Award-winning novelist Bette Lee Crosby brings the wit and wisdom of her Southern Mama to works of fiction-the result is a delightful blend of humor, mystery and romance along with a cast of quirky charters who will steal your heart away. Born in Detroit and raised in a plethora of states scattered across the South and Northeast, Crosby originally studied art and began her career as a packaging designer. When asked to write a few lines of copy for the back of a pantyhose package, she discovered a love for words that was irrepressible. After years of writing for business, she turned to works of fiction and never looked back. "Storytelling is in my blood," Crosby laughingly admits, "My mom was not a writer, but she was a captivating storyteller, so I find myself using bits and pieces of her voice in most everything I write." Crosby's work was first recognized in 2006 when she received The National League of American Pen Women Award for a then unpublished manuscript. Since that, she has gone on to win several more awards, including another NLAPW award, three Royal Palm Literary Awards, the FPA President's Book Award Gold Medal and most recently the 2010 Reader's View Southeast Fiction Literary Award. Her published works to date are: Girl Child (2007), Cracks in the Sidewalk (2009), and Spare Change (2011). She has also authored a memoir for Lani Deauville, a woman the Guinness Book of Records lists as the world's longest living quadriplegic. Released in March 2012, the book is titled "Life in the Land of IS."