User Profile

I have been writing for almost fifteen years. I wrote 4 horrid novels when I was younger...until someone asked me why I didn't write cop stories, since I had been one way back in the dark ages. I fought that urge, not being a mystery reader at the time and because police work was not a match for me. Instead, I took my Masters in English to education and I have been a teacher for the majority of my life. I prefer to touch young lives rather than arrest them. Nonetheless, one day, Delta Stevens sprang into my head, as well as my heart, and so I wrote. And wrote. And the next thing I knew...there she was, and there a publisher was, and there was the beginning of my writing career and my love of the irascible Delta Stevens. Like a love affair that sneaks up on you, Delta and her cast of characters came into my life, changing me forever. Perhaps it was Delta, maybe it was writing itself, but my life transformed dramatically.

Pulishers have come and gone as the industry has changed dramatically. With Borders and Barnes and Nobles pushing out the smaller bookstores, smaller presses went with them...and so ended my publishers and Delta.

But I kept on writing...and now, I have 6 novels in a variety of genres ready to go...if only I could find an agent!

In Search of a Simpler Life
Having lived and worked in California for 36 years, I realized that I wanted a simpler life and moved to Oregon, where I fell in love with the beauty, the people, and the pace. I fell in love. Period. Oregon allowed me to create the kind of environment every writer dreams of...I have had a home built with the kind of library all writers dream of having: it comes complete with a fireplace, one of those globes on wheels, a window seat, a wall map, and a chair so cozy, I write in it.

Two things have changed since I moved to Oregon. As many of you know, my beloved beagle, Milo passed away, breaking my heart and making me wonder if I could ever do that again...but then...Miss Lucy came romping into my life, healing my heart and making me laugh every since day. As for my macaw, CJ...I found an enormous aviary where he now resides with girlfriends in the beautiful forests of Oregon. He deserved the chance to fly...to have friends...to have love. So...I had to love both Milo and CJ enough to let them go.

However....little spoiled Lucy dog has managed to keep me busy...picking up her toys and playing non-stop! My two red-ear slider turtles named Mary Queen of Scots and Cleopatra, moved with us and have a new and bigger pond. The move was wonderful. We live by the river, take walks, swim in the pool, and enjoy my library!
Teaching & Traveling
Traveling also aids in my teaching world. I have been a teacher for 20 years, teaching everything from 4th grade to college, and I now homeschool two trust fund kids on 150 acres in the mountains. It's a wonderful job, as it allows me the chance to write, to be in nature, and to really do the kinds of teaching all teachers should be able to do.

Who do I read?

Kelley Armstrong
Elizabeth Peters
Jonathan Kellerman
Clive Cussler
Ridley Pearson
Alice Hoffman
Margaret George

Favorite Books:
Six of One
Pope Joan
Veil of Roses
Secret Life of Bees
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Druid King
Memory Carthedral
DaVinci Code
Bitten

And so many more...








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It's an incredible opportunity and I feel especially fortunate to be able to create the curriculum I get to teach without the stolid and archaic parameters all school boards set.

I guess, in short, I have a great time and a wonderful life, and I've told people that I want my headstone to read "She lived an enviable life." I guess that's what I want for the people I love...for them to live the kind of life they envision...to write if that's what they want, to be a farmer if that is the life for them...to do and be what they dream because I am living proof that dreams come true. After seven published novels, I have a new dream, and I'm making steps every day to make that one come true.

Dreams
I hope this web site helps others take that first step toward their dreams, because it's a wonderful thing when dreams come true, because you know what? Once they come true, you get the incredible opportunity to have another one and another one, until you, too, are leading "An Enviable Life."

We're not here very long...so make your mark. Be remembered for something. Enjoy every single day.


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