D. M. Read was born in the American Southwest but spent five years of her early childhood in the Far East—two years in Tokyo and three in Singapore. Brought up by a father who loved English literature and a mother who adored opera, Read has always been interested in books, both reading them and writing them. Her first effort at writing occurred at age eight, when she wrote and published a neighborhood newspaper called “Freedom and Torment.” Later Read held a variety of jobs, both paid and freelance, ranging from secretary to proofreader to proposal manager to newsletter editor for several minor publications. She marched for the ERA in the 1970s and defended women’s clinics in the 1990s. Read volunteered for the Howard Dean campaign in 2003, learned to blog, and has been blogging and volunteering ever since. Published works include a novel, Layoffs (available from Amazon.com) and The Deer at Lammas Tide—Nine Sabbat Tales (available at Smashwords.com). She has more fiction projects in the works, Long, Long Way to Run (novella), and Iron and Scarlet (novel set in Roman Britain during Hadrian’s reign). Now an “empty nester,” Read has traveled extensively with her husband to England, France, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales as well as to Greece, Jordan, Egypt, Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. At home in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA she grows herbs and tries to keep the family beagle from misbehaving.