Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. A Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class that admitted women. She met her husband, graphic artist Chris Purcell, in college and they now live in Kansas City, Missouri, where Alarie serves on the emeritus board of The Writers Place.  Her new book, Running Counterclockwise, will premier in 2014. Alarie believes her writing skills were born from her parents' knack for storytelling-long, meandering tales she asked to hear again and again. “There was usually dance music in the back-ground,” she says, “the sounds of cicadas, and the clink of ice in glasses of sweet tea. Weekends brought rolling surf and laughing gulls, and the calliopes of amusement park rides.” Learn more about Alarie at http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Publications/Tennille.html.