MEET LESLIE This is an old photo of my daughter and me in front of our house in Colorado. She is now in college and looks quite different, but amazingly, I haven't changed one bit! As the opening for my "Meet Leslie" page, here's a touch of biographical information: I have been married for more than two decades and have two not-so-young children. My daughter is in college and my son is in high school. I have a bachelor in journalism, a degree as an electrical-engineering technician (I repaired computers for IBM for three years), and am a certified interior decorator, though I only rarely work as a decorator. DEATH BY INFERIOR DESIGN is Leslie Caine's first book, but is actually my eleventh published mystery novel. I've dropped a syllable from last name, and it's my hope that I'll be writing the "Domestic Bliss" series for many years to come so that I won't continue this name-shortening strategy. (I don't see myself writing books as: "L," though that would come in handy for quick signatures.) One of the first questions I'm asked at signings is why I chose to use a penname for this series, and the answer is that, while I'm proud of my previous works, I wanted a fresh start. To use a designer analogy, my penname is like emptying the room to enable the fabulous "makeover." This new series brings together two of my passions: writing and interior design. Both passions were inspired by my mother, who is an avid reader and instilled within me a reverence for the written word, and who raised me in a 150-year-old farm house in upstate New York, which my parents slowly restored over the course of many, many years. I remember vividly our trips to antique stores where my parents bought some dilapidated piece of furniture. Later I would watch with awe as they turned the purchase into, for example, the perfect desk for that cozy corner nook below the stairs. I now live in Colorado in a twenty-year old house, where I write six days a week, and I delight in finding and, often, refinishing the perfect item for our living room or a bedroom. Although I love my main characters, Erin Gilbert and the hunky Steve Sullivan, I have to confess that it's Erin's 60-something landlady, Audrey Munroe, who has become the all-time favorite character of my own imagination. She was born at a Manhattan restaurant during my lunch with my superb agent, Nancy Yost, and my brilliant editor, Kate Miciak. I had sent the first draft of my book to both women, and Kate pointed out that Erin needed someone to talk to when she comes home (that is, in addition to her adorable cat, Hildi). Audrey Munroe emerged as an amalgam of one of my aunts, who, like Audrey, was a dancer with the New York City ballet, and a pair of mothers of childhood friends of mine. My only regret is that Audrey isn't real – there is nothing I would rather do than pull up a chair in her amazing house (which, again, unfortunately, exists only in my imagination) and chat with Audrey about anything and everything. It's that warmth of home and hearth that I like to bring to these books, along with a heavy dose of page-turning suspense. I hope you'll give them a try, and that you'll have as much fun reading them as I do writing them!