Alex Flinn was born in a small town on Long Island, New York. She always wanted to be a writer. Attending law school helped her to complete her first novel, Breathing Underwater. The book deals with the serious and all-too-common problem of dating violence. Flinn based the book on her experiences interning with the State Attorney¿s Office and volunteering with battered women. She lives half a mile away from her old middle school, in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami, with her husband, Gene, and daughters, Katie and Meredith.