A graduate from San Diego State University with a BA in Political Science and a minor in English Literature, Julie N. Ford later earned a Masters in Social Work from the University of Alabama. Professionally, she has worked in teaching and as a psychotherapist. She is the author of six women’s fiction novels, including Count Down to Love, a 2011 Whitney Award finalist. After twenty-five years of residing below the Mason-Dixon line, she spent a few years exploring the red-rock desert of Southern Utah before settling in the Pacific North West.