Anna Marie Smith is a teacher of French and music at a small private middle and high school in Beverly, Massachusetts, northeast of Boston. She and Lisa are first cousins and like to write together, feeding off each others' puns and wordplay. Numerous visits to their Grandma's farm in northeast Ohio have inspired the stories of little Gertrude. Anna Marie enjoys playing the piano, gardening, cooking, working on her 1985 Mercedes 300D, traveling, and reading in her spare time. Writing offers a creative channel through which she can play. It's quite similar to a mechanical project for her. Sentences can be tweaked and improved, just like engines.