Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in Southern California, surrounded on one side by chaparral and desert-dry mountains and by the ocean on the other, helping to mitigate the millions of people in the LA basin. The natural world factors prominently in my work as it has in my own psychology.
When did you first start writing?
I began telling stories to my younger sister and the three girls who lived next door. I then started writing stories down by the time I was in 4th grade.
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