Kass Evans writes non-fiction under Katherine G. Evans and fiction under Kass Evans. She is the author of the Alexander the Alabarch series, also known as the "Toga mysteries."

Monday through Friday, she works as a consultant for metadata systems, information management, and technical writing.

Kass is a gemologist with a certificate in colored gemstones from University of South Florida. She is also a certified MasterValuer™ of gems and jewelry. She wrote her MV research paper on how to authenticate and value ancient Roman finger rings and is a collector of both Roman rings and coins. [Left: Togas and tunics had no pockets. So where did a Roman keep his or her key? ... on their key ring, of course!]

She is a frequent lecturer on gems and ancient jewelry and was the co-founder of the Florida Association of Master Appraisers (FAMA) and of the Tampa Bay Gem & Jewelry Society. [Right: Samples from my gemstone collection]

Kass was born in Tampa, Florida but grew up on Air Force bases in Puerto Rico, California, North Carolina, and Delaware. [Right: A diapered and pistol packing Annie Oakley in Puerto Rico] She developed an interest in Ancient Religions while working on her B.A. at University of Florida and went on to earn an M.A. in Religion at Florida State University and another M.A. in the New Testament world from Claremont Graduate School (California) where she wrote a thesis on "Women's Letters in the Greek Papyri."

Later Kass began work on her Ph.D. in "Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World" at University of Pennsylvania with Robert Kraft. Various circumstances kept her from completing the degree although she had done much of the preliminary work on her proposed dissertation topic, Alexander the Alabarch including publishing an article on him. [Left: There is no extant image of Alexander, but this the art work that I'm using for his fiction series.]

Because of her educational background, Kass plans for her historical fiction to address different aspects of religion in the ancient Mediterranean world. She hopes to bring an authentic sense of antiquity to her writing because of her years of training in the historical critical method and in ancient and modern languages (Classical and Koine Greek, Biblical and Modern Hebrew, Latin, Coptic, French and German). [Right: The picture in the header is a younger me. This is closer to how I look now.]

Kass also has an M.Ln. (Master in Library and Information Management) from Emory University. She began work in traditional university library settings, but was eventually recruited by different CIOs to assist with information management in several university and government computer projects. Her favorite was a job to design and shepard the release of a complex, standards-based digital library and one-stop information gateway for the National Park Service.

Kass also worked part-time for 5 years at the Florida History and Genealogy Library. This spurred her to trace her own roots and learned that she is an eighth generation Floridian with ancestors dating back to the late 1700s on Amelia Island. [Left: My ancestor Marcellus Gorman from Jefferson County, Florida on his wedding day to Henrietta Skipper, who had rather astonishing taste in hats!]

Kass lives on a conservation area outside Tampa, Florida. She is currently single, but never alone with many furry and feathery friends around her. [Right: Muscovy, mottled ducks and an ibis. The black and white muscovy duck, Gonzo, knocks on my glass door with his beak when he wants me to bring him some corn.]

Kass has always liked puzzles, but since her father recently died after a long stuggle with Alzheimer's, she's adamant about her daily crosswords, sudoku, and cryptograms. Most of all, Kass likes to read, especially historical fiction.

Contact: mail@kassevans.com