Born and raised in a small North Texas town, Rita Chapman was blessed to grow up in a large family. She was also blessed, from early on, with an observant eye, an ability to commit to memory the endless complexities of life. Upon receiving her BS degree from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Rita taught third grade in the Dallas metropolitan area, and later entered graduate school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she studied speech therapy and worked with dyslexic children. Through marriage, raising children, and the loss of one of those children to a cancerous brain tumor, Rita's awareness of the complexities of the human condition deepened. She found expression in a column she wrote for the Sunday Dallas Morning News, which dealt with both the joys and sorrows of family life. After her husband's untimely death, she also took over as CEO of his high-tech firm and began running it without any prior executive experience. The diversity of Rita's life experiences combine and drive her to set pen to paper, and under that protective blanket of fiction, she attempts to translate truths she has learned about human nature. Rita lives in Plano, Texas, where she pursues her love of writing, traveling, gardening, and spending time with family and friends.