C. A. Varian was raised in Lockport, Louisiana, into an often-low-income household. She spent a lot of her childhood fishing, crabbing, and playing school. She loved pretending to be the teacher and assigning work to her cousins. Her love of reading started very young, where she used to complete several books per week in elementary school so she could earn a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut. Even once free pizzas were no longer an option, she still steadily read novels, usually above the reading level for her age group, and loved visiting the library to stock up on books. She started writing poetry and short stories while still in junior high through high school, although she stopped writing, at least for fun, once she had children and went to college. Thankfully, her writing hiatus has ended.
She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, as well as a Master’s degree in History. She also worked towards getting her teaching certification. She did almost all of her college education while also being the mother of two children. After graduating from college, she began teaching public school, a career that she continues to this day, currently teaching special education at a local middle school.
She’s married to a retired military officer, so she spent many years moving around for his career, but they now live in central Alabama, with her youngest daughter, Arianna. Her oldest daughter, Brianna, no longer lives at home and is engaged to be married. She has two Shih Tzus that she considers her children. Boy, Charlie, and girl, Luna, are their mommy’s shadows. She also has three cats: Ramses, Simba, and Cookie, as well as five chickens and two ducks.
