Tara K. Harper

Tara K. Harper is the author of many works, including the "Wolfwalker" series.

Biography

Tara K. Harper was born in 1961. She was raised in northwest Oregon with cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits and horses. Her father had worked in a nuclear lab analyzing radioactive cloud samples from Russian atomic test blasts; her mother had been a uranium buyer. Her first electronic toy was an oscilloscope.

Between a father who was a meteorologist, woodworker, luthier, and otherwise jack-of-all-trades, and a mother who was an accomplished horsewoman, seamstress, musician, and community activist, Harper had a difficult time choosing between life goals. She did know by the time she was eleven that she would become an astronaut, a stunt person, or a science writer. However, her interests continue to range from fencing to forensics. She is a violinist and composer who also studies voice, paints in oils, sculpts in stone, and collects dryer lint. She plays the dulcimer that her father built; and plays blues and folk guitar, even though she can never find her favorite pick. She reads almost anything, complains bitterly about the lack of news on the local news, and thinks that a vacation is that thing where you find something really interesting to do--like cloning human DNA.

Competitive, driven, and passionate about her beliefs, she freely admits that she can be as irritating as a two-ounce flea in a sleeping bag. She enjoys a good discussion, refuses to take herself too seriously, and is often accused of being a thrill-seeker.

In 1979, Harper won a journalism honor and a communications scholarship, and enrolled at the University of Oregon. She worked nights in a cannery, fished to feed her cat, and lived in a filbert orchard while studying physics, mathematics, and journalism. Uncertain as to whether she should pursue a career in physics, music, writing or space science, she attended the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. At the same time, she served an internship as science journalist on "The World" newspaper (Coos Bay, OR).

In 1984, Harper graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science. She returned to northwest Oregon and immediately took a job with a company in R&D high-tech, test and measurement. This allowed her to make enough money to support her personal research (aka vacations) in engineering, genetics, virology, and other disciplines. Her fiction writing was, at that time, a hobby--something for weekends and evenings.

By the end of 1988, Harper had completed four science-fiction novels. Under forcible pressure from a friend, she sought an agent. Her first novel was accepted at Del Rey Books (an imprint of Random House) six months later, and she saw "Wolfwalker" published in 1990. The novel was an immediate best-seller, and Harper's career moved quickly forward.

Currently, Harper is the author of nine science-fiction novels, including the best-selling and critically acclaimed "Wolfwalker" series and "Cat Scratch" series, as well as other stories. Her work is available internationally in a variety of languages and as books on tape. Two of her novels, "Cat Scratch Fever" and "Wolf's Bane", were nominated for the Oregon Book Awards. She has also received numerous awards for science writing, has been Guest of Honor at several conventions, and was nominated in 1999 to a University of Oregon inaugural Hall of Achievement. In late 1999, she was a Guest Speaker at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C..

Professionally, Harper has worked for over 20 years as a science editor and writer in fields as diverse as software engineering, high-speed microwave (satellite, not kitchen appliances) wafer communications, superconductor and microprocessor technology, medical sciences, genetics, and herpetology. It is this continuing background in R&D medical science, high-tech, forensics, and other disciplines that Harper credits with being the inspiration for the science in her fiction novels.

Harper credits the realism of the action in her novels to a lifetime of competition and participation in outdoor and athletic activities. She attributes her overall success as a novelist to a diverse academic background; extensive experience in fending off wild and feral animals; a continuing involvement in science; and in-depth experiments in drowning. Other activities have included archery, shooting, rock-climbing, waterpolo, soccer, sailing, scuba diving, fencing, and martial arts. In the latter two fields, she competed nationally and internationally. Active in community service, Harper currently teaches creative writing for an alternative school, trains youth in wilderness skills, and serves on the board of directors for a youth treatment center.

Bibliography

The Grey Ones Series (Tales of the Wolves)
* "Wolfwalker"
* "Shadow Leader"
* "Storm Runner"
* "Wolf's Bane"
* "Silver Moons, Black Steel"

The Black Wolf Series (Nightrunners)
* "Wolf in Night"

Other Wolfwalker
* "Grayheart"

Catscratch Novels
* "Cat Scratch Fever"
* "Cataract"

Other Science Fiction
* "Lightwing"

External links

* http://www.tarakharper.com/
* [http://www.sffworld.com/interview/32p0.html Interview] at [http://www.sffworld.com SFFWorld.com]