Laini Taylor is a writer & artist living in Portland, Oregon. Her debut novel, Dreamdark: Blackbringer was published to much acclaim, including stars from Booklist, Bank Street College of Education, and KLIATT; it was a Book Sense Children's Pick; winner of the Baker & Taylor/PYRG Teen Readers Sweepstakes; is on the Sequoyah Book Awards Master List; and has received glowing praise from such luminaries as Holly Black, Newbery Honor-winner Shannon Hale, and New York Times bestseller Brandon Mull. A Fuse #8 Production states, "If you read only one fantasy book this year, read this one." The companion volume Dreamdark: Silksinger will be published in September 2009, followed in October by a short-story collection Lips Touch. Laini Taylor is also the creator of Laini's Ladies, a gift product line she began making by hand to sell at a local art fair, which has expended to seventeen product lines-from stationary to garden object to holiday ornaments to jewelry-that have retailed in over 5,000 gift and specialty stores throughout the United States and Canada. Laini Taylor lives with her husband, artist Jim Di Bartolo, and her elderly dog, Leroy, in a bright yellow house filled with lots of books and marionettes and robots. They spend their time drinking coffee and making stuff up, and are currently awaiting the birth of their first child.