Vanessa Knipe

As a teen, Vanessa learned her loved of canoeing in the alligator infested bayous of the Texas Gulf Coast. Now back in her favourite place in the world, Yorkshire, she watches the River Ouse rise every winter and wonders if she needs to revive an old skill: so far she and her son have been lucky. When not writing, she juggles fighting for a decent education for her Autistic son with wrestling the Creatures of the Night, though that's not a nice thing to call her cat.

Vanessa has concentrated on her writing since becoming widowed in 2001, as being a single mother of a disabled child made it impossible to work the required shifts in NHS Biochemistry laboratories. 2006 saw her beginning her writing career proper with the publication in the US of Witch-Finder, a collection of short paranormal adventures. Since then two further collections of paranormal short stories, Hard Lessons, Shadow and Salvation and a related novel, A Date with Darkness, have also come out.

The dystopian fantasy novel Pill Wars is an exciting new direction.