Welcome to the Shelf Care Interview, an occasional conversation series, where Booklist talks to book people. This Shelf Care Interview is sponsored by Lerner Publishing Group.

Heather Murphy Capps grew up in a small Minnesota town where the motto is "Cows, Colleges, and Contentment." She spent fifteen years as a television news journalist before deciding to focus on her favorite kind of writing: books for kids involving history, social justice, science, mystery, and a touch of magic. A mixed-race author committed to diversity in publishing, she lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two kids, two cats, and yes, even some cows, colleges, and contentment. INDIGO AND IDA is her debut novel.