General Info

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Biography

The author of four novels for young readers, Night Journey to Vicksburg, The Secret Life of Hubie Hartzel, Libby Bloom, and Summer Song. Libby Bloom was nominated for the Rhode Island Book Award and was chosen for inclusion on the Sequoyah Award Masterlist. She has published many short stories and articles in a variety of publications. Masters is a national winner of the Writer's Digest Magazine writing competition and a recipient of an Artist Fellowship sponsored by the Fund for the Arts in Chautauqua County. She is on the visiting roster of faculty at the Writers' Center (Chautauqua Institution) where, over the past several years, she has led the Young Writers' Workshops. The mother of two grown sons, Masters lives in western New York State with her husband and a nine-pound miniature schnauzer who is in charge of security. She is available for school/library presentations and writing workshops.

Nothing matches the joy of creation more than when a character I've shaped on paper takes on a life all its own.

In my novel Summer Song the main character, Etta May, was full of surprises right to the very end. I first imagined her as a plucky, energetic girl facing tremendous challenges. As I began to write I remembered a skirt I once had that attracted lint as if it were a magnet. I put the two thoughts together and that became the opening: "I've got this skirt. It's navy polyester and it sucks up all the lint and dust within a six-block radius. All I have to do is put it on and whoosh, I'm standing there in this dust rag. I'm like that skirt. I suck up every speck of disaster that's lying in wait."

If a character can surprise and delight me, chances are he/she will surprise and delight the reader as well.

Ever since first grade, when I first discovered books, I have had a passion for reading. A few of the most memorable books I read while growing up are Heidi, The Secret Garden and Alice in Wonderland. Patricia Maclachlan and Katherine Paterson are among the many fine writers for young readers I admire today.

When I am not writing I enjoy dancing, reading, walking, eating pj sandwiches, and visiting schools as an author-in-residence. Some things I don't like are eating anything with nuts in it, getting up at 6:00 a.m., and facing a blank page.

I am a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers, Authors Guild, and a local writer's workshop. Along with my three novels, I have also published short stories and articles in a variety of publications, including Highlights for Children, Cobblestone and Alive for Young Teens. I was a national winner of the 1985 Writer's Digest Magazine Writing Competition (article category). And in 1991 I received an Artist Fellowship, sponsored by the Fund for the Arts in Chautauqua County.

I live in a century-old Victorian house in Western New York State with my husband and a nine and a half pound miniature schnauzer. I am the mother of two grown sons.