Hello! I’m Christine Brodien-Jones and I write fantasy/adventure books for young readers.

I live in Gloucester, Massachusetts - the oldest seaport in the country - with my husband Peter in a tumbledown seaside house. I work in a corner of the living room by the window, with a view of the sea, on a huge Shaker desk littered with carved wooden owls. When the wind blows in from the north, my house creaks like an old ship. Gazing out over the salt marshes and boats, I can see sky and waves and shifting colors. It's easy to imagine distant places and mysterious other worlds.

I love writing for children because I remember my own excitement reading books when I was young: the nooks and crannies of my hometown library, the musty smell of old pages, and the sheer joy of escaping into a book. My hope is to fire the imaginations of young people so they can treasure and love the amazing power of stories.

THE OWL KEEPER was published this past April by Random House/Delacorte Press. My next book for Random House will be a fantasy-adventure set in Morocco. I'm represented by Stephen Fraser of The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.

Bianca the Rescue Owl

Photo by Jeff Kaplan

The Center For Wildlife in Cape Neddick, ME has sent me a Certificate of Adoption for rescue barred owl Bianca! In 1995 Bianca was hit by a car and suffered a broken wrist; she wasn’t able to be released. She’s been a foster parent to many other barred owlets and travels often with programs to educate the public.

Barred owls (Strix varia) are the second largest owl in the country, with brown and white feathers all over their body, and a slight golden tinge to the ends of them. Their name comes from the barring across their chest. They’re very vocal birds and have an amazing variety of wails, moans, cackles, hisses and laughs.

Like all owls in the Northeast, barred owls are nocturnal and hunt at night. Their staple food is mice and small mammals, but they will eat frogs, birds, insects and crayfish. The outer edges of their primary feathers have a fluting edge, which allows them to fly silently over their prey.

If you’d like to adopt a rescue owl, the Center for Wildlife's popular Adopt a Wildlife Ambassador Program offers a special opportunity to bring a wild animal into your life. This support helps to cover the costs of food, medical treatment and daily care for one year. Sponsors receive a certificate naming them as the sponsor of the owl, a photograph of the adopted owl, information on its living habits, and the story of how the owl came to be living and working at the Center.

Center for Wildlife - Wild Ambassador Adoption Program
PO Box 620
Cape Neddick, ME 03902
Tel: 207-361-1400
www.yorkcenterforwildlife.org

"I rejoice that there are owls" - Thoreau

Rowing on Gloucester Harbor - Photo by Janet Rice

Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story..."
-Sarah Waters

Horseback-riding in Argentina

Early autumn in Deer Isle, Maine

Sailing to Marblehead

"I leave you now at the bottom of your own stair, at half after midnight, with a pad, a pen, and a list to be made. Conjure the nouns, alert the secret self, taste the darkness. Your own Thing stands waiting 'way up there in the attic shadows. If you speak softly, and write any old word that wants to jump out of your nerves onto the page...
Your Thing at the top of your stairs in your own private night...may well come down."
-Ray Bradbury