Amanda thrives in the uncategorized gray area between male and female, art and science, intellectual and physical. She designs and writes industrial software by day and stories by night (and on weekends and during flights and over holidays and vacations). She can cook and sew and fix a toilet and install a custom closet. She used to paint house exteriors for a living. She is a slow but devout runner and mediocre triathlete, and sweaty is one of her natural states. She has commuted over 10,000 miles on her single speed bicycle and has forgotten more about physics than most people will ever know. She believes in hard-earned happiness and the ultimate power of the written word. Her home is wherever her partner, Anna, is.