A. Louise Robertson

A. Louise Robertson was born in New York City in 1948. She's been a writer since first opening the cover of Little Women as an eight-year-old and falling in love with the written word.

Although a work of fiction, her first book, Welcome to Mineola, is based on her childhood in this iconic All American town in Long Island, New York. The tract house that her family lived in was almost identical to the others on the street. The homes were built as affordable housing for veterans returning from World War II. It was a neighborhood full of other baby boomer kids; a friendly, family-centered place to grow up.

Ms. Robertson enjoyed a secure and protected childhood with her parents and three siblings. There were lots of children in the post war community and as a child she was constantly outside roller skating, playing hopscotch or riding a bike. It was a time when kids were happy to be outside playing and were dismayed when parents called them to come in for dinner.

The second volume of the Long Island, New York trilogy, Chained to Mineola, centers around the granddaughter of one of the original homeowners. After moving to California, she returns to New York years later to attend her aunt's funeral. On the way to the airport for her return flight, she decides to drive down the street where she grew up and take what might be a last look at her childhood home.

She discovers that a work crew is about to cut down the oak tree that she played in as a child. Stunned into impulsiveness, she climbs the tree and makes it known that she will stay in the branches until the city rescinds the work order and allows "her tree" and the others on the block to live.

In the third, and final, volume of the series, the heroine has to make the biggest decision of her life. Can she leave Mineola with all of its memories and family ties to be with the love of her life in Scotland, or must she say goodbye to him forever?