Holly Lisle is an Ohio native, born in Salem in October of 1960. She grew up all over the place -- Gnadenhutten, Ohio; in a Moravian children's home a bit north and west of Kwethluk, Alaska; in New Philadelphia, Ohio; in San Jose, Costa Rica; in a Quaker mission in Chiquimula, Guatemala; in East Liverpool, Ohio.

Before and during the process of becoming a writer, she sang in restaurants, sold newspaper advertising, taught beginning guitar, did commercial artwork, sold burgers at McDonald's, and worked as a registered nurse until 1993, when she left nursing to write full-time.

She has three children and several cats, and has been married twice and divorced twice. She won the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel (for FIRE IN THE MIST), was a finalist twice for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and has had a number of her books hit the Locus Bestseller List, including all three books in THE SECRET TEXTS TRILOGY. DIPLOMACY OF WOLVES, the first book in the trilogy, also spent two months on the Waldenbooks Bestseller List.

Having discovered that she's already doing exactly what she wishes to do when she grows up, she has now decided to skip that final phase entirely, and just become a very old, very happy kid.