Elayne Klasson grew up on Chicago’s northside. She attended university and graduate school in the Midwest—Ohio State University and the University of Michigan, earning a Masters of Public Health and then a PhD in psychology. She lived and worked in Barbados, West Indies, for many years. Her professional career has been in academia at San Jose State University, with her research and clinical area of expertise being the severely mentally ill. A transplant to the Santa Ynez Valley in California, she is a popular lifestyle newspaper columnist there. She has also appeared on San Francisco public television as a restaurant critic. Elayne is the author of the National Jewish Book Award finalist and best-selling Love is a Rebellious Bird. She and her husband, David, have five children— between them; biological and adopted.