Hiraguri, Melanie: - Melanie Hiraguri is a writer of young adult fantasy and magical realism for all ages. A fan of storytellers like Lois Lowry, Madeleine L'Engle, Michael Ende, and J.R.R. Tolkien, she found inspiration for Mysteria from a dream one night about a magical insect, an old woman, and a sleeping girl. Five years later another dream gave her the girl's name, and she knew then she had to write the story. Notes became chapters and chapters a novel-which she dedicated to her father. A California native, Melanie lives with her husband and three children in Japan, where she works as an English teacher, translator, writer, and missionary. She holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature and a master's degree in teaching English as a second language.