Melanie Simet was born December 2, 1984 in Harrisburg, PA. Her parents lived at the time in an apartment in view of Three Mile Island. The revelation of this fact has usually garnered a knowing nod accompanied by the words, "Oh, that explains it."

She comes honestly by her love of speculative fiction. Her parents' first date was the original Star Wars movie. The earliest television show she remembers her parents watching is "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Although she read science fiction and fantasy among other genres as a child, she did not express a strong preference for the field until she read Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" sequence in second grade. From then on, there was no turning back.

Both her parents are biochemists. For this reason, she finds chemistry unutterably boring. Around age 12 she read Nancy Kress's book "The Friendly Guide to the Universe." With such tidbits as Tycho Brahe's metal nose at hand, who wouldn't be tempted to be an astronomer? To that end, Melanie started the University of Iowa in 2002 as a physics and astronomy major. She is, at the moment, looking at grad schools (through a very large telescope, of course).

She also has dreams of being a famous author. You may judge for yourself how well this is working out.