My parents were avid readers who took me to the public library before I was old enough to sign my name to a library card. I've always been trying to figure things out. How did newspaper people fit type into narrow columns? Who wrote all those books on the library shelves? As a teenager, I started making up stories out of boredom during summer vacation. After college, I worked on a newspaper and developed the discipline to sit down and write whether I felt like it just then or not. But ultimately I love the creative challenge of making up stories, and writing fiction provides an opportunity to constantly learn new things, strive to perfect the craft, and meet some wonderful people along the way.