Alison McMahan, Ph.D., has an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast Creative Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine. Member of SinC, RWA, MWA, ITW, the Historical Novel Society and Historical Writers of America. She's written two non-fiction books: the award-winning book Alice Guy Blaché, Lost Cinematic Visionary (Bloomsbury 2002) (about the first woman filmmaker and the inventor of cinematic narrative as we know it). This book has been translated to Spanish, produced as a play and is the basis for a documentary in development. Her second book is The Films Of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action In Hollywood (Bloomsbury 2005). Her first novel, The Saffron Crocus, a YA historical mystery set in Venice in 1643 (Black Opal Books, Dec. 2014) won the Rosemary Award for Best YA Historical in 2014 and the Florida Royal Palm Literary Award in 2015.