Allison Johnson

Writing is in my blood. My father, Herman Groves, is a screenwriter with a great work ethic. As a child I watched him at his typewriter, intensely focused, reading aloud bits of dialogue, a pencil tucked behind his ear. I learned a lot from him about how to keep writing despite discouragement and personal demons, about how to never give up.

I grew up in Tarzana near the Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of the Tarzan novels) estate. The old property sat on a sprawling hillside where a flock of sheep grazed. As a girl, horses were my passion. I begged and borrowed, mucked out stalls and did chores in exchange for riding a neighbor's horses. When I was thirteen, my parents fulfilled my dream and bought me a horse of my own. She was black with a white star, part Thoroughbred, part Quarter Horse, one-half American Saddlebred. Her registered name? Stormy Night.

I studied Dramatic Arts, and graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor of Arts degree in French. Although I had at one time wanted to become an actress, I developed a greater passion for writing. I wrote two screenplays after college. Your Self-Confident Baby was my first book.

I kept writing... short stories and essays, poetry, then tried my hand at a novel. (That first attempt is gratefully stored in a box in my garage). The Way Home,my first novel, followed. I love developing the fictional world, and getting lost in the wonderful process of creating it.

I'm currently at work on a young adult novel.