Karen Krossing was born and raised in Richmond Hill, Ontario KarenÂ’s first short story, "Dragon's Breath," was published in 1998 in Opening Tricks, a collection of the third Thistledown Press young adult short story competition. The Castle Key was her first novel for children. Karen loves books about magic, and secretly believes that magic is real. But she also enjoys gritty, realistic fiction and non-fiction. She currently lives in Toronto.