Look and Listen

Biography

I'm married and live with my husband in Rainbow Valley, AZ. Between us, we have eight children. I have five grand-children, he has four. He restores classic MOPAR's - our garage currently has a 1970 Roadrunner, a 1963 Chrysler 300J, and a 1959 Ford F150 Pickup. Of course there isn't any room for my SUV. All of our children live out of state, so our visits are usually via email, phone calls, and the once or twice a year visit. I try to mail a package of goodies to the grands once every six weeks or so, that way I'm not getting reminder phone calls that start, "Gram, we've not received anything from you this month..." When not writing, editing or learning about the business side of writing, I enjoy crocheting, and embroidery. I love working with other writers especially when it comes to reading their work and offering critiques. I love watching the practice of the craft, and how we each grow as writers.

Inspiration

I've been an avid reader since I was very young. My parents read all the time, and at an early age I was introduced to the classics. Some of my favorites then were Marsh, MacDonald, O'Hara, Ferber, Welty, Buck, Hemingway, Wolfe, L'Amour, Grey, Harte, Runyon, Oppenheim, and Helmutt to name a few. I loved Asimov, Stewart, Uris, Du Maurier, Lewis and any other authors my parents brought home. I love browsing in book stores, not just to get the latest best seller but to find the lesser-known authors too. I've made so many of those favorites now, i.e., Block, Jance, Johnstone, Maupin, DeMille. I used to think how wonderful it must be to be able to write. And then, I thought, why not, I can at least give it a try. Everyone has some level of influence on others - you just don't always know it. My sister recently sent me a tee shirt that says, "be careful you might end up in my novel." I think it's very fitting.