Sandra was raised in a small community in northeast Alabama called Alder Springs, the setting of Sandra and Jennifer's first novel, Livin' in High Cotton. Sandra developed a deep love for literature in a two-classroom country school. She recalls that every afternoon the teachers would bring their classes together and read such classics as Rip Van Winkle, Moby Dick, The Headless Horsemen and The Taming of the Shrew while all their students sat on the floor.

When she was very young, Sandra enjoyed listening to her mother and grandmother talk about the "good ol' days" while they canned vegetables and sewed. After she became an adult, she cherished those memories so much that she began to write them down. Livin' in High Cotton is based on some of those memories. She feels that stories about the South and southern culture are some of the "undiscovered jewels of the nation." Growing up on a farm, where there was always work to be done, limited the activities Sandra and her sisters could participate in after school, so writing became an escape for her. When her children were young, she spent hours telling them stories that she had made up. She now tells those same stories to her grandchildren.

When Sandra worked on her undergraduate degree, she could not stay away from the literature classes. Although her major was business, she ended up with a double minor in English and economics. She states, "I think I took every literature class the college offered from American Lit to Victorian Prose."

Sandra has worked in the administrative field for over twenty-five years. She worked her way through college while her daughters were very young and completed a four-year degree in three years. Later, she earned a Masters in Business Administration. Her experience has ranged from being an executive secretary and human resource manager for Fortune 500 companies to being an assistant to one of the vice presidents at the university where she recently retired. She also taught writing classes to students studying for their general education equivalency exam.

She believes that every person you meet changes you in some way and makes you a better person. She infuses her wealth of experience into her stories to make them come alive.

Sandra's family is the center of her life. She has four children and three step-children. Together, she and her late husband have twelve grandchildren. Sandra is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For Sandra, writing is a continual journey of discovery. She has so many ideas for other books running through her mind that it's hard to focus on one at a time.