Tara Ratzlaff lives in the northwest corner of Minnesota (just about in Canada) with her husband of twenty-eight years, daughter, five fat cats and one eccentric dog that belligerently greets everyone as if she’s never met them, including family. She graduated from North Dakota State University with a degree in Civil Engineering and became the first female County Highway Engineer in the state of Minnesota. She retired early from her career as a Civil Engineer when she and her husband purchased a native grass and wildflower seed farm/business which they operated for over twenty years before recently retiring. With her daughter in college pursuing her master’s degree and the seed farm no longer keeping her busy, she decided it was time to pursue her dream of writing cozy mysteries. Her hobbies are reading (mysteries only, of course), long walks, swimming when the pool isn’t frozen and watching the antics of their pets.