Whitney Verdin Skeen grew up in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania before cable television. With only three fuzzy channels to watch, and no air conditioning, she found solace in books. She spent her favorite summer days at the air-conditioned public library where she browsed the shelves for the perfect story, and found it many times over. Those library days inspired her first literary work, The Mouse That Couldn't Eat Cheese, back in second grade. She went on to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and become a middle school teacher. For years, she witnessed the intense and erratic world that middle schoolers navigate daily. Those observations inspired her to create Hank, Hannah and the cast of characters that inhabit Vista Point. Today Whitney lives on the coast of North Carolina with her husband, two sons, and the dogs that love them. Vanished in Vista Point is her first novel.