About the Author

At around the turn of the century, Wendy Lautner was a recovering pre-med major at Humboldt State University in Northern California. Having just recently returned from a study-abroad program in Central America, the idea of sitting in one place for too long seemed hard to fathom. Discussing this dilemma with her father via email he suggested she try journalism because, "then you can travel and do all kinds of fun things and get paid well for it." While she still hasn't quite mastered the "getting paid well" part, Wendy took her dad's advice and signed up for the school newspaper. Since then she has worked at Paddler Magazine, wrote sports coverage in the adrenaline hub of Lake Tahoe area for the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, had a stint as the newspaper editor at the Lincoln News Messenger serving Sacramento's up-and-coming bedroom community to the north, and has written for heaps of other publications, Web sites and the like on topics ranging from recreation, travel and environmental issues. Currently, she is the assistant editor for Tahoe.com where her basic job duties include eating out at nice restaurants, attending concerts, hiking, mountain biking, parasailing, writing, and a decent amount of computer time as well. Catch up with Wendy at www.tahoe.com where she runs a blog called the Tahoe Tracker.