IANN DUCHARME was born in Indiana, but she spent the majority of her childhood in Newport News, Virginia. She majored in English literature at the University of Virginia, but she never wrote creatively until, after the birth of her second child in 2003, she sat down to write The Outer Banks House. Diann and her husband, Sean, have two beach-loving children, Dorsey and Katherine. The family lives in Manakin-Sabot, Virginia.