Norma Fox Mazer was born May 15, 1931, in New York City and grew up in Glens Falls. She had two sisters—one older and one younger. As a child, she wanted to be a nurse, but she changed her mind in junior high school when she began working on the school newspaper and the town newspaper.

From then on, her school life centered around the newspaper and writing.

Eventually, she attended Antioch College and Syracuse University.

When she was fifteen, she met the tall, curly-haired Harry Mazer who was six years older than she was. Two years after meeting Harry the first time, they met again and were married February 12, 1950. Harry worked as a longshoreman, a railroad worker, a welder, and an iron worker, but he finally told her that he wanted to be a writer, too. They made it a practice to read...