Alma Alexander

Alma Alexander was born on the banks of an ancient river in Yugoslavia, a country which no longer exists. One of her novels, “The Secrets of Jin-shei,” has been published in more than 20 countries and 14 languages. The heroine of her popular Young Adult Worldweavers series is as American as Harry Potter is British.

She is married to a man who wooed her over the Internet and lured her to America.

She likes books, embroidery, music ranging from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" to Dvorak's New World Symphony and "La Traviata", animals, coffee, chocolate, snow, velvet -- and, in people, loyalty, kindness and intelligence (and an off-the-wall sense of humor helps).

She is a punaholic, a chronic worrier, sometimes honest to the point of being tactless. She is sentimental and has an incredible memory for detailed trivia like dates and old song lyric.

She was born on the fifth day of July, six years before man walked on the moon, which makes her a cancer according to the Western horoscope and a water rabbit according to the Chinese one.

Alma was a teenage novelist -- 30 years ago. Now she is exposing her first efforts online. When she was 14,
wrote a 200,000 word novel in longhand, in pencil, three years after learning English.

Alma is posting that early novel in a blog online, one chapter at a time, and it is being rewritten with the commentary and suggestions of a panel of teen advisers. "We will continue doing this, chapter by chapter, until the novel is done," she says.

The book project blog is at: http://heritageofclan.wordpress.com/