Valerie Saul earned a doctorate in audiology, a master's degree in speech pathology and a bachelor's degree in psychology followed by an unconventional career in hearing healthcare in the US, New Zealand, South Korea and Singapore. She attended the Stanford Continuing Studies Creative Writing program and participates in multiple critique groups. She is a voracious, omnivorous reader. When she's not writing stories about badass older women, she can be found hiking the Marin headlands with her husband or rowing a shell on San Francisco Bay.