Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick grew up in suburban St. Louis, the second of six children. After she graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, her newspaper career included feature writing positions at metro dailies in Hannibal, St. Louis, and Milwaukee. On Sept. 11, 2001, Catherine was in Manhattan to cover New York Fashion Week. At first word of the terrorist attacks, she rushed to Ground Zero and filed award-winning eyewitness reports. A description of her reportage is included with accounts of other reporters and photographers in Running Toward Danger (2002, Rowman & Littlefield). A front page of the newspaper edition containing one of her 9/11 dispatches is among those memorialized in Washington D.C.'s Newseum. Catherine's debut novel, A Matter of Happenstance, is a four-generation family saga that explores the power of personal character over coincidence. A follow-up novel, Going on Nine, is a coming-of-age story told by a young girl in 1956 and, alternately, by the mature woman she is today. Like Voyage, her earlier books are set primarily in her hometown, St. Louis. Catherine is a former board member of the TallGrass Writers Guild and a member of the Florida Writers Association. She and her husband, Dennis, live in Bonita Springs, FL. They have two daughters.
