gerard. Watercolor and pen and ink, gardening, cooking, traveling, hiking (particularly amongst sandstone hoodoos in the desert southwest whenever she can get there), soaking up favorite films and series, rivers and waterfalls, outer space, Faber-Castell India Ink pens, screen printing in her home studio and being in the company of family and friends are among her biggest joys in life. Her favorite genres include fantasy, sci fi, middle grade fiction, classics, non fiction books on the environmentalism, nature, animals, and biographies, as well as anime and other animated films. She wishes to be a companion animal owner to an elephant, a water buffalo, and a humpback whale, but since this is seriously impractical and she recognizes it is best they remain in the wild, she instead supports them through organizations who help take care of those in need. Her deep interests in nature, the environment, the pursuit of animal rights, human rights, and social justice strongly influence and inform her art and writing. The Way of the River is her first full length novel, a fantasy/adventure written for lovers of middle grade fiction that was based upon a series of collaborative family bedtime stories that has spanned three generations, and first told by her father decades ago.