Mary Anna Evans has degrees in physics and engineering, but her heart is in the past. Her series character, Faye Longchamp, lives the exciting life of an archaeologist, and Mary Anna envies her a little. Her novels have received recognitions including a spot on Voice of Young America's (VOYA) list of "Adult Mysteries with Young Adult Appeal." They have been on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's (IMBA) bestseller list and have been designated Notable Books by Booksense and Indiebound. Mary Anna has won the Florida Historical Society's Patrick D. Smith Florida Literature Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and a Florida Book Awards Bronze Medal. Her books have been nominated for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year and for the SIBA Book Award. While Mary Anna's novels are written with adults in mind, they have found an audience in schools, where they're being used to teach non-literature subjects such as social studies, math, and science. The social studies link was no surprise to the books' author, since her protagonist is an archaeologist, but she swears that she never once purposely included math or science in her stories. (And her readers have never once complained that the laws of physics operate properly in her books). Learning that she's done this unconsciously has been an inarguable example of the axiom that writers write about who they are. They can't help it. Math and science explain the world, so they're indispensable to any story set in that world. And they're very handy tools for an amateur detective to have. To invite Mary Anna to speak by telephone to your book group or class, email her at maryannaevans@yahoo.com . Mary Anna is a co-founder and board member of the Anhinga Writers' Studio. The Studio presents an annual summer workshop in Gainesville, Florida, providing writing instruction and networking for fiction and nonfiction authors of all levels of experience. For information on this year's summer workshop, visit www.anhingawriters.org.