Kerridwen Mangala McNamara is an Indian-American with a Master's degree in Bacterial Genetics who lives in Flyover Country (the far northern end of the US South) with her husband, The Professor, four of her six children, and three goats. The goats eat, The Professor plays chess, and the children largely unschool while Mangala writes. (The remaining children are in college - you can blame the oldest for the excessive amounts of math showing up in Mangala's fantasy novels, the second one for better attention to staging of scenes, the third for all the economics, and the fourth for great attention to history - and all of them for a focus on political science!) Mangala is a former professional bellydance instructor, currently coaches FIRST Lego League and model government teams, runs homeschool parent support groups, and used to enjoy knitting, crotchet and embroidering Temari balls but now is much more boring as she rarely does anything but write, argue economic theory with her 17 and 14 year olds, and wonder loudly if her 11 and 9 year olds do anything other than watch Minecraft videos. She owes her love of books and reading to her mother, who was a professional folklorist and could recite - from memory - stories from every nation in the United Nations.