After high school I went to Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. A good school, but I left after three semesters. I transferred to the University of Minnesota and graduated from its College of Liberal Arts. Did I major in creative writing? No way. At that point I wasn't writing much fiction. I concentrated on American history and literature in school.

In 1976 I married Dave Qualey; we met while working at camp. (He was my younger brother's counselor.) We have four children: Laura, Ellen, Jane, and Ben.

My maternal grandparents were both writers. My grandmother wrote fiction for magazines like True Story and True Confessions. Perhaps that's one reason early on people expected I'd be a writer. I was never so sure. I am first and foremost a reader. I bet most voracious readers at some time entertain ideas of writing. I did do some writing in junior high (skits for friends and a few never-finished stories) and in high school I did the journalism thing (yearbook and paper). But I didn't begin writing in earnest until I was an at-home mom with young children.