Melodie Starkey has been writing fiction since childhood, but unfortunately took thirty years to learn how to type. She received her BA in English from the University of California, Davis. Her YA novel, A View from the Closet Doorway, won the 2008 Southwest Writer's award for best book in its genre. Her short stories have appeared in several literary magazines and an anthology of Southern writers titled Inheritance. She was a recipient of the 1993 South Carolina Fiction Writer's Project award, and received a writing grant from the Illinois Arts Council for a novel in progress. Currently she lives in Aurora, Illinois and works in Chicago for an international law firm. She has three children,… six cats, two psychotic dogs, and a mouse problem.