D.B. Borton lives with a cat in a small town and teaches English at Ohio Wesleyan University. As an academic writer, she has published work on film, women's literature, and the supernatural. Her current research is on the girl detective. She has also written for Ms. magazine. A native Texan, Borton has lived in the Southwest and Midwest and on the West Coast, where she has planted roses and collected three degrees in English without relinquishing her affection for and reliance on nonstandard dialects. Borton realizes that the language of her first detective, Cat Caliban, may shock and offend some readers. She can only say in her own defense that it shocks her as well. To please her mother, Borton created in her second detective, Gilda Liberty, a person who is more restrained in self-expression. Her mother preferred Cat.