Sean McGinley was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and spent her childhood in the rural beauty of Sonoma County, California. She attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied molecular biology and virology. Her career path took a compassionate turn during the early 1980s when she worked with AIDS patients in San Francisco at the height of the epidemic, an experience that profoundly shaped her outlook on life and humanity.

After retiring from active medical work, she became a medical instructor for the Berkeley Fire Department, sharing her expertise with future first responders. Now retired, she lives with her husband and two Siamese cats on the San Francisco Bay. Simples is her first novel, a vivid historical journey inspired by courage, survival, and the indomitable spirit of women who defied the constraints of their time.