Kathleen Gerard grew up in the same town where Mary Higgins Clark raised her family before she became "Queen of the Suspense Novel." The intrigue of having a best-selling author living a few blocks away piqued Kathleen's interest in writing fiction Mary Higgins Clark actually named a character for Kathleen in her novel, AS TIME GOES BY. Kathleen credits her love of storytelling to her mother, a reading teacher specialist with the "gift of gab," and her love of writing to her older sister, Patricia, who always had an insatiable reading habit and kept a journal (under lock and key!) that kept Kathleen chronically curious. Kathleen writes across genres. Her stories, essays, stage plays, and novels are serio-comic and often spun from the absurdities of life. Kathleen is the author of three novels: IN TRANSIT, COLD COMFORT and THE THING IS. To learn more about Kathleen, visit: www. kathleengerard. blogspot. com