Born in Hollywood in 1969. Sounds fancy, but all that really means is I shared public parks with more tranny hookers than you did. Later, we lived in Orange County, California, Las Vegas and Sacramento, respectively. I remember lots of ice cream, sunny days, big ole' station wagons and bassett hounds rutting gloriously in the ice plant. My main interests throughout the 1970s were soft-porn romance novels, soccer and the Bermuda Triangle.

The '80s were filled with new wave music, Boone's Farm wine and various versions of the mullet. I read everything I could get my hands on, but my scribblings were limited to a few angry journal entries and a love paeon to Nick Rhodes. After high school, I meandered to the big city for college at U.C. Berkeley. Eventually earned my B.A. in Political Science at U.C. Davis, and later an M.A. in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Why the Netherlands, you ask? That I'm still wondering myself.

Around this time, I began a successful career in...underemployment. Why, I thought, did I find researching mechanics liens at the County Recorder so unsatisfying? What kind of entitled prima donna was I that I didn't find copyediting reviews of pet worship Web sites life affirming? Surely my dotcom boss was only trying to hone my professional character when she acted clinically psychotic? What was wrong with me? Weren't 50 billion stock options enough to make up for that bleeding ulcer (or at least purchase a whole new stomach)? When these questions became too shrill, too persistent, to ignore, I tried to quiet them by writing. Eventually, I finished a manuscript. Along the way, I met my husband, Gabe. We live in San Francisco with our daughter Lucca, my brother B.J. (A.K.A. "Cabin Boy"), my future sister-in-law Graciela and our two cats, Flower and Louis.