ADRIENNE MARIA VRETTOS grew up on a mountain in southern California, where she rode dirt bikes and made a mean double-mud pie. She moved to a picket-fenced apple town in Massachusetts for high school, where she managed to find happiness and friends despite her lack of the apparently requisite pricey pants and fancy car. She now lives with her wicked-talented writer/musician husband in Brooklyn, New York. Skin is her first book.