About

A native Jersey girl, Laura Battyanyi Wiess grew up on the wooded outskirts of a peaceful little borough named Milltown, and next to the crazed, congested NJ Turnpike.

These warring influences left their marks, as Laura walks fast and talks faster but can also sit still for long periods of time hanging out, drinking coffee, reading, writing and watching wildlife.

She claims she inherited her patience, imagination and love of books from her mother, and her impatience, determination, and passion for land from her father. Her stubbornness, however, she attributes to the combined mega-whammy of genetics, birth order and astrological sign as that pretty much lets her off the hook for the whole deal.

A lifelong animal lover and fan of Mother Nature untamed, Laura has been lost, chased, bitten, stung, scratched, growled at and in some cases, after proving herself non-threatening, accepted by members of the feathered, furred, reptilian and insect world. She loves this.

Laura is a first born, a Taurus, a fixed Earth sign and was born in the Year of the Rat. The sum of these parts explain a lot. Not everything, of course, and since the universe has a wicked sense of humor, Laura is also a fan of free will and exploring the odd, ticklish notion that everyone has the right to live their own way, and experience the benefits and consequences of their choices.

Because honestly, what could be more intriguing, especially writing-wise, than following the path of individual choice and discovering what comes next?

For more, visit Laura at Simon & Schuster's Author Revealed interview.

Favorite Quotes

If you ask me what I have come to do in this world,

I will reply: "I am here to live aloud." -- Emile Zola

Why not go out on a limb?

That's where the fruit is.

-- Will Rogers

And forget not that the earth delights

to feel your bare feet and

the wind longs to play with your hair.

-- Khalil Gibran

I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody

to go to hell in his own way. -- Robert Frost

books. cats. life is sweet. -- edward gorey

If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet,

you'd best teach it to dance. -- George Bernard Shaw

We will either find a way, or make one. -- Hannibal

And that heart which was a wild garden

was given to him who loved only trim lawns.

And the imbecile carried the princess into slavery.

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

If you can't be a good example,

then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.

-- Catherine Aird