Lezlie Ann Word grew up on a farm near Dover, TN, in a community called Huricane Creek with her parents, maternal grandmother, and younger sister, Ginger. They attended a small Baptist church located on the corner of her uncle’s farm where she accepted Christ as her Savior at the age of eight during a fall revival. She credits her late mother with encouraging the love of biblical study that would lead her to accept the call of teaching when she was twenty.

At an early age, she developed a passion for reading and at the age of thirteen began her first novel; it remains unfinished. Gifted in academics, she received numerous awards and was valedictorian of her senior class at Stewart County High School in 1989. She attended Austin Peay State University on the Kimbrough Memorial Scholarship where she majored in education and received the Outstanding Achievement in Elementary Education Award in 1993. She completed a Master of Arts in Education for the Reading Specialist Degree two years later. Lezlie is currently beginning her tenth year at Dover Elementary School where she has taught fourth grade, seventh and eight grade literature and language arts, and seventh grade mathematics.

Gathering information and ideas from many sources (some of them personal accounts), Lezlie begain writing Intents of the Heart while completing her student teaching semester in February 1993 after experiencing the climatic scene at the end of part one in a dream. Five years later, the series was completed and the final editing process began. This volume represents one-third of the complete work; the other two volumes with be quick to follow.

Currently, Lezlie is working on two writing projects. One is a prequel to Intents that chronicles the early life of Malcolm Preston, his courtship with Carolyn, and the years he spent at war; the other is a three-volume account of a member of the Derebourne family called Chastening. She hopes to see both in print.

On March 17, 2001, Lezlie married Richard Lynn Tyson, the love of her life. She was proud to take his name in all matters but one; she had decided to honor her father (the last of his line) by always publishing under her maiden name. Richard is a full-time youth minister at Harvest Fellowship in Clarksville, TN, where the couple resides.