Joan Summers is a pen name for the author, a former newspaper reporter who wrote for The New Haven Register in Connecticut for 14 years. She covered local politics, wrote feature articles, and for six years was medical reporter for the paper, covering the Yale School of Medicine. She also did research and writing for the Bush Center for Child Development at Yale, where she worked on a 100-page report on the need for a parental leave policy. After her newspaper work she edited a monthly newsletter for Masonic Home and Hospital in Connecticut and also guided interested residents there in creative writing and poetry. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in English, she was named to… Phi Beta Kappa. She also has a master's degree in education from Columbia Teachers College, a master's degree in English from Trinity College and a sixth year certificate in counseling from St. Joseph's College in Connecticut where she did a thesis on the works of John Updike. She taught English, Social Studies and Ancient History at a high school in Connecticut and has taught writing courses part time in several area colleges. She is married and has three children.