All About Tortall

      Tamora Pierce was born on December 13, 1954 in South Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. She was supposed to be named Tamara which means "graceful" and "a palm tree. It is also the name of a Russian saint. But the nurse at the hospital spelled it wrong. She is a Sagittarius. She was the oldest of three children. She has two sisters named Melanie and Kimberly. The books about Alanna were based on Tamora's sister Kimberly. As a child Tamora has always loved reading. In 1963 Tammy and her family moved to California and while there she fell in love with science fiction and fantasy when her teacher introduced her to Lord of The Rings Trilogy. She wrote many short stories or fan fiction before this about Star Trek. But after she read Lord of the rings she wrote fanfic about Tolkein, Howard, Moorcock and Heinlein and Bradbury stories. 

       I tried to write the kind of thing I was reading, with one difference: the books I loved were missing teenaged girl warriors. I couldn't understand this lapse of attention on the part of the writers I loved, so until I could talk them into correcting this small problem, I wrote about those girls, the fearless, bold, athletic creatures that I was not, but wanted so badly to be. In 1969 Tammy moved back to Fayette County after her parents divorced.

         In 1976 she moved to Kingston, New York with her boyfriend. There she became a housemother for a group home and while there she was sending out her 732 page book titled Song Of The Lioness. In the 1980's Tamora cut the Song into four different novels for teenagers. The original was for adults. In 1983 Alanna: The First Adventure was published. Now Tamora is living with her very loved Spouse-Creature Tim, her four cats and two parakeets.