Christy Yorke

Christy Yorke’s love of literature began at the age of seven, when her grandfather enrolled her in a book-of-the-month club. Every month, when that cardboard box arrived with her name on it, she gleefully entered a world of girl detectives and boys who refused to grow up. During high school, she devoured five books a week during dull biology lectures, and though her science scores suffered, her imagination did not. She dreamed of becoming a writer and, like many lovelorn girls, began by writing terrible poetry.

By college, some very smart people had talked her out of attempting a career in the notoriously cutthroat and low-paying world of writing. She attended California State University, Northridge and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Psychology. But when plans for graduate school in Santa Barbara fell through, she ignored the well-intentioned advice and went looking for her imagination once again. Newly married, her husband Robert gave her a year to publish something before she’d have to get a real job. Luckily, she met the deadline with articles and short stories in such magazines as New Woman and Woman’s World. She’s been lucky enough to work at home in sweat pants ever since.

She went on to publish many more stories, not so terrible poetry, articles, and three novels before realizing something was missing in her stories. After her two children were born, the solution became obvious. She wanted books that would give them hope, novels full of magic and possibilities. Her first novel of magical realism was Magic Spells, the story of a woman who ought to have been a little more careful what she wished for. The second, The Wishing Garden, was a tale of one woman’s determination to see good in the world, despite all evidence to the contrary. The third, Song of the Seals, is the story of hope erupting in a place no one expected to find it.

The author lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and two young children. When not writing, she reads, gardens, and roots for the Oakland Raiders.