Influences: I grew up hearing crickets chirp outside my door, in a place where the water tasted sweet and I named crawdads in the creek next to my house. In the summer, you could taste the smell of sweet onions and earth. Walla Walla is rich in history and was a stopping point on the Lewis & Clark trail. Wheat fields, orchards and vineyards abound. We have been given the title "Little Napa Valley". I am the second daughter and fourth child in a family of eight children. The greatest influence I can attribute to my writing would be my parents, both possessing intelligence, wit, courage and a romantic spirit. My grandparents, both maternal and paternal, were farmers who instilled in me a love and respect for the earth...