Catherine Leggitt is an author, editor, inspirational speaker, and recovering complainer presently residing in northern California. After nine moves in twenty-four years, she is resolved to the high probability that another relocation looms somewhere in her future. With a gypsy for a husband, it's best not to put down deep roots. Besides, Catherine has discovered that frequent moving is a great way to keep the closets clean. A lifelong lover of fiction, she taught elementary school during her first career, which allowed her a legitimate venue for play-acting and telling stories.

Seven years ago, Catherine began writing The Christine Sterling Mysteries.  Suffering a horrible summer while living in her dream house, she made Grass Valley, California the setting for Christine's adventures. Instead of being joy-filled at her magnificent blessings, menopause had addled her brain, drained her joy, and changed her personality. Complaining reached epic proportions. Friends abandoned her. Pets hid under the bed. Fearful for his life, her husband sought alternate lodging in a different part of the house. (Okay, not really the part after the complaining sentence. Let's just say, it wasn't a pretty sight.)  Catherine desperately needed a diversion. God, in His magnanimous mercy, provided one at the keyboard.

                                                                      
                           The character of Zora Jane Callahan in The Christine Sterling Mysteries is compiled from three wonderful 
women.  One of them is Catherine's mother-in-law, Zora Jane. She is always impeccably dressed as in this picture taken on her 80th birthday. 

         You can't see them, but she was also wearing matching lime green shoes.  

      MOLLY THE BORDER COLLIE

Catherine wrote a tribute to a great dog in The Christine Sterling Mysteries. Maybe once in a lifetime, a really exceptional dog comes along. That was Molly. Winsome and gentle, eager to please and amazingly intelligent, in the twelve years Molly lived in the Leggitt household, she never failed to delight. A wonderful companion, Molly would have made a fine sleuthing partner.

She  died  on her birthday, June 30, 2005. The Leggitt's miss their brown-eyed girl every day.

In Payne & Misery, Christine attended a cowboy mounted shooting event. Catherine's husband Bob participated in cowboy mounted shooting for 6 years, amassing an impressive array of trophies and more buckles than a herd of cowboys could wear in a year of Sundays. Ranger, the Morgan stallion, was his first horse. The top picture shows Bob in cowboy mounted shooting costume when he won best costume at the CMSA World Championship in 2004.