Mickey Zucker Reichert is a pediatrician, parent, animal lover, and author of more than 20 novels, including those in the Renshai Chronicles, Legend of Nightfall, and Beasts of Barakhai series. She has also written one illustrated novella and more than 50 short stories. Reichert lives in Iowa with her husband and two of their children and divides her time between taking care of her family, writing, practicing medicine, teaching at the local university, and tending the assorted livestock that roam her 40-acre farm.