I’ve ridden an elephant, swallowed fried grasshoppers, lived on a commune, flown a hangglider (and crashed), picked coffee beans and fed them to a monkey, peered into a live volcano, watched my toddler soar around a big top in the arms of a Mexican trapeze artist dressed as Spiderman, swum through a pitch-black cave to a tiny and perfect hidden beach, milked goats, skied in the Alps (and crashed), hiked up a glacier and alarmed a moose, torn down a barn, gone to a “sit-up” (a Jamaican wake), hung out with Cambodian monks, pedaled across the Blue Ridge Mountains in a homemade superhero cape, woven lots of hammocks, snaked a drain, gazed upon The Garden of Earthly Delights, and danced till dawn. Mostly, though, I spend a lot of time at the computer.
    I’ve never had a cell phone, I don’t watch TV (okay, sometimes a clip on YouTube), and my favorite part of being a writer is getting to work in my pajamas.

More about me

My real name is Mara Rockliff, but I also write under the pen names Nan Walker, Eleanor May, and Lewis B. Montgomery. Recent books include The Busiest Street in Town (an IndieNext pick); the Milo & Jazz Mysteries (an ALA Best New Books for the Classroom pick), and Get Real: What Kind of World Are You Buying? My work has appeared in The Washington Post and many magazines, including Highlights for Children and Plays: The Drama Magazine for Young People.
    I live in eastern Pennsylvania with my family. (And I use parentheses a lot.) 

Email me at:

Or contact my agent, Jennifer Laughran of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, at jennL@andreabrownlit.com.