: About Me

A Northern California native, I grew up during the turbulent 60s within a stone's throw of the Hippy Mecca of San Francisco. Starting out my working life as a legal secretary, I transferred my clerical skills to the world of high-tech manufacturing marketing and sales and worked my way up through the ranks to an administrative position with multi-million dollar client responsibilities.

During the economic downturn of the mid-80s, I was laid off which presented me with a rare opportunity to re-examine my life, my priorities and my goals. In a 180-degree vocational turnaround, I went to work at a wholesale bedding plant nursery for minimum wage with the idea in mind to learn all that I could about plants while I got my body back into shape utilizing the demanding, physical, outdoor labor necessary for the job. Within a year, I was promoted to middle management - where my second language of Spanish came in very handy. I spent the next decade working for several different nurseries and even had a small nursery of my own at my home where I built my own greenhouses, propagated and sold plants at the local farmers' market.

During that same period of time, I became involved with Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Farm (both an historic and horticultural site) and the Western Sonoma County Historical Society in Sebastopol CA where I now serve on the Board of Directors as President.

I came to writing for living late in my life... Growing up, I suppose I always thought of my mother as being "the writer of the family". A military widow, she supported us both with her freelance writing for newspapers and magazines.

Finding myself in the position of "care-giver" to my aging mother and disabled husband a few years ago and pretty much restricted as far as 9-5 employment was concerned, on a whim, I sent off a short story I wrote to a book publisher that was immediately accepted. I sold a dozen articles and stories to different book, magazine and newspaper publishers over the following six months. By the end of that first year, I'd even landed an interview as a "guest author" on a TV talk show!

And I've been writing ever since...

I have also been a frequent contributor on Gather.com since joining that site in 2006: http://piscesptah.gather.com.

My passion is ...

[passions are] History, Horticulture & Hauntings

I know too much about ...

Being a single, working mother

My parents always told me ...

Be independent.

My childhood ambition ...

To be an actress and a dancer.

My favorite memory ...

Acting and dancing in various plays and recitals and being "1st flute" in junior symphony.

Why I write ...

Because I can, I suppose...

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

Just about everything and everybody - everywhere!

My first job ...

Legal secretary to one of "The San Quentin Six" attorneys.

My best moment ...

After being told by the IRS that I owed THEM over $900, receiving a check from them for $6.00 because, when all was said and done, they actually owed ME money!

My inspiration ...

Nature... Flowers, birds, deer, kitty-cats, sky and sea - all the great wonders that surround us every, single day...

Politics, News & Issues > US Elections The importance of local elections

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District Attorney (the most important political office you probably never voted for...) You're in the voting booth on Election Day. You read down the list of names of candidates running for Senator, Representative, perhaps a judge or two and, down there on the bottom of the ballot (in many cases running unopposed) is the candidate for District Attorney. "What do I know about him/her?" you ask yourself. Probably nothing and, yet, on a local, day-to-day level, the person elected to that office will wield more power over peoples' lives than any of those grander-sounding candidates nearer the ...

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Writing:

Rating:

• Creative Writing Bronze
• Marketplace Approved Writer
• Helium Charter Member