I am a successful writer with a much-loved Spouse-Creature, who looks after me just as I look after him. We don’t have children, but you know something? I think it’s easier to like kids if you don’t have any of your own (certainly I don’t grumble about kids like so many adults I know do). I have three brothers-in-law and two sisters-in-law in addition to my stepmother, stepbrothers, and sisters. (My dad died recently, something I still have trouble dealing with.) I have a very cool mother-in-law, stepfather-in-law, and grandmother-in-law. I have four nieces (Tameran, Nicole, Hanna and Hollis Liebe), four nephews (Kenan Liebe, Fred, C.J. and Tino) and a great-nephew (Jeffrey Ellyson) and a great-niece, Maddie: they live all over the United States (Iowa, California and the East Coast).  In addition, I have friends I’ve made through my books who are doing things like getting married, working in publishing, and having children. More readers for me!

It’s a pretty good life, if I do say so myself. Struggling along as a kid and even through my twenties, it’s the kind of life I dreamed of but never believed I would get. Yet here I am, after a lot of work, a lot of worry, a lot of care for details, and a massive chunk of luck, the kind that brought me such strong friends and readers. Pretty good for a hillbilly, yes? And I never take it for granted.