About the Authors

An American and Australian collaboration

	A native of the midwestern United States, Cinda Wombles Pettigrew, RN, MHCA, is an energy consultant and spiritual teacher. She and her husband, Jim, travel to many countries which affords her the opportunity to explore the deep spiritual and cultural heritage of the native people. When not traveling and writing, she enjoys tennis, boating on the Mississippi River and walking in the forest which surrounds their home.
	Born in Australia, Dr. Robyn D. Warner is one of six sisters, and holds a Ph.D. in food science from the University of Wisconsin. A Research Scientist at the Victorian Institute for Animal Science, her love of nature frequently leads to adventures in the Australian outback with her geographer husband, Peter. She enjoys spending her leisure time bird watching, bushwalking, and camping in the wilderness.
	Special Note: Robyn and Peter's camping trips just became slightly more complicated with the arrival of Holly Tiende Newall, their first child. Cinda and Jim recently traveled to Australia to become Holly's god-parents.

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The experience of co-authoring:

Cinda and Robyn wrote Seeking the White Root after camping together in the Grampian Mountains of Victoria, Australia. Their shared experiences, beliefs and studies about the plight of the Aborigines gave rise to the joint project.

Cinda's comments:

I delighted in the immediate response I received when I faxed something over to Robyn. It seemed as though the book wrote itself. Intuitively, I felt we were very in tune to each other and what the universe was trying to convey through our writing. Many times I could see the story unfolding just like a movie, only the scenes didn't come in sequence. The challenging part came after Robyn and I had written dozens of little vignettes: we had to find the place each one fit in the story. It was a little surprising at times. Once when I was trying to write a scene which would tie together two other segments, I couldn't seem to get it down on paper although I could clearly see what was to happen. Suddenly the fax started spewing out paper, and Robyn sent me the exact scene I had been trying to write.

Robyn's comments :

My creative ideas came in batches. I wrote a lot more stuff initially, then my source of inspiration seemed to dry up. We were faxing back and forth and it would be so exciting in the morning to get up and see what Cinda had written and to feel the inspiration start to flow with new storyline as soon as I read what she had written.

Cinda held the vision for the whole book and initially I had the images for the characters and lived and breathed their emotional lives. I brought to the book my 'wounded self' in the portrayal of Jane, my knowledge and inner knowing of aborigines, and my love of nature and plants and places in Australia.

Email the publisher for a FREE Reading Group Guide at BaldEaglePress@pettigrewconsulting.com