Sue Ray-Smolik
B.S. Elementary Education, with a concentration in Music/Voice Clarion University of Pennsylvania 1984 M.A. Technology in Education, Lesley College 1997
As a country bumpkin who grew up surrounded by beautiful tree covered hills and clear running streams in western Pennsylvania, I was blessed to live as an adult in another area with abundant natural beauty here in Nebraska which I have called home since 1985.
It is hard to believe but in two more years I will have been an elementary teacher for four decades!
When not teaching I enjoy singing, writing, and drawing. Whether it is working in my yard (mostly trying not to kill my flowers), or riding my bike at the lake, the outdoors is definitely my happy place.
My daughter Stephanie, her husband Bryan, and adorable grandson Liam, (all characters in my book The Evening Walk) moved home from Colorado last year making me one very happy Grammy!
My husband, Mike, and I reside near Elkhorn with our fur babies, a Basenji dog named Tiggy (also a character in The Evening Walk), and a calico cat named CoCo. And don’t worry, has her own special appearance in two other books lest she feel left out! 🤣
I try to fit as much time into my life as I can for those things, minus the flower killing of course! The perfect day for me as an author is having an uninterrupted amount of time to lose myself at the kitchen table, typing away, with a warm breeze shifting the curtains, birds singing in the pines…just being able to let the ideas flow, and feeling the peace as they do.
left image – Cook Forest State Park in northwestern Pennsylvania
bottom image – Platte River State Park eastern Nebraska
*Member of Nebraska Writer’s Guild
*Member of Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Sue Ray-Smolik 