Born: Alexandria, Virginia, June 11, 1963. It scares me to think that hand-held calculators still hadn’t been invented by Texas Instruments.
 

Where I live now: Richmond, Virginia
 

Education: P.S. 22 in Queens, New York; J.H.S. 189 in Queens, New York; Seekonk High School in Massachusetts; Queens College of the City University of New York
 

Family life: Married for a v-e-r-y long time to a man I’ve known since I was five years old. (Our mothers worked in the same transistor factory.) We have three children – all teenagers – who are as different from one another as each finger on my hand.
 

Hobbies: I read and read and read and read. I also enjoy exercising and cooking Cuban food.
 

Pets: at present, a large, bad-breath dog named Bear and a bloodthirsty and exquisitely fat cat named Wolfe.
 

Places I love: anywhere near an ocean