When Kate was a little girl, all she dreamt about was moving to France and living in a stone castle while painting the Provencal countryside. To prep herself, she studied French, stocked up on berets in every color, and practiced her shrug for hours in front of the mirror.

But then, because indentured servitude seemed more attractive than eating baguettes and drinking wine, she took a detour into the world of high tech. Mostly, she worked as a lackey for companies like CNET and ClearStation/E*TRADE. In those years, she developed interactive online tutorials, designed training programs, and published education articles and product-training manuals. Eventually, that insanity wore off and she decided to try something more stable. Writing seemed the logical choice.

Now she lives with her love, Nate, in San Francisco. Unfortunately Kate doesn't own her castle yet, but she holds out hope that one day soon she can pull her berets out of storage.