First Lady Frances Strickland was born in Kentucky, where she grew up on a dairy farm. She earned a doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Kentucky and has worked many years in the public school system as an educational psychologist. She authored a screening test for kindergarten-age children as well as a children's book, "The Little Girl Who Grew Up To Be Governor: Stories from the Life of Martha Layne Collins." Collins served as the first - and so far only - female governor of the state of Kentucky (1984-1988).

Strickland visits Writers Talk to share the process of writing her children's book and why she was advised to let Spanky the dog "die slowly."