from author’s website
Kristina McMorris is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author published by Sourcebooks Landmark, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Harper Muse, and Kensington Books. Her novels have garnered more than two dozen prestigious awards and nominations, including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, RWA’s RITA® Award, and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction.
At age nine, she began creatively expressing herself when she embarked on a five-year stint as the host of an Emmy® and Ollie award-winning kids’ television program. Being half Japanese, Kristina jokes that she discovered a genetic kinship with the camera early in life and continued to nurture that relationship by acting in many independent and major films while living in Los Angeles. Later, as the owner of a wedding/event planning company, she served as the six-year host of the WB’s weekly program Weddings Portland Style.
Kristina’s extensive experience in media and events led her to becoming a professional emcee and contributing writer for Portland Bride & Groom magazine. Her previous writing background also includes ten years of directing public relations for an international conglomerate.
In 2001, deciding sleep was highly overrated, she compiled hundreds of her grandmother’s favorite recipes for a holiday gift that quickly evolved into a self-published cookbook. With proceeds benefiting the Food Bank, Grandma Jean’s Rainy Day Recipes sold at such stores as Borders and was heavily featured in regional media. It was while gathering information for the book’s biographical section when Kristina happened across the letters her grandfather mailed to his “sweetheart” during his wartime naval service—a collection that years later inspired McMorris to pen her first novel, a WWII love story titled Letters from Home.
Since her debut released in 2011, Kristina’s published works have expanded to include the novels Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, The Pieces We Keep, and The Edge of Lost, in addition to her novellas in the anthologies A Winter Wonderland and Grand Central. Her forthcoming historical novel, Sold on a Monday, will be released September 2018. Rights to her books have also been sold to numerous foreign publishers, Readers Digest, Doubleday, the Literary Guild, and more.
A frequent guest speaker and workshop presenter, McMorris holds a B.S. in International Marketing with a concentration in multiple languages from Pepperdine University. She splits her time between San Diego and Portland, Oregon, where she’s a proud mom of two teenage (going-on-forty) boys who keep her on the run and make her laugh daily.
ABOUT ELLIE MAE DREAMS BIG:
The sister duo of New York Times best-selling novelist Kristina McMorris and award-winning artist Amanda Yoshida makes their collaborative debut with a delightful story of a girl whose big dreams are far from ordinary.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
At the teacher’s all-important question, Ellie Mae’s mind swirls with ideas. An astronaut or a chef? Better yet, why not an astronaut-chef? Since the moon is made of cheese, her galactic grilled cheese sandwiches could be known throughout the universe! Or…she could be a ballerina-painter, creating masterpieces while leaping across the stage.
In the end, there are so many options, Ellie Mae fears she can’t possibly pick–until the answer dawns on her. What she chooses will surprise her classmates as much as the reader!
More “behind the story” details here.
AUTHOR VISITS:
Kristina McMorris is available to visit with book clubs via NovelNetwork.com.