As an author I write because I can't draw. When I was a kid I'd see something I wanted to share – a gorgeous winter dawn or a fat, sleepy kitten – so I would try to draw it and it never looked even remotely like what I was looking at. Then I realized I could write and capture the world in words. Tatiana Strelkoff is a published author of nine books and lives in Rome, Italy with her husband and her two children, now fully grown. Tatiana does literary translations of novels and screenplays, including the script of Tornatore's most recent film "The Best Offer", and works for several United Nations agencies in Rome for their Language Services Departments. I was born in 1957 and lived in the United States until I was 23, when I moved to Rome, where I live with my husband and two kids – not kids, really, adults now, but you know how mothers are… My parents are Russian and I was brought up speaking Russian at home and observing Russian holidays. I majored in cultural anthropology at UCLA and subsequently learned Italian so I am particularly attuned to the beauty and the power of words. In fact, I write because I can't draw. When I was a kid I'd see something I wanted to share – a gorgeous winter dawn or a fat, sleepy kitten – so I would try to draw it and it never looked even remotely like what I was looking at. It was frustrating, and annoying to have to describe my pictures because nobody could tell what they were, until the day I realized I could describe it from the start, write it down and capture the sight in words. It worked, and I never looked back. Most of my stories are for middle grade readers. That age, 9-12, is a precious time in life – beginning to understand complex ideas and adult sentences without losing the ability to wonder and marvel at the world. Maybe inside I'm still in that time frame though there are, of course, issues and concepts that require greater maturity and those are the stories I've written that are more suitable for a young adult, or adult, audience. When I write I am aiming for your senses, hoping that you will feel and see and smell and think things you might not have otherwise. The greatest pleasure is finding out if I have succeeded, and hearing from my readers is a joy. It helps me hone my art and develop friendships – what more could a writer ask for?