EMILY “E.L.” STARLING grew up in the center of California, midway between all the cities anyone has ever heard of. During her career as a papercut artist, she’s shown her work in galleries from California to New Hampshire and been featured in print, ad campaigns, an artist spotlight series, and a stop-motion short. Today she lives in Portland, Oregon where she runs her company, Bird Mafia, and spends her days papercutting, running slowly, hiking, befriending neighborhood cats, and doing the wholly unfun parts of running a small business. In her pre-dawn hours, she can be found writing YA speculative fiction novels full of longing and twisty secrets with a cup of coffee at the ready and the ever-present hope of pastries.