I teach literature and writing, as a freeway flier, throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. (Freeway fliers work part-time at several colleges--I've worked in 3 colleges at once! It has a certain recherchez chic to be designated as such--kind of like saying you're in rehab.) I have a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of California at Davis, and my expertise includes modern narrative, Shakespeare, and the Victorians. My book of criticism, Female Heroism in the Pastoral, was published in 1991 and my book reviews have been published in The San Francisco Chronicle. I am now working on a biography of the women in Dickens' circle. My favorite books? The Great Gatsby, for one, Middlemarch, for another, and possibly my favorite, Fanny Burney's Evelina. Also, Alexis, my husband, reads to me every night from Harry Potter, and we're now on the fourth volume: I think it's phenomenal!