In the beginning

I grew up with a librarian-mother and a father I rarely saw because he worked swing shifts as an air traffic controller on Fort Huachuca in Arizona.

Yes, I grew up with a librarian-mother. That meant hours at the library from the time I could crawl. I learned to read and write by the time I was 4. I could shelve books using the Dewey Decimal System by the time I was 7.  Being in the library made me love books -- the pictures, the words, the cloth covers, the paper, the print, the musty smell of the stacks.

And I knew what I was meant to do: write. Write for myself, for my parents, my friends, for anyone who would read what I had to say. And I had a lot to say -- and I still do.