Amanda M. Cetas is the author of the historical action & adventure series A Country for Castoffs, which combines her family history with the larger historical context to educate and entertain a new generation of readers. She has been researching her family genealogy for decades and taught middle and high school history for over a dozen years. She loves the Sonoran Desert where she lives most of the year, but never gets enough of the ever-changing Sea of Cortez, where she has watched her three children grow up over the years, and now enjoys watching her grandchildren making new discoveries for themselves!