Her Wren's War was an Anne Spencer Lindbergh Honor Book,[1] and it and The Spy Princess were Mythopoeic Fantasy Award finalists.
[2] When she was 8, she started writing about another world, Sartorias-deles, though she soon switched to making comic books of her stories, which she found to be easier.
However, some of the novels Smith first wrote as a teen, including Wren to the Rescue, were sold after she learned to rewrite.
[5] In the years it took her to learn to rewrite, Smith "went to college, lived in Europe, came back to get [her] masters in History, worked in Hollywood, got married, started a family and became a teacher.
However, in non-canon commentaries the author informs readers that most of the early human history on Sartorias-deles has been lost since the so-called Fall of Sartor approximately 4,000 years before the events of the books such as Senrid.
For example, in numerous references throughout the stories, they appear to have brought with them several domesticated animal species, including cattle, horses, and dogs, as well as many foods such as coffee, rice, the tomato,[9] and concepts such as the seven-day week.