Shelley Stoehr was born Michelle Stoehr on January 31, 1969, in Sellersville, Pennsylvania, a small town located in Bucks County between Philadelphia and Allentown.

Her family later moved to Long Island, New York, which is also the setting of the book Crosses. Growing up, Stoehr's artistic instincts were nurtured by her family. Her grandmother took her to art classes, while her parents both read and critiqued her writing. Books were always around her house, and her mother, a teacher, encouraged her writing and feverish reading.

Stoehr noted that in an article for ALAN Review "when I was young, I needed to borrow my parents library card until I was thirteen to take out anything from either the young adult or adult sections of the library. And I brought home everything—from Frankenstein to Sybil to The Joy of Sex to Jane Eyre to Grease." She...