[close] Sandra Schwab started writing her first novel when she was seven years old. Twenty-odd years later, telling stories is still her greatest passion, even though by now she has exchanged her pink heart-dotted fountain pen for a computer keyboard (black, no hearts). She lives in a suburb of Frankfurt on the Main, Germany, with altogether too many books and two rather vocal cats. She teaches English Literature at the University of Mainz and, when not writing, cuddling cats, preparing classes, or correcting students' papers, she works on her doctoral thesis.