Freda Love Smith is a writer, teacher, and retired rock drummer. Her first book, Red Velvet Underground: A Rock Memoir, with Recipes, was published in 2015. She teaches at Northwestern University, Lesley University, and Bookends & Beginnings, and she played drums with Blake Babies, Antenna, Mysteries of Life, Gentleman Caller, Some Girls, and Sunshine Boys. Freda is a contributing writer to the “Sound of Our Town” podcast and reviews nonfiction for Booklist. She lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her husband.