Gaby Triana

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Gaby Triana unknowingly began her writing career in the 3rd grade when she wrote her 3-page novel, Skeeter Creek, a story about a girl who loved fishing during the lazy days of a mosquito-filled summer. It had no plot, but it sounded like Mark Twain and won her an A+ from her teacher anyway. It was then she had the brief twinkling of an idea that she might be a writer in the future, but being a 3rd grader, she naturally thought becoming a veterinarian would be "much neater" because she'd be able to "work with cats and stuff."

Never one to listen to her instincts, Gaby dabbled in many other activities throughout her schooling-softball, violin, dance, color guard, even cake decorating, a talent which still persists today. Throughout all this, she still wrote, but only for fun and 1st prize fair ribbons, never with any serious publishing intent. Upon graduating from high school, she further ignored her calling and studied at Florida State University, diving headfirst into a career in teaching, graduating with both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Elementary Education. She spent the next seven years teaching 3rd and 4th grade in Miami, earning Teacher of the Year, and writing stories for her students who asked her to read them over and over, all the while STILL never thinking they'd amass to anything.

It wasn't until the birth of her first son, Michael, during those long, lonely days of speaking to a toddler for hours at a time that Gaby thought it was time to share her stories with people taller than 35 inches. She joined a critique group of actual adults that specialized in children's books, and during that time, wrote her first published novel for young adults, Backstage Pass, a story about a rock star's 16-year-old daughter caught between her real life of on-road living, catered meals, and plenty of global publicity and her secret life of nothingness and normality at a public high school in Coconut Grove. Backstage Pass was published by HarperCollins, earned an IRA Teen Choice Award in 2006, and plenty of praise from Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publisher's Weekly. Always a late bloomer, Gaby finally realized what her career should have been from the very beginning.