Kari Maaren is a writer, cartoonist, musician, and reasonably grumpy university instructor. Her first novel, the YA fantasy adventure Weave a Circle Round, was published in the fall of 2017. She has a completed webcomic, West of Bathurst, and an active one, It Never Rains; she has also produced two CDs of original music, Beowulf Pulled My Arm Off and Everybody Hates Elves, and has won Aurora Awards for her music (2013 and 2015) and comics (2015). Kari was born in Burnaby, B.C., but now lives in Toronto, Ontario with far too many musical instruments and an astounding number of books.