My name is Emmaline Westlund and I've lived in Minnesota my entire life (except for three months spent in Santa Barbara, CA). I'm a cat lover and a former retail slave. I slung gasoline and cigarettes at people for five years while I wrote my first 20 (published) stories and I can safely say that I NEVER want to do that again. In fact, if I can avoid any real deal-with-the-general-public jobs in the future, I will. I am very definitely not cut out for retail. I've been writing since I was seven years old, when I wrote what was arguably the only novel I've ever written. It was called "And Jessi...