Renee Libra immigrated to America at the age of 14. For the first 5 years, she struggled to achieve adequate fluency in English. In contrast, she received promising grades in math and science. The choice was clear. As an undergraduate studying genetics at the University of California, Davis, she anticipated a career in research.

But life happens in interesting ways. Her adventurous personality prompted her to participate in an education abroad program to London, England during her second year in college. Upon returning, not only did her English improved significantly, the experiences she gained encouraged her to pursuit her favorite subject of history and opened up the possibility of working abroad. She went on a second education abroad program to Göttingen, Germany, then graduated with a degree in genetics and European history.

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Her first job was to return to Germany and volunteer for a program called Weltoffenheit, which brought English speakers to the youths living in rural areas in the former East Germany to take part in cultural exchange activities. Subsequently, she taught English in Japan with the private language school, Berlitz, as well as the Japanese government sponsored program, Japan Exchange & Teaching (JET) Program. Her own struggles in learning English had proven valuable in effectively teaching the language to other non-native speakers.

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When she returned to America, she got married. After working briefly as an interpreter, she became a full-time mom a few months after her first son was born. The next 7 years of diaper changing, cooking, cleaning, spending hours at the parks, and disciplining couldn't be more different than her life style before.

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Her older son is an advanced reader. When he was in 2nd grade, it became increasingly challenging to find books that could challenge his skills with age appropriate contends. "Perhaps I can write something for him..." Renee thought. Her son was, and still is, a big fan of the game Minecraft. That Halloween, Renee and her boys made some Minecraft theme decorations using cardboard boxes. After a night of fun, a 4-foot-tall creeper remained on the porch for a while. An idea came to mind: what could a creeper be doing out there? From that thought, the story of The Kreepton Chronicles was born.

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Began as a short story, with her son's inputs of additional details and twists, a simple tale grew into a novel, then a series. In the mean time, her toddler grew up and contributed to the designing of creatures in the story.

Embarking on the journey to become an author has opened a new set of doors Renee had not imagined before. Since publishing her first book, she has been invited to speak at fundraisers, talk to students about writing, as well as teaching her native language of Cantonese and participating in cultural events. She recently started volunteering as an education program docent at the Sacramento History Museum.

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As her children grow older and become more independent, a full-time career as an author is most definitely an exciting and welcomed prospect!

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The Pandemic of 2020/2021 did not stop her from achieving her goals. In addition to working on a new novel, she also signed up for the Women Who BossUp Project and collaborated with 15 other women to earn the title of Amazon Bestselling Author! Her journey continues post-pandemic...