Vernis Rucker
Author · Freelance Writer · Storyteller
Vernis Rucker was one of sixteen children born in Coldwater, Mississippi. As a girl, she loved exploring the woods with her father, who taught her to find beauty in nature. Without much television to watch, her imagination became her closest companion — she'd host tea parties with imaginary friends and dream of meeting a little visitor from outer space.
That same imagination later carried her into music: in 1993, her recording "Stranger in the Sheet" reached audiences around the world. When illness slowed her music career, Vernis discovered her deeper calling — writing children's books that help young readers unlock the same richness of imagination she found in her own secret place.
The Story Behind the Story
Every child needs a place that's just theirs.
Long before The Secret Place became a children's book, Vernis Rucker had a secret place of her own. Growing up as one of sixteen children in Coldwater, Mississippi, she found peace exploring the woods with her father — a landscape all her own, where she could dream, imagine, and let her creativity come alive, not so different from the hillside where Cure spends her afternoons.
Years later, the idea for the story came back to her through a dream. Cure, her secret place, and a tiny visitor named Zeek began to take shape on the page — carrying that same childhood feeling of wonder into a story she hopes will give other children permission to dream, too.