Helen Keller said, “Life is an adventure or it is nothing at all.” My own adventure has been a raucous ride through Denver, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Houston, Lubbock, New Haven, Dallas, Santa Fe, and Aspen. Now, I split my time between Dallas and Aspen, where I am working on my next novel.

Along the way, I earned diplomas from Yale Law School, Texas Tech University and Miss Julie’s School of Dance. One of my favorite clients liked to say that Yale told him I was real smart, but Tech told him I was real. I’m not sure what the other diploma tells anyone, other than that most of the time I can walk and chew gum at the same time and there are some black-mailable photographs of me in god-awful costumes.

The passion that fuels Mothers and Other Liars was sparked through my child advocacy work, as pro bono counsel in law school and in my practice, and as adviser to advocacy, foster care and child rescue organizations. Among other esteemed activities, at various times and in no particular order, I have also been corporate lawyer, gymnast, event planner, student, civic volunteer, judicial clerk, official neighborhood bee catcher, corporate communications director, and flower girl at a tadpole funeral. What I have always been is a writer, from treacly childhood poetry, to college and graduate school theses, to legal briefs and contracts, and, oh yeah, to Mothers and Other Liars, my debut novel. What I have never been is a mother or a liar.  Well, at least half of that last statement is true.