Shirley Miller Kamada grew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado.

She has been an elementary school teacher in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington, a bookstore-espresso café owner in Centralia, Washington, and director of a learning center in Olympia, Washington.

When not writing, she enjoys casting a fly rod, particularly from the dock at their home on Moses Lake in Central Washington, which she shares with her husband and two spoiled pups.