I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on December 2, 1948, in a hospital that has
been torn down, which I'm pretty steamed about. When I was three years old, my
father reenlisted in the Army, and I spent my growing up years moving around a
lot—twice, I went to three schools in a single academic year. You can understand
my dilemma when people ask me where I'm from. My usual answer is "Um…..nowhere?"
I've loved books and reading from the time my mother began reading to me, and
I've loved writing ever since I could hold a pencil. I submitted my first poem
to American Girl magazine when I was nine years old. It was rejected, and it
took twenty-five years before I submitted anything again. Then, I entered a
contest in a magazine and won. I wrote for magazines for ten years, then moved
into novels and haven't stopped yet. I usually do a book a year. But I have to
tell you, the prospect of retiring is beginning to sound better and better. I
really want to live on a hobby farm with lots of animals, including a chicken,
I'm dying for a chicken.
Before I became a writer, I was a registered nurse for ten years, and that was
my "school" for writing—taking care of patients taught me a lot about human
nature, about hope and fear and love and loss and regret and triumph and
especially about relationships--all things that I tend to focus on in my work. I
worked as a waitress, which is also good training for a writer, and I sang in a
rock band which was not good for anything except the money I made. I was a
dramatic and dreamy child, given to living more inside my head than outside,
something that persists up to today and makes me a terrible dining partner. I
was married for over twenty years and am now divorced. I have two daughters and
two grandchildren. I live with my partner Bill and my dog Homer outside of
Chicago and in Wisconsin.
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