I grew up in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the daughter of a college professor and a social worker. I spent a lot of time in the library and the solarium on top of the Biology building where my father taught.

I attended the University of Tennessee where I earned a degree in English. After graduation, I started a career in software that led me to Silicon Valley. I worked as a technical writer for a number of years in Alabama and then moved to Silicon Valley in 1994 at the height of the Internet b...