I was born in Buffalo, New York, on a chilly morning in October, as my Dad put it. The leaves had  turned, he told me, and the world was beautiful. My first memories are of my grandfather's dairy farm, on Lake Erie.  My childhood was peopled with the fairies that lived in my grandmother's flower garden, the magical elves and wood nymphs that lived in the woods near the lake, and, of course, the mermaids who lived in the lake itself...not to mention the lake monster herself!  Oh, yes...as a child, I believed in all of these things, and more!