Jean
M. Auel married at 18, by 25 had five children, then in
l964 at the age of 28 started college, night courses, and worked full time
at an electronics firm. She studied maths, physics and electronics, while
progressing from clerical work, to circuit board design, to technical writer,
to credit manager.
She entered an MBA programme and was granted the degree in l976. Then, in l977, she had an idea to write a story about a young woman who lived during the Ice Age. A love of reading, an insatiable curiosity, and a penchant for research led to hours with books from the library which resulted in a long first draft for a six-part novel that became, instead, an outline for a six-book series.
Additional library research, supplemented by field courses that included
making stone tools, building a snow cave, and brain-tanning buckskin,
plus travel to both western and eastern Europe, have helped to flesh out
the details for Earth's Children® :
THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR,
THE VALLEY OF HORSES,
THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS,
THE PLAINS OF PASSAGE,
THE SHELTERS OF STONE.
