: About Me

I read a lot. I think a lot. I learn a lot. I write...sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. I am wife, mother, sister, daughter, grandmother, friend. I dig in the dirt and play with my dogs. I grow flowers - lots of flowers. I love music - listening, singing, playing, watching. I love cooking and good food and sharing it with just one or a tableful.

I like to write short stories, though I am loathe to call them fiction. My characters are real, even if they were born from my imagination. Their pain is real, their joy is real, their apathy is real. Their lives are real, and I am charged with making their existence just as real on the page.

I have a dog who is stubborn and strong-willed. What I love most about him is that when he is busted napping on the couch or the bed, or dragging my pj's out into the backyard, he accepts the consequences without apology. Once I'm finished ranting and raving, he gives me a look that says it was worth it. Here is a creature that has learned what it means to live fully in the moment.

My passion is ...

trying to be a better me

I know too much about ...

Britney Spears (NOT intentionally)

My parents always told me ...

girls can do anything boys can do

My childhood ambition ...

to be a folk singer like Joni Mitchell

My favorite memory ...

getting rose bushes for our first Valentine's Day together; much more permanent than cut flowers

Why I write ...

I love words and the challenge of making them sing

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

reading Best American Short Stories 2007, watching shows about the brain, weird behavior, mysterious illnesses, heroes and losers. Listening to anything that takes me to Margaritaville

My first job ...

ten years old, picking strawberries in the summer

My best moment ...

when I started to like myself

My inspiration ...

anyone who can muddle through life and still smile about it

Creative Writing > Memoirs Memoirs: Why I write

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So many beautiful words have been written about the beauty of the written word, I marvel at my own audacity to add my own words, written as well. Beautiful? One can only hope. Honest? Most assuredly. This is why I write. "To discover a wordsmith who can cause me to catch my breath in awe the way a master magician can hold his audience with the simplest of tricks..." My own observation, in a paper arguing the finer points of critical interpretation. At that time, I did not consider myself a writer. I was (and still am) a first class, champion reader. I am legend among friends, family and as...

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