Gwen Austin was born and raised on the east coast (New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire). She attended Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in psychology. After graduation, she moved to Washington state. Employed by the American National Red Cross, she was stationed at Madigan Army Medical Center and then at the 12th Evacuation Hospital in Cu Chi, Vietnam. She married a military man and traveled throughout the USA with him. Now retired from the therapeutic recreation field, she lives and writes on a small tree farm in western Washington. Gwen Austin is also the author of Twilight Manor.