An avid explorer, Kelly Novak has visited seventy-three countries on six continents including sites such as Machu Picchu, Easter Island, Petra, and the Pyramids. Her adventures include a search for the Lost Ark in Ethiopia, getting lost in a cave in Guatemala, and train-hopping from Moscow to Venice carrying only a backpack. She holds a Master of Science degree in experimental physics from the University of Houston and has extensive experience in the semiconductor industry and in biomedical technology. Her interests include children's literature, history, and recreational mathematics. She lives in a spooky (and some say haunted) three-hundred-year-old house in Massachusetts.