: About Me

Born with a brittle bone condition, I grew up reasonably well in an unincorporated, semi-rural area in North Clackamas County, just east of the City of Milwaukie and just south of Portland, Oregon. After graduating from Rex Putnam High School in Gladstone, I attended Portland Community College and then earned my associate degree from Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, enrolling in extra writing courses at both schools. I also completed a correspondence course through the Writer's Digest School. Then to enhance my skills for my position with The International Entertainers (TIE), I earned my one-year diploma in desktop publishing and graphic arts from Oregon Polytechnic Institute. After living and working in the Greater Portland Metropolitan Area for 40 years, I followed TIE as it moved to Oceanside and San Diego, California, and then to Las Vegas, Nevada, where I now reside with my companion of 20 years and our two cats.

As soon as I learned to talk, I was telling tales to amuse family and friends. My father often joked that I had been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. As soon as I learned to read and write, I proceeded to read all the interesting fiction in my elementary school library and had exhausted its limited supply by second grade. And so at age seven, I wrote my first short story, "A Little Black Mongrel," about a stray dog that wanders aboard a rocket ship and is accidentally launched into Earth's orbit. Then after he completes the mission, he returns as a hero and an astronaut adopts him into a loving family.

By seventh grade, I was writing poetry, as well as short stories, and earning high marks in all my English classes. Writing as a hobby throughout my life, some of my work has been published in student and local newspapers and anthologies. I have also written the instruction manual, a three-volume set of handbooks and a 30-minute infomercial script for The International Entertainers as works for hire. After a serious accident in 2006 left me permanently wheelchair-bound, I decided to turn my heretofore hobby into a freelance writing career.

My first professional publication is a travel article about the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, written for an online travel Webzine. I have completed three projects (in submission) and am currently working on three different novels. In addition to writing and submitting or self-publishing my manuscripts, I intend to enroll in more writing classes at UNLV, attend writers' conferences, writing workshops and meetings with writers groups, and network in person and online. Utilizing the knowledge I gleaned from TIE, I am pursuing my lifelong dream of sharing unforgettable stories with an ever-growing circle of friends.

My passion is ...

My cats: Koko (chocolate-point Siamese) and Kiki (b&w American shorthair)

I know too much about ...

Osteogenesis Imperfecta (a congenital brittle bone condition)

My parents always told me ...

Do your best!

My childhood ambition ...

Caring for animals

My favorite memory ...

Disneyland

Why I write ...

To purge myself

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Too much to mention!

My first job ...

Accounting Clerk at Sears

My best moment ...

Earning a 4.0 gpa at OPI

My inspiration ...

Scooby Doo!

Arts & Humanities > 20th & 21st Century US History Understanding what Martin Luther King Jr. stood for

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When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on that fateful Thursday in April 1968, the news made such an impression on my young mind that I began clipping newspaper articles and researching his life. I created a scrapbook as a personal tribute to the great man's legacy and worked on it every spare moment. The following Monday during study time, my home room teacher noticed me working on the bright red portfolio, stuffed and dripping with newspaper clippings. She stood next to me, observing for a few moments, and then asked, "What's this?" She picked up the portfolio-scrapbook and fl...

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