Francess Lin Lantz (b. August 27, 1952, Trenton, New Jersey—d. November 22, 2004, Santa Barbara, California) was an American children's librarian turned fiction writer, whose fan base was mostly preteen and teenaged girls. For more than two decades, Lantz wrote more than 30 books, including several juvenile bestsellers. She won the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults award for her 1997 romance, Someone to Love. Stepsister from Planet Weird (Random House, 1996) was made into a Disney Channel television movie in 2000. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Lantz was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She initially aspired to become a rock musician and composer. She graduated in 1974 from Dickinson College (in Pennsylvania) and from Simmons College (in Boston) in 1975, where she earned a master's degree in library sciences. She died in Santa Barbara, California in 2004 following a five years long battle with ovarian cancer; she was 52 years old.

I began writing at the age of eight, and wrote my way through the lean years, more than one marriage, single motherhood,and moving to the Big Apple on a wing and a prayer, with fifteen women's fiction novels to show for it. Every life experience I've weathered has found its way into my novels in one form or another:bad exes, births, deaths,divorces, pregnancy scares,true crime (I was nearly kidnapped, at age 12, by the stranger whose car your parents warned you not get it into). It's all part of the alchemy that makes for fictional gold. BONES AND ROSES, Book One of my Cypress Bay mystery series, marks my entry into the ranks of mystery novelists. I've been a fan of the genre since I fell under the spell of James M. Cain reading his masterpiece, "Mildred Pierce." SWIMSUIT BODY, Book Two of my Cypress Bay mystery series, was just released. Whether you read the first one or this is your introduction to the sunny California seaside town of Cypress Bay where dark twists abound, you'll enjoy Tish Ballard's further adventures in sleuthing. Property manager extraordinaire, she knows where the bodies are buried, literally in the case of celebrity client, Delilah Ward. I'm currently (and happily)wed to WABC-TV correspondent Sandy Kenyon, also known as the "taxi TV" film critic. We met when he was a radio talk show host and he interviewed me on air. How's that for a Hollywood meet-cute? My life's goal was to have a day job that didn't require me to wear pantyhose. Thankfully I've achieved that. Everything else is the icing on the cake. Bones and Roses is the first book in my Cypress Bay Mysteries series. Stop by www.eileengoudge.com to learn more about the book and for more excerpts, recipes and info on my novels.