T feels that writing is not a calling so much as it is a compulsion. No one is more surprised than she is when characters take over the plot and dialog, (re)directing stories in directions she had not (consciously) intended. Although she starts out each novel with a basic outline, she finds that one or two chapters into the novels, not only have the characters shredded her outline into tiny unidentifiable pieces, they use the resulting confetti in a nose-thumbing parade. She is fully convinced the writer is the tool a story uses to tell its tale. T. Hammond lives in Washington state, and has been a German shepherd owner for over twenty-five years.