Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, novelist Randall Beth Platt employs that locale in her books for young adults and adults alike. A master of the quirky, offbeat character, Platt has created memorable protagonists that include a quartet of "mentally outa sorts" cowpokes running a cattle ranch in the "Fe-As-Ko" series, the plucky Teddy of the award-winning young adult novel, Honor Bright, and the half-Caucasian, half-Chinese albino, Cordy, of another young adult novel, The Likes of Me. Platt often sets her novels in historical periods, taking readers back to World War II or to the early twentieth century and late nineteenth. "I write for both the young adult and the adult markets," Platt told Authors and Artists for Young Adults (AAYA). "I figure I get them coming and going that way. Actually, I didn't start out to write for young adults, but editors and agents sometimes steer...