Carolyn Gora was a Florida public school art teacher. During her career she taught elementary, middle, and high school students. She also taught elementary education university students how to incorporate art into their classroom lesson. She has been painting animal characters for over fifty years. The Birds of Paradise Visit a Fern Forest is her second book. Her first book, The Almost True Story of Birds of Paradise was written so her grandchildren would be able to read the story by themselves. She got the idea for the two books from her own birds of paradise plants, which finally bloomed and resembled