I am a professional freelance writer and editor.

I earned her bachelor's degree in journalism. Prior to my children, I was a journalist with college and local newspapers. My articles are published in several anthologies, magazines, my poems in literary magazines, and plays and skits through Meriwether Publishing.

My published novel, Pen Pals, is set half in Germany, in Munich's Olympic Park and its old church built by the holy man, Timothy, who recently died at age 115. When Marie Masterson, #2 on the U.S. Women's' Gymnastics team, meets her pen pal, Gunter Hoffmann, for the first time, she has no idea how drastically their love will reshape her gymnastics career.

My non-fiction book, Rochelle, (2007) tells in old photographs and words about the beginnings of Rochelle, Illinois. This part of Arcadia's Images of America series.

My other non-fiction book, Living with Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome with Dysautonomia: One Woman's Story, is out of print. I have written for several heart newsletters.

Currently I write a regular column for our church website, am a freelance writer and editor, and write a third novel. Over half the manuscripts I've edited have been published into books.

For hobbies, I like to walk, sew, garden, swing, and listen to people.

My passion is ...

writing novels

I know too much about ...

nothing in particiular

My parents always told me ...

make activities fun

My childhood ambition ...

was to be a newspaper journalist or a magazine editor

My favorite memory ...

recently, receiving a thank you note from my sister

Why I write ...

because I must put my stories and ideas in words.

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

Kathy Reichs, Caldwell House, Mozart

My first job ...

mower of lawns

My best moment ...

my literal dreams

My inspiration ...

my muse

Health & Fitness > Health Testimonies Living with a disability

6 of 51

When Colleen learned to live with mitral valve prolapse syndrome with dysautonomia (MVPS/D), her cat Morris taught her some tricks about life. Resting and taking life easy was right up his alley. He often nestled near her midriff, keeping it delightfully warm. Somehow he knew not to step on her painful chest. She found peace in a companionship that needed no talk. Watching Morris, she gleaned possibilities for her new lifestyle.

PATIENCE
Morris took life as it came. Whatever life brought, he handled it in a sensible cat manner. If the weather rained, he found shelter and waited it ou...

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