I was born in England to a French mother and an American father.  My mother was born in the Basque region of Spain.  When she was eight years old she fled the country with her mother because Franco was bombing Irun.  They settled in La Rochelle, France.  A few years later the Nazis invaded and occupied the city.  After the war she met my father, who was stationed in La Rochelle.  His family emigrated to the United States from the Azores in the late 19th century.  They fell in love, married, moved to the United States, and had a son.  That was my brother.  My father was sent back to Europe and was stationed in England, where I was born.  Our family moved back to the United States when I was two years old.

As you can see, I come from an itinerant family.  I’ve lived in Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Florida, Washington, and Wyoming.  I’ve also spent extended periods of my adult life overseas in Taiwan, England, France, and Thailand. Understandably, my first book was a travel memoir.