Penny McCall was born and raised in southeastern Michigan, the seventh of nine children, whose claim to fame was reading five books a week in grade school. Needless to say, her obsession with the written word only grew from there — despite a short, and misguided, foray into the world of computer science (the "sensible" job path).

After earning her associates degree, she enrolled at the University of Michigan, and finally figured out that the reason she got those puzzled looks from the other computer programmers was because she wasn't really one of them. She changed her major to History and English — and then came detour number two, also known as marriage and childbirth. A son was followed by a daughter in 14 months, and then another son five years later.

At home, with no job and no night school for the first time in her life, she filled the kids' nap times and her evening hours with crafts; ceramics, macramé, stained glass and especially crocheting, for which she sold two original patterns for afghans. Ultimately, of course, those other creative pastimes didn't satisfy the need to write — or to get those voices in her head to quiet down.