Books By Aranka Siegal - Author

I was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and grew up on a chicken farm in Dorothy, New Jersey. After escaping to college, I worked in the film industry, and also taught in high school and college. I began writing fiction seriously on a dare from my husband and sold five novels for the women's fiction market before my children asked me to write a book for them (It Ain't Always Easy, 1990). I discovered that I loved writing children's fiction, and haven't looked back.
It's a pleasure to be able to invent my own worlds. Watching a character come alive - become real flesh and blood and take the reins of a story in hand - is an exhilarating experience. It's also hard work, especially since historical settings are my special place. How lucky that I feel quite comfortable in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries!

My personal challenge is to try to re-create specific periods, with their unique ambience and language patterns. Short of inventing a time machine, this is my way of reentering the pa