Judy La Salle grew up on a farm in rural California where she and her sister rode ponies, set siphon pipes, fed livestock and ate watermelon that had been cooled in the irrigation ditch. They attended a small country school with two grades to a classroom, and small country churches that were humble in the natural, but cathedrals in the Spirit. Summers meant camping in the Sierras, trips to the ocean, and putting on plays under their mother’s clothesline, using sheets as curtains.

The local 4-H club offered lots of projects, such as raising beef cattle to show and sell at the County fair, plus entries of sewing projects and baked goods. Music was a large part of Judy’s life too, including piano lessons, pipe organ lessons, and playing the saxophone and oboe in the high school band.

After graduating from high school, Judy earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California and, later, a master’s degree in Criminology from California State University.

For several years Judy taught Criminal Justice courses at the college and university levels while working as a peace officer. She is now retired and spends time writing, when she isn’t doing other things that retired people seem to do. She enjoys playing the piano, likes to paint, but doesn’t seem to find the time, and she loves to bake. She works in the yard a little — at least enough to suggest that the house is actually occupied.

Judy authored a newspaper column for nineteen years and began writing books decades before she actually published anything. The first “Scrooge Years” book sat in a drawer for a few years until a friend insisted on reading it and then encouraged her to publish it. Now, several years later, the trilogy is finally complete.