Catherine Wells is the author of novels and short fiction, including two AnLab Award-winning novellas. Her works include “Aztec Eagle” and "Crystal Desert" from Jumpmaster Press (2022 & 2023]; "Macbeatha" from Desert Moon Press (2014); "Mother Grimm" from Roc Books, a finalist for the 1997 Philip K. Dick Award; "Beyond the Gates" from Roc Books; and the Coconino trilogy from ARC Manor.
Ms. Wells holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and a Master of Library Science degree from the University of Arizona. She is married with two grown children and enjoys singing, hiking, bicycling, and playing bass guitar.
Catherine writes: My official biography will tell you I was born in LA but moved to the small town of Robinson, ND, at the tender age of four. There I grew up (sort of), went to Jamestown College (ND), and got married. We lived for three years in Connecticut, where daughter April was born, before going back to ND, where daughter Joanne was born. While living in Bismarck, I got my first break as a writer: three of my plays were produced at my church, including one that was filmed for local television.
We then moved to Tucson, Arizona, where I had some more plays produced, got my masters in library science at the UofA, and finally sold my first novel. (You will notice the prominence of desert motifs in my work.) I worked seventeen years at a Fortune 100 company and another six years as a hospital librarian.
What my official biography won't tell you is ...
My philosophy is, there's no point in having kids if you can't embarrass them. One Halloween, my younger daughter wanted to know if I was going to dress up in a costume to go to work at the library. I told her I was going to put my hair back in a bun, wear my reading glasses, and go as a librarian.
My favorite authors are Parke Godwin, Diana Gabaldon, and Jane Austin. My favorite musical artists are Billy Joel and Jimmy Buffet, which tells you about how old I am. My favorite food is good Sonoran-Mexican cooking (which is very different from Chihuahuan-Mexican, New Mexico-Mexican, and chain-store Mexican), and I don't eat vegetables. Not cooked, anyway. I have hot tea every morning to jump-start my day, and I can't abide coffee.
I'm a desert rat by adoption (or absorption), and no, I really don't miss snow. Not one little bit.
My ethnic origins are pretty muddy, having one ancestor who came over on the Mayflower (he's the guy that fell overboard and had to be rescued) and the rest of that line weaving its way through assorted communities across the country to reach North Dakota. But my mom was a full-blooded Finn (second generation American), which makes me half finished. Uh, half Finnish.