Ms. Hollingsworth began dance training at the age of three. Her first month of dancing was spent on the teacher's lap crying for her mother. But once her feet-in tiny pink ballet shoes-hit the floor, it was love at first dance. And that love has continued to this day some 70 years later. Though years have taken much from her dance agility, she still enjoys her creative and technical knowledge and uses them to continue to teach and choreograph for students in surrounding local dance studios. Her life has been one of devotion to the dance arts and choreography and studying them all through her high school and college years. She graduated with a degree in Dance as Performing Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. During her sophomore year in college, she met and fell in love with her husband of 43 years, Ray Hollingsworth. Together they built two of the largest and best-known dance education centers in North Carolina and Virginia, and a Dance Seminar and Competition Company known as Dance Troupe, Inc. (DTI). "My life has always been about dance and creating. Sometimes the creation leads to paths other than dance such as songwriting and writing in general, and that has been a wonderful gift. Music, theater, and the performing arts stir my soul to the highest heights of energy and enthusiasm and make living in the arts a dream come true. "I'm delighted that through the Paws and Claws Publishing company, I have been accepted into a community of artists who write and portray their thoughts and stories through words. I'm so excited to be writing for the younger generation, the very small child. I have found a wonderful partnership with Jennifer Cappoen, my illustrator, and Lynn Bemer Coble, my editor. They've helped bring my previous books to reality. I am most thankful to God for giving me the stories and ideas that seemingly pop into my head and then flow onto the paper into the stories that will be developed and enhanced by the Paws and Claws team. "I am also extremely excited to be able to say I'm an award-winning author. Who gets to say that? Me. I can't believe it. But thank you to my Paws and Claws team for making it possible. In December of 2016 I was selected by the Dog Writers Association of America to be in a group of five finalists for the Best Children's Book. In February 2017 I was chosen as the winner of the Maxwell Medallion and given the honor of having Westie Tails-Meet Two Little Westies chosen as the best Children's Book of 2016 by this association. Thank you, thank you so much. We don't get to any one place or honor in this life without the help of others. This is definitely true for this award. "I'll have more books to come in the future. I'll continue to write as stories are given to me. I am so thankful that 'my little books' have been well received by my surrounding community and by others not only here in the United States but also across the seas. "Life is truly about accepting and being open to new horizons, hoping to succeed but also open to the fact that failing only gives you one more advantage in the direction in which you're being led. Below is my favorite quote from Shakespeare. Thanks, William. You hit the nail on the head. 'All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages....' "