I was born near West Point Academy in New York, where my father was a cadet and then graduated from Bard College. When I was six months old, we moved to Yakima, Washington. In Geneva, NY at 17, I won a full-ride academic scholarship to the College of Arts & Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. To begin a writing career, I set out for Iowa City, but never applied to the Writers' Workshop as I had intended. Scared, I guess.

Somehow, I became a writer anyway. It was always my dream, when I wasn't working hard as an editor, and later in life, a social worker, to make a living. I am happily married to Jim Conzemius and we have two grown children, Jesse and Sarah.

Since 1991, we have gone on RAGBRAI every year. Bicycling is how we commute seven months of the year; our son is our strongest rider and rides year round. We try to make a small carbon footprint and belong to the Johnson County Heritage Trust.