Torrie and the Pirate Queen

K.V. Johansen is from Sackville, NB

K.V. Johansen was born in Kingston and grew up in Westbrook, Ontario. Torrie and the Pirate Queen has its roots in stories Johansen used to tell to one of her sisters about Anna the 12-year-old pirate. She eventually got so tired of the character that she announced Anna had fallen off the mast, broke her leg, and was in bed with a cast, but when her sister grew up, she nagged until Anna recovered and had a new adventure, although by then she was a bit older and kept insisting she wasn't really a pirate.

According to Johansen, the most important thing you can do when you're young, if you’re keen on writing, is to read a lot, and keep writing and improving. Read lots of good old authors, not just the most recent popular books. Read lots of non-fiction too, especially things like history; it will expand your understanding of the world.

Recently, Johansen has written two more Torrie books, Torrie and the Firebird and Torrie and the Snake-Prince, as well as a kids' science fiction novel, The Cassandra Virus, and a history of children's fantasy literature, Quests and Kingdoms: A Grown-Up's Guide to Children's Fantasy Literature. Another Torrie book, Torrie and the Snake-Prince, is being published this winter, as well as Nightwalker, a fantasy novel for teens. She lives in Sackville, New Brunswick, with her dog Pippin and a lot of strange trees from Australia and other places, some of which got into Torrie and the Firebird.