Laura Sessions was born in Lexington, Virginia, and moved to Christchurch in 1996, where she lives with her husband, Will, and their two dogs, George and Mildred. She has an MSc in botany and a PhD in science writing from the University of Canterbury, and she now manages AUIP, an educational travel company that each year brings about a thousand American students to study in the South Pacific region. In her spare time, Laura writes for science organisations and magazines in New Zealand and overseas. George and Mildred were away during most of the earthquakes, but they did escape from their house in Lyttelton during the June earthquake. George took himself directly to civil defence, while Mildred just lay in the middle of the road waiting for everyone to come home.