Pat Gebhard grew up in Minneapolis and has lived in New York State, New Mexico and at present in Santa Barbara, CA. She attended college in Ohio, California and Minnesota and has traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle and Far East, including a year in Turkey. She has been writing for years, but until the publication of her mystery Motives for Murder, she has mainly published a book and articles on librarianship and in the field of architectural history and criticism, most recently on the furniture of R. M. Schindler.

Like her heroine in her mystery, she has lived in Berkeley, has camped at Dinwoody Lakes, Wyoming, and been part of a Music Group. In Wyoming, her husband and friends ran a boys camp for several years. She has two grown girls, one a professional Hunter-Jumper Rider and the other working for a conservation district.