Long ago and far away in a fairytale land called California, Marianne Stillings's mother read her the Little Golden Book of The Ugly Duckling. She cried so hard at how badly the duckling was treated her mother frantically skipped ahead to calm her and prove all would end well. The book has been lost over the years, but Marianne's love of reading and happy endings has remained. Now a resident of Washington State, when not writing happy endings of her own, she works as a tech writer for The Boeing Company, and spends time with her husband Mike, daughters Rebecca and Katie, and Dorothy the Wonder Dog.