It was while Charlotte Elkins was working as an American art librarian at the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco that her husband sold his first mystery novel. It didn't take her long to conclude that she could indulge her wanderlust, more easily as a writer than a librarian. She is the author of 11 Novels, five written under the pseudonym Emily Spenser, and six co-written with her husband Aaron Elkins. Her books have been sold in over 20 countries, and she was the recipient of The Agatha Award for Best Short Story for "Nice Gorilla."Her wanderlust was inherited from her father, a footloose (but not fancy-free) itinerant carpenter whose idea of family life was to throw his six kids into the back of the family pickup and head out on the dusty back roads of the American Southwest. She has lived in the American West, the Northeast, and five different European countries. Along the way, she earned a B.A. in Art, from California State University, Hayward, and an M.L.S. from San Jose State University.Currently she lives in WA state on the Olympic Peninsula with her husband and dog, Tayac, both of whom are refusing to budge. Grounded, she now takes rambling hikes in her "backyard"--the remote, beautiful wilderness of the Olympic National Park.