Raised in Philadelphia by a single working mother, I went to boarding school at the age of five - an experience that probably made me a writer. There were few girls my age to play with once the day students went home, so I escaped into stories: the stories I read, the stories my mother told me on weekends at home, and eventually, the stories I made up myself.

After putting in thirteen years at boarding school, I went to Cornell University, majoring in English Literature, and then to Johns Hopkins University, receiving an M.A. from the Writing Seminars. I worked in publishing for a number of years, and took great joy in raising my children, Chris and Kate. Gradually I began writing again, both books for young people, edited by the gifted Anne Schwartz, and short fiction for adults. My fiction has appeared in literary magazines, and has received a Pushcart Prize.

At present I live in Los Angeles with my husband, T.S. Cook, who is a screenwriter. I'm working on a novel for children set in a convent boarding school - a spooky place which, fortunately for me and my fellow boarders, bears only a passing resemblance to the school I attended as a child.

For more, see Volume 168 of Something about the Author, available in many libraries.