Maria Padian has worked as a news reporter, an essayist for public radio, a press secretary for a U.S. congressman, and a freelance writer. An avid tennis player, gardener, skier, and hiker, she is also the mother of two teenagers, who provide countless inspirations and insights for her writing. A graduate of Middlebury College and the University of Virginia, she has also attended Oxford University and the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. She lives with her children, her husband, and their Australian shepherd in Maine, where she is at work on a new novel. To learn more about her, visit www.mari...