Jane Ann Peddicord was born on an Air Force base in Illinois. Her family moved to Germany for two years, but eventually settled in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jane and her sister used to lie in the backyard on summer nights, point a flashlight up at the stars, and make up stories about the constellations. On family trips to Chicago and New York they always made time to see planetarium shows. Walking in off the hot city streets and settling back under the glittering dome seemed to young Jane like entering a mystical gateway into another realm.
After her 17th starlit summer, Jane attended Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She graduated with a double major in Psychology and Women's Studies, then worked for short stints as a human rights investigator, a group home counselor, and an English as a Second Language teacher. She even studied law at the University of Texas and tried her hand as a public interest lawyer. None of these pursuits had much in common except for the bits of rhyming verse that tended to clutter the margins of her papers. Finally, she began to pay attention to those scribbles and to study the craft of writing for children.
Meanwhile, Jane's early interest in astronomy continued to grow. Wherever she traveled she found herself wandering into planetariums and observatories, and she was awed by the stunning images captured with the Hubble Space Telescope. Jane now lives in the Texas hill country, near Austin.
