Candy Ready is a fictitious name—well, sort of. Actually she was a girl that I knew when I was in grade school. She was fun, audacious and full of life. It was when my family lived in Huntington Beach, California. We moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma when I was in middle school, and later I heard that she'd started hanging with the wrong crowd and was murdered at the beach.

Her life was cut short.

Since then, I got married, lived in Texas, Ohio, went back to Huntington Beach for awhile, and then to Owasso, Oklahoma. I have children of my own. Every once in awhile, I still think of her. Especially now that I'm back in Bartlesville, OK, where I heard the sad news.

Now I'm a teacher and an author. I decided to start up a Candy Ready site in honor of her. Creative, imaginative, and adventurous Candy Ready is representative of all teenagers everywhere. Even if I don't actually end up teaching this year, I would like to start up a club to get this site going. We will read stories, write stories, write reviews of published work, and make book trailers. Ambitious of me, but I'm hoping we'll learn how to program games about stories. We'll invite authors to our site and conduct interviews and contests.

Please come back often. Although I say this site is for teens, anyone who loves teen fiction will find enjoyment here. This fall we'll start having new material up and continue to do so all school year long. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter so you will be the first to know about updates!