Johanneck, Elizabeth: - Beth Johanneck was born a Minnesota farmer's daughter, with seven brothers and a fabulous sister, and raised on a farm near the tiny community of Wabasso. During her childhood, she was inspired by her mother's creativity and her father's gift for storytelling. She received a bachelor's degree in business from Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota, and grabbed an opportunity to work for a tourism office within the central part of the Minnesota River Valley. She currently resides in the Twin Cities but hasn't forgotten her rural roots, publishing a blog called the Minnesota Country Mouse Folk Blog, where the "hayseed" in her writing betrays her "city-slicker" aspirations. She subscribes to the early to bed, early to rise philosophy, celebrating the wee hours of the morning in her big chair with a stout cup of coffee and her computer.