Journalist, speaker, tastemaker, traveler, hostess, Southerner, Sunday painter and outdoors lover, Frances Schultz is a lover of houses and gardens, cooking and entertaining, travel and style. She is author and co-author of several books, including the bestselling The Bee Cottage Story—How I Made a Muddle of Things and Decorated My Way Back to Happiness, and most recently California Cooking & Southern Style, out in the fall of 2019. Frances is also the West Coast contributing editor for Flower magazine and was a longtime contributor to House Beautiful and Veranda magazines.

 

Frances has written for The Wall Street Journal, Town & Country, Indagare and others. She was, for six years, on-air host of the award-winning cable television show Southern Living Presents, with numerous other TV and video appearances to her credit as well.

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Born and raised in the small town of Tarboro, North Carolina, she graduated from St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, NC, and from the University of Virginia. Frances is the proud aunt of four, a step-mother and grandmother; and she serves on the boards of the Horticultural Society of New York and the Empowers Africa foundation. With husband Tom Dittmer, dog Stella, and assorted horses and critters, she lives in the Santa Ynez Valley of California and in New York City.