Career
Lyons makes her home in Raleigh, North Carolina. As a high school student, Lyons loved the works of Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry and set a goal to be an author as well. As an adult, she read the book Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth, which was the first time she had seen an African-American girl featured on the cover of a picture book
This inspired her to start writing fiction books for children that would feature African-American lead characters.