Kendall, Karen

I grew up in Austin, Texas, and have been writing since the age of four, but did not complete my first "masterpiece" until the age of eleven: a Regency spy thriller version of Orwell's Animal Farm. For some strange reason, this proved to be unmarketable. I began my first romance novel at the age of twelve but noticed after fifty-three handwritten pages that the story didn't seem to have a plot. Many years later, while at Smith College, I began to understand why plot was an important element of a book.

I now live in Atlanta, Georgia, with my husband and a menagerie of animals. I'd love to hea...