Hello! I’m gina. (That’s me on the left.) First of all, I want to thank you for visiting my page. It’s very kind of you to take an interest. This is my first book, and it’s been immensely fun to work on. I hope you like it too.

I was working at an advertising agency in a big high rise in Chicago when I first discovered an organization called The Wild Gift out in Sun Valley, Idaho. They professed to offer grants to five young people each year with a creative idea that could help the environment. You might not have guessed it by looking at me, but I was terribly interested in the environment. If chosen, the winners would be taken on a 20-day backpacking adventure in the mountains and would be sponsored for one year to complete their project.

I figured that winning this thing would be a long shot. I imagined the applicants to be outdoorsmen and wild women who’d traveled the world over and had all kinds of fantastic adventures worthy of sharing around a campfire. As for me, I’d grown up in the suburbs. My only traveling to speak of had been a week here or there at a family beach resort or theme park. I’d never even seen a mountain up close, and here I was, typing away to a man named Bob Jonas about why he should pick me to participate in a 20-day wilderness trek in the Sawtooths and write a book to save the environment. Luckily though, Mr. Jonas was convinced, and the end result of my year-long project is what you'll find here.

I live in a little apartment in Geneva that's covered in morning glories. I like to draw tiny cartoons like the ones you see here, go exploring outside with my dog, and chew over existential perplexities while chasing butterflies.

Say hello: gina@atownnearyou.com