Jancis Dienes is a teacher, tutor, mother and grandmother. She was born in England, has lived in Australia and now lives in Clearwater Florida.
At an early age, her English mother and Hungarian father exposed her to the richness of European art galleries and monuments, which imbued her with a love of art. They also introduced her to the wild, barren beauty of the wind-blown Hebridean Islands in Scotland, which gave he an awe of the elements.
At a young age she was writing poetry which was published in the school magazine.
Her family moved from England to Australia in 1960 where she majored in philosophy at The University of Adelaide. Later she earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Education at the University of Sydney and taught Grade School in Australia for many years. Her classrooms were bursting with children’s creative writing, paintings, music and drama. Her real love has always been poetry, writing and art.
She now lives in Clearwater, Florida, writing poems and stories and tutoring children in reading. She is a total romantic and loves fairies, roses, Chopin and Mozart.

Carita Lewis was born in Helsinki, Finland. She started drawing as soon as she was able to hold a pencil in her hand. At sixteen she received her first set of oil colors as a gift. That was the beginning of her first oil paintings. She likes to create colorful, vivid images that bring beauty and happiness to viewers of all ages and place a smile on everyone's face!
She currently lives in Delaware.

Jancis met Carita when Carita decided something had to be done with her paintings. She asked Jancis if she could weave them into a story. Jancis mused over the paintings for some time in a quiet room in downtown Clearwater and the story Anna and The Otherwhere was born. It was as if the story were waiting to emerge from its hiding place in the paintings.
Through her Hungarian father Jancis feels a deep connection to Hungary and a fascination with the possible historical connection between Hungary and Finland.
Since Carita is Finnish, Jancis just knew that Anna and The Otherwhere had to be a story set in ancient Finland. The story emerged from the paintings as a romantic fantasy to entice the reader to think about the possibility of abilities and realities not usually spoken of in ordinary conversation.