Penny Warner is an award-winning author of over fifty books ranging in subjects from cooking to parenting guides to children's activities. In addition, Warner is the author of the Connor Westphal mystery series, about a deaf reporter in the California Gold Country. The first book in the series, Dead Body Language, won the Macavity Award for Best First Novel in 1998. Her children's mystery, Mystery Of The Haunted Caves: A Troop 13 Mystery, won the Agatha Award for Best Children/Young Adult Fiction in 2001, along with an Anthony Award for Best Juvenile Mystery.

Warner also teaches Child Development at Diablo Valley College in San Ramon, California. She has also taught sign language, special education, infant development, and preschool deaf children.