As a child, Mrs. Gale and her parents lived with her maternal grandparents at their chicken ranch in Soquel, Califorinia, where she attended a one-room Quaker school. Subsequently acquiring a Bachelor of Art in Economics and a Juris Doctorate, she practiced law in Northern California. Inspired to write fiction by her sister, Katherine (Trinka) Margua Simon, this is her first published novel. On a personal note: I tell Artemesia's story through her eyes. To me, her life had laughter and passion and unconditional love. I'd seen some of this before I met her, but as a young lawyer, it was still mostly alien to me. Artemesia's story taught me to embrace laughter and passion and unconditional love because sometimes that's all you have. I was a young lawyer working in California when the judge appointed me to defend her in juvenile court. I'm not young anymore and my memories have woven a tapestry of her that has colored and ripened with time. Yet, even after all these years, I cannot forget what happened nor can I forgive myself for my failure to anticipate the depth of human cruelty. My client lived with her father and her four younger siblings at a migrant farm in California. I was acquainted with the culture of migrant camps as I occasionally accompanied my father in his journeys to attend to the health, welfare and education of migrants and native Americans in California and several other western states. The federal agency that oversaw these matters was my father's employer. I had also become acquainted with immigrants from Mexico through my father's friend, Bonifacio, his wife, Artemesia, their children and extended family. They were our neighbors for two years while my father attended a university. When our house burned down, Bonifacio, Artemesia and their family took us in. I have borrowed their names for this story out of my love for them and my desire to protect, as much as is still possible, the young woman I represented in juvenile court.
