Mari Donne was born and raised in New Jersey, but after more than 20 years in the Midwest has finally learned to relax and enjoy the slower pace of life. Although the appeal of tractor pulls still escapes her, she loves many other things about her adopted state of Iowa, not least that it is the first in flyover country to legalize same-sex marriage. Fascinated by books and stories from an early age, Mari always wanted to be a novelist, but fell victim to the dreaded demon of Practicality. She worried that years of producing mundane, reality-based prose in an office environment would make it impossible to go back to fiction writing. But when she finally tried, she found it immensely liberating to be allowed to just make stuff up. Even more thrilling was the discovery that fantasizing about hot men was actually part of the job description instead of just a way to survive boring meetings. Mari and her husband have two grown children and are empty-nesting happily together.