I grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and spent most of my summers in Smithfield, Virginia. I first realized I wanted to be a writer while attending the George Washington Carver Highschool for Engineering & Science—yes, there was a time when I wanted to be an architect, at least I thought I did. Then one day I just couldn't take the boredom of another chemistry class and decided to write a novel. It was passed around to all of my classmates, who loved it. I did this a few more times and realized I had absolutely zero talent for math, science or architecture. I was much better at writing so I focused on that when I went to university. In 1995, I chucked living in the US for the good life in Sweden with my Swedish husband.