As a competitive figure skater in her pre-teen and teen years, Kerry (McIntyre) Novick was surprised that there were so few novels about competitive figure skaters, and those that she found appeared to written by authors who had never skated competitively. She set out to change that. After high school, Novick turned professional and toured with Ice Follies & Holiday On Ice Combined Shows, Holiday On Ice Europe, and Disney On Ice. After a six-month engagement with an ice show in Japan, she went on to receive a degree in Japanese Language and Literature from the University of Massachusetts and a Master of Arts in East Asian Studies from Cornell University. She took writing courses throughout college and later at Gotham Writer’s Workshop in New York City, always with an eye to becoming an author. She went on to have a 25-year career in the distribution and development of children’s television programs, where she honed in on the art of storytelling for children and young adults. Svetlana’s Ring is her first novel.