Betsy James is the award-winning author and illustrator of more than a dozen books for children and young adults. The stories that became Long Night Dance, Dark Heart, and Listening at the Gate were started when the author was still a teenager. Later, as a professional artist, she painted them a a narrative series of several hundred watercolors. Stories and paintings together formed the inspiration for the present-day books. Betsy continues to write, paint, teach, and hike in the deserts near her home in Albuquergue, New Mexico.