Laurie Brooks Evans
Laurie was born and raised in the mid-coast town of Camden, Maine. Growing up in Camden meant learning to sail in small sailboats called turnabouts, walking to school and the library, visiting the local Five and Dime for a popsicle, running to the local market to pick up milk and bread, and biking from Camden to Rockport on a regular basis. Blessed to live at the base of Mount Battie, she trekked up the back trails to the mountain as a kid.
Laurie’s love of literature began by memorizing poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, like Renascense (about Mount Battie) and cherishing books by Maine authors. Her favorite children’s books are still Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney and Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey. Later, homeschooling meant more years of reading books out loud to her children. Then when her nest emptied, Laurie started a business selling vintage books online, while taking up writing more seriously.
Laurie attended the University of Maine at Farmington and then went to graduate school at the University of Florida where she met her husband, Steve, from Wisconsin. Marrying a Midwesterner meant she had to wear her “Mainer-in-Exile” shirt for almost forty years, only coming home to Maine for summer vacations. Laurie had been making her way back to Maine by discovering the craft of writing about Maine ‘back in the day’. And now that retirement has arrived, she and Steve are part-time residents of Camden. And that makes Laurie ‘wicked’ happy.
The tradition of climbing Mount Battie continues with her husband, two daughters, and grandchildren. Writing Mount Battie’s Christmas Star has been a labor of love. A love that she hopes to pass down to her family, those who call Maine their happy place, and those who have always wanted to discover Maine.
Laurie is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Word Weavers International, Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Maine Genealogy Society, and Daughters of the American Revolution.