Elissa Ambrose was born in Montreal, Canada. After graduating from college with a degree in English literature, Elissa embarked on a career in computer programming. She still hasn't figured out the connection between the two fields, but she believes that all those years in data processing gave her a strong, detail-oriented focus. Married, she's the proud mother of two daughters, who, though they have flown the coop, still manage to keep her on her toes. One of her daughters is the novelist Sarah Mlynowski.

In 2002, two decades and countless programs after starting her computer programmer career, she published her first novel and now, she serves as the fiction editor at Anthology magazine, a literary journal published in Mesa, Arizona, where she resides in Arizona with her husband, her smart but surly cat, and her sweet but silly cockatoo.

When not writing, editing, or reading, Elissa can be found trying to master a new spin or jump on the ice rink (translation: trying not to break her neck), or in the kitchen, trying out a new recipe. Besides skating and cooking, she loves to travel. After she completes a manuscript, she and her husband fly to England for a little R&R, in search of the perfect pub.