High up in the mountains of Colorado, lived a little girl named Tami Cope. She and her family nestled into a sturdy A-frame house built by her dad. She loved to explore outside, to play piano and flute, and to sing. But most of all she loved to read and write.

When she was halfway through high school, her family started a new adventure. They moved to New Mexico to work at a Bible college for Native Americans. Tami was thrust into an entirely different culture, but she was grateful for the experience (and for the Navajo tacos).

After graduation, she packed her bags for Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho. Days were filled with classes, clubs, friends and a few pranks. Her only writing time was reserved for term papers and the college newspaper.

In the summers she returned to Colorado as a camp counselor at Golden Bell. She discovered she loved working with children (and that she loved a fellow camp counselor named Pete Brumbaugh). After much thought and prayer, she decided to become a teacher, so she completed a degree in Music Education.

After marrying Pete, she began teaching music in the inner city, and later in Olathe, Kansas. Her time was spent directing musicals about penguins, dinosaurs, and outer space. Her writing consisted of lesson plans and parent letters.

One day she decided to take a class on writing books for children from the Institute of Children’s Literature. Her desire for creative writing was rekindled and she began sending short stories to children’s magazines. Like many new writers, success was elusive at first. She stuck every rejection slip in a dreary black notebook.

After her first child, Hannah, was born, Tami traded teaching in the public schools for teaching private piano lessons in her home. Two and a half years later, Halee was born. Tami continued writing during their nap times. When the girls were school aged, she decided to go back to teaching in the classroom. By that time, she began a cheery blue notebook holding acceptance letters, as more and more of her stories sold.

Now, in the Great Plains of Kansas, lives a girl-at-heart named Tami Brumbaugh. She and her husband, two daughters, dog, leopard gecko and ever-multiplying fish reside in a house with an inviting front porch. Welcome, dear reader. She is so glad you could visit.