Writer Chelsea Cain was born in Iowa City, Iowa on February 5, 1972 and lived on a commune in Iowa and then in Bellingham, Washington. She studied political science at the University of California at Irvine, graduating in 1994. She also attended the University of Iowa's graduate school of journalism and has written for several newspapers, including The Oregonian. While at Iowa, she wrote a weekly column for The Daily Iowan. Her master�s thesis at the University of Iowa became Dharma Girl, a memoir about Cain's early childhood on the hippie commune. One of her professors presented it to several editors for review, and Seal Press picked it up as Cain's first published work. She was 24 years… old. Cain publishes in several genres and has penned a memoir, works of humor, and thrillers. After working as a Creative Director at a PR firm in Portland for several years, Cain began writing humor books in her spare time, including The Hippie Handbook: How to Tie-Dye a T-Shirt, Flash a Peace Sign, and Other Essential Skills for the Carefree Life Confessions of a Teen Sleuth, and Does this Cape Make Me Look Fat? Pop-Psychology for Superheroes, which Cain co-wrote with her husband. Cain also composed a weekly column for Portland�s alternative newspaper, The Portland Mercury,and started contributing to Portland�s major daily, The Oregonian in 2003when she left marketing behind to focus on writing full-time. Her last column with The Oregonian was posted on December 28, 2008. She wrote her first thriller Heartsick in 2004, while pregnant with her daughter. It was published in 2007, and was an instant New York Times Bestseller along wirh her other works Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, and Let Me Go.