Natasha Lizanne is a mother foremost — and a business owner, front-end designer, and artist with a passion for running. A dedicated supporter of the SpeakUp Conference and Gigi's, she was informally adopted as a teenager shortly after losing her biological mother. Growing up neglected and isolated, her best friend was her imaginary friend — before her dog Maxeene came along — and he lives on in every single one of her books. She is open about her mental health: seven hospital stays, each one the birthplace of a new novel idea. She feels no shame about the fragility her background left her with — she channels it into her writing, her painting, and her running. That difficult past became the emotional bedrock of her fiction. She writes novels that feel deeply because they come from someone who has. Honest, raw, and unafraid — her stories are for readers who aren't afraid to feel either. And someday, as an old lady, she'll own a bakery.