Margaret Ernsberger was bitten by the writing bug when she was in junior high school. She and her sister rented a second typewriter for a month to try their hand at it. Later their parents gave each one of them their own typewriter. Margaret got a second-hand Underwood, which she still has to this day, and which still still works!
In high school, the local branch of the World Future Society had a science fiction writing contest. Her creature writing teacher suggested she enter, and she got an honorable mention. Awards were given at a dinner where Hugh Downs was the guest speaker, and who gave out the awards.
In the early 1980s, she began work on "Chase of the Teal Tiger," and later, in the year 2000, while working on trying to sell it, she entered in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Contest and won First Place in the Scifi/H/F category.
She is a graduate of Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Alabama, having made the Dean's List three times.