Heidi M. Thomas grew up on a working ranch in eastern Montana, riding and gathering cattle for branding and shipping. She had parents who taught her a love of books and a grandmother who rode bucking stock in rodeos. She followed her dream of writing with a journalism degree from the University of Montana and then wrote for the Daily Missoulian for several years and did freelance work over a period of 15 years for a number of magazines, including Montana Magazine, Front Sight Magazine, and theBusiness Monthly. Her first novel, Cowgirl Dreams, won an EPIC Award and the USA Book News Best Book Finalist award.