Absolutely! Little snippets of my life experiences show up in my fiction, often in surprising places and ways. My settings are mash-ups of places I've visited and loved (or hated), ditto my characters. Themes keep popping up, too, especially artistic, creative women battling family or social pressure to settle for a "sensible," ordinary life. Let's just say I faced plenty of that pressure in my younger years, some of it from well-meaning family and friends, some from frustrated people who'd chosen a path that didn't suit them and thus wanted to squash anyone aiming higher.
