I used to be a radically different person. Namely, I was straight. A wife of 25 years, and a mother of two. Then came the day that I hopped in the front seat of my freshly-loaded U Haul truck, and I drove ... and drove ... and drove.

I came out as a lesbian eight years ago, in a radical move that took me from Tiny-Town upstate New York to the center of San Francisco. I was 52.

Sometimes people wonder how I became a novelist. Well, I grew up in the home of a excellent and well-known storyteller, my dad, American illustrator John Falter. He painted more than 120 covers for the Saturday Evening Post in the 40's, 50’s and early 60’s, and he was known for his funny, and very human touch. He died in 1982, and his life was full of fun — and plenty of make-believe.