Kathryn Buckstaff was born near the Wolf River, the only child of Angus and Florence Buckstaff who were artists and storytellers. Their gift to her was a love of good books and of the intriguing woods of northern Wisconsin.

She comes from distinguished roots. The Buckstaffs were early Wisconsin settlers, still noted by the Buckstaff Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin. Her great-aunt, Hattie Tyng Griswold, was among the earliest women journalists in the late 1800’s, authored fiction and textbooks, and, in 1884, was named chairwoman of the Wisconsin Woman’s Suffrage Organization.

When Buckstaff’s parents moved to Ventura, Calif., in the early 1960s, Buckstaff grew to love the beaches that inspired her early poetry. She lived in four states before settling in the mid-1970s in Northwest Arkansas on a 20-acre farm near the Buffalo River.

Her encounters with a fascinating variety of people over the years enrich the stories she tells and enable her to find remarkable context in fiction and journalism.

“Whether I’m interviewing a local artist or a renowned entertainer, I look for the human elements and details that will give readers an insider’s view,” Buckstaff says. “I am enriched by the people who have populated my life from the hermit who lived in the Wisconsin woods and appeared each spring to share the biggest, sweetest strawberries to the hippie back-to-the-landers who were my neighbors in Arkansas and the mysterious, silent guest who I watched at a Puerto Vallarta resort. I have grown up in a world of characters.”

When her two sons left for college, Buckstaff resumed her education at Missouri State University in Springfield where she received her master’s degree in literature. During that time, she began writing for the Springfield News-Leader and in 1992, was sent to cover Branson. The town of 6,000 people in the craggy Ozark Mountains has become one of the nation's top vacation destinations, attracting seven million visitors annually. Buckstaff covers all aspects of local news from business to government to entertainment. Over the past 14 years, she’s interviewed and, in some cases, developed lasting friendships with a bevy of celebrities from former Pres. Gerald Ford to Willie Nelson and Andy Williams.

In 1993, St. Martin's Press asked her to write her first book: Branson and Beyond: A Country Music Lover's Guide to Branson. Nashville and Pigeon Forge. St. Martin’s Press subsequently published murder mysteries set in Branson: No One Dies In Branson, chosen by St. Martin's as a Dead Letter Society selection, and Evil Harmony, that won kudos from the Missouri Writers Guild.