Toby Brookes was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up outside Cleveland. He graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Journalism and after a stint in advertising helped start two companies. The second was acquired by a Minneapolis-based electronics firm. A subsequent marketing job took him to London where he spent four years with his young family. He returned by way of Washington DC, winding up in northern California. In 2018 he stopped working in business to devote more time to writing, attending workshops and on-line courses. During a two-year novel writing program at Stanford he completed the fist draft of All That She Brings, and then took advantage of the pandemic lock-down to hunker down and finish it. He has four grown children and spends time at their homes in Palo Alto and Carmel By-the-Sea with his wife and two dogs, Bixby and Scout.