Valerie is a native of San Francisco who was named in honor of Valentine's Day (for which she is eternally grateful -- a day earlier or later and her name would have been Priscilla) and raised in Greenbrae until age 13, when the family packed up and moved to Sebastopol. A self-taught reader at 3, Valerie picked up a natural talent for good spelling before she actually knew what that was, and was blessed a mom who corrected all grammatical errors. Also being a born performer, acting and all things theatrical has been a life-long pursuit; the logical thing was to combine these talents and contract as LMI's editor/proofreader. Friendship with Debora Hill started at Santa Rosa Junior College, and the two have been life-long baby woman-friends since