P.J. Mellor grew up on the beaches of the Great Lakes before moving to Colorado...and almost no beaches. Which is one of the reasons she now lives in the Deep South (where there are two seasons: summer and not summer) and enjoys the gorgeous beaches of the Gulf of Mexico when she's not surfing the net. Besides writing, she enjoys reading, sewing (she recently made new draperies and shades for her entire home without attaching them to her sleeve more than a few times), swimming, and assassinating flowering plants. Her personal goals are to keep her checkbook balanced, make the NYT Bestseller list, and return to her original weight--five pounds, thirteen ounces.