I just published my eighth novel titled ACROSS TIME. I have been writing for 20 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. Publishers 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 published 8 novels in a variety of genres ready to go...if only I could find an agent!

Teaching & Traveling

Traveling also aids in my teaching world. I have been a teacher for 23 years, teaching everything from 4th grade to college, and I now teach at Linn Benton Community College as well as Nicolet Community College in Wisconsin and Darton Community College in Georgia. I love teaching online, and teach everything from American Minority Literature to World and British Lit, Tech Writing, and composition. When I'm not teaching, I am travelling all over the place, and just recently returned from a trip through the Panama Canal and South America. Travel is my muse, and I see her as often as I can. 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 eight published novels, I have a new dream, and I'm making steps every day to make that one come true.

Dreams

I hope this blog 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. I saw a sign the other day that said: Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.