Lynette Brasfield was born and grew up in South Africa. She left her home in Johannesburg at the age of twenty-nine to live in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Three years later, along with her two sons, first husband, and boxes of books, she moved to California, where she still lives, but with a different husband, and many more books.

A former corporate communications consultant, Lynette has also worked as a high school teacher, toy salesperson, journalist, and library assistant at the University of Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia). She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Rhodes University in the Cape and a graduate degree in English Literature at Natal University, South Africa. She’s earned a number of awards for her writing and speaking skills, including several Protos Awards from the Public Relations Society of America, and a Silver Anvil Runner-up Award, as well as a Toastmasters’ trophy for Table Topics.

Besides reading and writing, she enjoys hiking, trees, natural history, food, wine, and spending time with her husband and friends. Her sons are sources of endless entertainment and love.

Favorite books include:
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame; Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome; Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively; Waterland, Graham Swift; Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys; The Liar’s Club, Mary Karr; Mr. Bridge and Mrs. Bridge, Evan S. Connell; Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson; Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood; and books by Lorrie Moore, Patrick McGrath, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Jane Austen, Fay Weldon, Carol Shields, Alice Munro, and Truman Capote, as well as many others…she also enjoys the philosophy of Albert Camus and Joseph Campbell. And Shakespeare, of course.

Favorite places include:
Kapawi EcoLodge, in the Ecuadorian rainforest; the Galapagos Islands; Sedona, Arizona; Big Sur, California; New York City; Chicago; London; the Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe; and Waumangu, New Zealand, near where her sister Sally McCann lives.