Sarah Shoemaker grew up in a suburb of Chicago and now lives in a little village in northern Michigan. When she was in the third grade, she knew she wanted to be a writer, but it has been a long and circuitous path to get there. She has been a teacher, a wife, a stay-at-home mom, a librarian and, finally, a published writer. CHILDREN OF THE CATASTROPHE is her most recent book. Coming out September 6, 2022, it is a historical novel about family, about love and loss, and about courage and survival. Her previous novel, MR. ROCHESTER, told the story of the strange, sometimes imperious, sometimes playful, man that Jane Eyre fell in love with. In the case if both books, Sarah has written stories that she herself would want to read. As Toni Morrison wrote: "If you really want to read a book but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."