Jackson Leigh grew up barefoot and happy, swimming in farm ponds and riding rude ponies in rural south Georgia. Her love of reading was nurtured early on by her grandmother, who patiently taught her to work New York Times crossword puzzles in the daily paper, and by her mother, who stretched the slim family budget to bring home grocery-store copies of Trixie Belden mysteries and Bobbsey Twins adventures that Jackson would sit up all night reading. It was her passion for writing that led her quite accidentally to a career in journalism, and North Carolina, where she now feeds nightly off the adrenaline rush of breaking news and close deadlines. She shares her life with her wonderful partner, a very wise Jack Russell terrier, and “the cat” that made herself at home when Jackson and the JRT weren’t watchful.