Linda Joan Smith is a former magazine editor and the author of several garden books. As a kid, her passions were making and eating cherry pie, fly-fishing with her dad, and getting lost in the pages of a book. As a grown up, those same loves abide. Her debut middle-grade novel, The Peach Thief, will be published in 2025 (Candlewick). Along with writing middle-grade and YA historical fiction, she can also be found cooking and eating Thai food, painting, and savoring adventures with her husband and daughter. She lives and works on California’s Monterey Peninsula.