Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Philippa Ballantine has always had her head in a book. At the age of thirteen she began writing fantasy stories for herself. Her first professional sale was in 1997, and since then she has gone on to produce novel length fiction. In 2006 she became New Zealand's first podcast novelist, and has voiced and produced Weaver's Web, Chasing the Bard, Weather Child and Digital Magic as podiobooks. Her podcasts have been short listed for Parsec Awards numerous times, but it was Chasing the Bard that won her a Sir Julius Vogel award, New Zealand's Hugo Award. Outside of her own podiobooks, Philippa has contributed her voice to other award-nominated and award-winning podcasts including Murder at Avedon Hill, The Metamor City Podcast, Down from Ten, and Morevi: Remastered. In 2010, Philippa sets her sights on America with her first mass market paperback release with Ace Books, the supernatural thriller Geist. Already she is hard at work with its sequel Spectyr coming out in the summer of 2011. Also in 2011, Pip will have a new series coming out. Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, co-authored with Tee Morris and from Harper Voyager is a steampunk romp.