Laura J Merrell is a San Francisco-based writer with an MFA in creative writer from the University of San Francisco. She has been a waitress, a cab driver, a house cleaner, a telephone operator for...view moreLaura J Merrell is a San Francisco-based writer with an MFA in creative writer from the University of San Francisco. She has been a waitress, a cab driver, a house cleaner, a telephone operator for the deaf, and for one unfortunate evening, a B girl, among other ventures. The Hedge Tree was both her master's thesis and her first novel.view less