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Tara K. Harper
| Full Name: |
Tara
Kathleen
Harper |
| Born: |
March 18, 1961
Portland, Oregon, USA |
| Occupation: |
Writer |
| Nationality: |
American |
| Links: |
|
Biography
Harper was raised in northwest Oregon. Her father had worked in a nuclear lab analyzing radioactive cloud samples from Russian atomic test blasts; her mother had been a uranium buyer. Her first electronic toy was an oscilloscope. Between a father who was a meteorologist, woodworker, luthier, and otherwise jack-of-all-trades, and a mother who was an accomplished horsewoman, seamstress, musician, and community activist, Harper had a difficult time choosing between life goals. She did know by the time she was eleven that she would become an astronaut, a stunt person, or a science writer. However, her interests continue to range from fencing to forensics. She was a classical violinist, but now just dabbles in various instruments. She composes music, plays the dulcimer that her father built; pretends to play blues and folk guitar, vaguely studies voice, and grows lemons in spite of the Oregon grey weather. Currently, she spends several months each year in a remote cabin.
In 1979, Harper won a journalism honor and a communications scholarship, and enrolled at the University of Oregon. She worked nights in a cannery, fished to feed her cat, and lived in a filbert orchard while studying physics, mathematics, and journalism. Uncertain as to whether she should pursue a career in physics, music, writing or space science, she attended the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. At the same time, she served an internship as science journalist on The World newspaper (Coos Bay, Oregon).
In 1984, Harper graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science. She returned to northwest Oregon and immediately took a job with Tektronix, an electronic test and measurement company. This allowed her to make enough money to support her personal research in engineering, genetics, virology, and other disciplines. Her fiction writing was, at that time, a hobby.
By the end of 1988, Harper had completed four science-fiction novels. Under forcible pressure from a friend, she sought an agent. Her first novel was accepted at Del Rey Books six months later; she saw Wolfwalker published in 1990. The novel was an immediate best-seller, and Harper's career moved quickly forward.
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