I was born in 1970 of the happy marriage of a Vietnam vet and a mathematician. My mother is a strong, logical and intellectual woman - my dad is a more hands-on, practical type of person with a compassionate heart. Both of them had a lot of influence on me and my nine younger brothers and sisters.

Life in our large family was often chaotic, as each of us children had a fairly dominant personality ("all chiefs and no Indians"), but it was also a lot of fun. Most of my brothers and sisters became musicians and singers. I am neither. From an early age, I loved books and creating stories, and spent more time writing plays for my siblings to star in than studying, which was reflected in a string of report cards bearing "Bs." I never had a lot of friends in school, but I was lucky enough to keep the ones I did make (I met my best friend in seventh grade, and she is still one of my best friends). There were two things I was always convinced of - that I was meant to be married, and that I was meant to write stories.