Always someone who knew what she wanted, L. A. Taylor had already chosen a writing career by the time she was in first grade. Staring at the usual exhortation to Spot (Run! Run! Run! Run, Spot, run!), she was vouchsafed a blinding insight: People make this stuff up! I can do that! At the age of 11, she sent her first story to Analog, and got back her first rejection letter. Although she wasn’t exactly discouraged, she didn’t immediately return to writing. Meanwhile, she went to college, majored in math, worked at a variety of jobs, married and had two children. When she went back to writing, she started with poetry, and her collection Changing the Past won the Minnesota Voices award. L.A. Taylor is the author of several mystery novels (including Footnote to Murder), fantasy and science fiction novels (including Cat’s Paw, and Blossom of Erda) and a number of short stories