Nan willard Cappo has been a waitress, a speechwriter, a nurse recruiter, and a computer marketing representative for IBM. In 1992 she won the Judy Blume Contemporary Novel-in-Progress Grant given by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. She lives outside Detroit, Michigan, with her husband and three children, all of them devoted "Jeopardy!" fans. "Cheating Lessons" is her first novel.