Joy Preble's experience with Russian legends developed through her crazy maternal grandmother, who had been one of TWENTY children! The story goes that her grandmother's family didn't even notice when she ran off to America at sixteen, married badly, raised four children on her own and was the least grandmotherly of grandmothers a girl could ever hope for (despite her amusing and insane tales of the Bolsheviks and tsars). No warm and fuzzies there, only admonitions for Joy to eat her vegetables so she would be strong enough to survive the impending pogroms! Originally from Chicago, she earned a degree at Northwestern University. She has since replaced the endless snow and ice of Chicago for the overpowering heat of Texas. She is a wife, a mother and a high school English teacher living in Conroe, Texas.