Though Tera Lynn Childs may pretend to be a goddess, she’s really just a normal person. Well, maybe not normal. She is a writer, after all.

Of course, she wasn't always a writer. In fact, it took her a while to realize that's what she really, really, really wanted to be. Along the way she took detours through architecture, environmental biology, theatre, historic preservation, and--she shudders at the memory--teaching. She still has nightmares. At least as a young adult author she can use her former students as research.

When not collaging her latest hero – can a girl have too many pictures of Nick Lachey? – she spends her time writing at Starbucks, blogging with the Buzz Girls, hunting down long-lost loves on MySpace, and convincing herself that watching "America’s Next Top Model" counts as research.