Marilyn Sue Shank, a proud West Virginian, earned her PhD in special education from the University of Kansas, where she majored in learning disabilities and behavior disorders and minored in counseling psychology and families with disabilities. Marilyn’s work has been published in professional journals, and she coauthored the first four editions of Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today’s Schools. Child of the Mountains is her first work of fiction. She lives in West Virginia with her two rescued dogs, including one named Ears after the stray who adopted Lydia in Child of the Mountains.