Kay Smith-Blum, a former fashionista and Seattle School Board President, spends her days debunking the tropes of the mid-20th-century history. An odd dream and the recent upheaval over leaking radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear site compelled her to write, Recently named Best Regional Fiction in the West for 2025 by the National Indie Excellence Awards and Best Historical  Mystery/Suspense by the American Fiction Awards at Book Fest 2025, TANGLES, was also named Book of the Year by the Literary Global Book Awards and Best Debut Fiction by the American Writing Awards. Smith-Blum, a sunrise writer, has lived in Seattle for four decades. She works out her writer’s block in her sons’ gardens (which she designed) and the nearest lap pool.