Victoria Holtz Wodzak earned both her master's in English language and her doctorate in medieval literature from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She teaches literature and writing classes. Her research area is primarily the fantasy works of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien. She dates her love of Tolkien, and her love of books, from her earliest days as a reader when she was given her first set of his books at the age of seven. One of the very first things she learned from Tolkien's books was never to read about Black Riders after dark. The second thing, and perhaps the more important thing, she learned, is that the best consolation when you reach the end of a good book is to start over from the beginning. You can read her work in the journals Mythlore, Tolkien Studies, and Fastitocalon.