Noëlle Sickels is the author of three historical novels. In Walking West, a cross-country wagon journey in 1852 is viewed through the eyes of the women emigrants. In The Shopkeeper’s Wife, a restless wife and her maid are caught up in a murder trial in 1886 Philadelphia. In The Medium, a young woman on the World War II home front struggles with her troublesome psychic abilities. In all these books, characters wrestle with being true to themselves while engaging in complicated relationships with friends, families, and lovers and responding to the demands of their time in history and their time of life. Sickels has published award-winning short stories in magazines and anthologies. A native of New Jersey, she is a retired teacher living in Los Angeles and Ojai, California with her husband and cat. Much of her non-writing time is happily taken up by her three-year-old granddaughter, who also likes good stories.