I was born in Houston, TX. I have been informed that this means that when (not if) Texas secedes from the Union, I can live there.

I grew up in New Jersey. I never bore even a passing resemblance to Stephanie Plum or any character from the Sopranos.

I went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. I wore a great deal of black and smoked too many cigarettes. Sometimes I also went to class.

After college, I lived in Hoboken NJ, Manhattan, and Atlanta GA. And also, my parents' house. I was, at various points: a customer service representative at a medical laser company, a temp at various industrial sites and one weird design firm in Georgia, a paralegal, a data entry clerk, a special events assistant, a bookseller (which means a drone in a corporate bookstore) and a donor relations coordinator for an alumni association. I distinguished myself at all of these jobs with my bad attitude and all the writing I did on the sly, using company resources.

After four years of this, I decided to go to graduate school. I arrived in England in the fall of 1998 and started an MA course at the University of York. In the fall of 2003, I successfully defended my PhD thesis and thereby completed my academic odyssey.

My PhD thesis was entitled: Infection, Fatalism, and Fiction: Representations of the AIDS Crisis in the Works of Larry Kramer, David Wojnarowicz, David Feinberg, and Tony Kushner. That and the rain nearly did me in!

I still haven't decided if I will attend my graduation ceremony in July, where I will be expected to wear a very funny-looking hat.

I sold my first book to Warner Books in 2003. English as a Second Language will be out in August 2004.

Now I live in Los Angeles, where I am unreasonably obsessed with the good weather and where I am also becoming more and more blonde.

Books by Megan Crane

Names My Sisters Call Me

by Megan Crane