Saylor was born in a Detroit suburb, raised in the South, and has lived in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco.  Her first influences in story telling began on the sagging front porch of her great grandmother's farm house.  There she learned the importance of getting to her point early in a story.  The experiences of living in New York and San Francisco gave her a character list for a life-time of writing character driven novels.  And finally while riding a O Line public transportation bus in San Francisco the O Line Mystery Series dawned on her.