Elizabeth (Liz) Engstrom grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois (a Chicago suburb where she lived with her father) and Kaysville, Utah (north of Salt Lake City, where she lived with her mother). After graduating from high school in Illinois, she ventured west in a serious search for acceptable weather, eventually settling in Honolulu. She attended college and worked as an advertising copywriter.

After eight years on Oahu, she moved to Maui, found a business partner and opened an advertising agency. One husband, two children and five years later, she sold the agency to her partner and had enough seed money to try her hand at full time fiction writing, her lifelong dream. With the help of her mentor, science fiction great Theodore Sturgeon, When Darkness Loves Us was published.

Engstrom moved to Oregon in 1986, where she lives with her husband Al Cratty, the legendary muskie fisherman, and their Duck Tolling Retriever, Jook. She holds a BA in English Literature with a concentration in Creative Writing, a Masters in Applied Theology, and a Certificate of Pastoral Care and Ministry, all from Marylhurst University. In addition to writing, she provides interfaith, non-denominational spiritual care through Love and Mercy Ministries (www.love-and-mercy-ministries.com). An introvert at heart, she still emerges into public occasionally to teach a class in novel or short story writing, or to speak at a writers convention or conference.