Victoria Lustbader

Victoria Schochet Lustbader was born and raised in New York City, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Rubin Schochet, a Lithuanian émigré, and Dorothy Hertz Schochet, a second generation Russian.Drawn to the arts from a young age, Victoria studied ballet for ten years, played the piano and guitar, wrote poetry and stories. Always fascinated as well with the sciences and languages, she began college at SUNY Stony Brook as a Biology major with a minor in Russian, but ultimately got her BA in English. After graduation, Victoria spent thirteen years as an editor of science fiction and fantasy, first at Harper & Row, then at Putnam/Berkley, and worked with authors such as Ursula LeGuin, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Frank Herbert and Philip Jose Farmer.In 1982 she married author Eric Van Lustbader. For the next several years she continued in the publishing business as a freelance editor, but then began a second, decade-long career with The Nature Conservancy on Long Island and throughout New York State, as a fundraiser and Board member.In 2001, Victoria made the tumultuous decision to become a writer herself. Her first novel, Hidden, was published in June of 2006 by Forge Books. Her second, Stone Creek, will be published by HarperCollins in June 2008. She is currently at work on her third. She and her husband divide their time between NYC and the east end of Long Island.