Author and illustrator Ann Howard was born in a small town in "Butterfly Valley", deep in the mountains of Taiwan. She spent her childhood wandering the hillsides, chasing butterflies and dragonflies and sketching everything she saw.

She has been a professional artist most of her adult life, painting surreal oils and watercolor illustrations. The Peach Blossom Village stories are a patchwork of her childhood memories interwoven with the landscape of her Northern California home. This is her first work of fiction.