Robin F. Gainey grew up in a household full of pencils, erasers, Underwood and Royal typewriters (one of each), and cases of liquid paper. Raised by her author-grandmother and an extended family of eleven women and two men, there was always something to write about, much of it hidden from the naked eye. Throw in a secret side of the family recently revealed and we now have a multi-volume saga with a predominent theme: Transformation. "Write what you know" is mostly what Robin does. And, what she doesn't know she makes up. It's fiction, after all. Not fiction: Robin has traveled many roads. She partnered in the creation and opening of The Gainey Vineyard in Santa Barbara County, California. She presided over various culinary events offered at the winery and, with friend Julia Child and others, helped establish the American Institute of Wine and Food. She also oversaw Gainey Fountainhead Arabians and the continued breeding and showing of champion Arabian horses which was begun by the Gainey family in 1939 in Minnesota and Arizona. Later, she returned to Seattle to find her heart in writing. She won a Rupert Hughes Award for Fiction for a short story upon which JACK OF HEARTS is based. Robin has completed two novels and is working on a third. She divides her time between her two favorite cities, Rome, Italy and Seattle. She is an active trustee of Pacific Northwest Ballet and when she is not writing, she enjoys reading, cooking, horseback riding, skiing the mountains of Colorado and traveling the Inside Passage of Western Canada aboard a boat with one husband, two daughters, two Jack Russells and a cat. All, utterly transforming. Always, looking beyond.