: About Me

By the time I was eight, I had begun to read science fiction: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Roger Zelazny. Georgette Heyer and Josephine Tey followed: "Brat Farrar"! "Miss Pym Disposes"! I was in heaven. Charlotte Armstrong was the American equivalent. I loved them all.

For most people the 1960s were the Beatle years, but for me that was the decade Dick Francis first published in the US. There are other mystery writers whom I like, whose work I make efforts to keep up on, but no one has influenced me as he has.

... until I read my first Terry Pratchett novel. I have devoured and cherished all of them since. If I have a role model in life, it's Granny Weatherwax. Dearie, dearie me.

US authors? John McPhee, Elmore Leonard, Robert B. Parker, Robert Heinlein, Carl Hiaasen, John D. MacDonald.  Seems to be a plethora of "Roberts" there.

At the moment, my greatest problem in life is disliking to do anything but write. Earn a living? Keep house? Were they not necessities, fie upon them. When I do get up from the computer, I generally do some yoga, one-but-no-more-than-that housekeeping tasks, and pet the cats. Otherwise I would starve, live in squalor, and have unhappy cats. Can't have that last one. The others might be acceptable tradeoffs.

On dark and rainy nights, that mysterious rattle in the back of the bookstore is me, taking a book off the shelf to read a random paragraph, my personal acid test for new favorite authors.

My passion is ...

Plural! Writing, cooking, yoga, my cats, my kids, the practice of my faith, and digging around inside my own head.

I know too much about ...

The contents of my own head.

My parents always told me ...

To be normal. I've never yet succeeded.

My childhood ambition ...

To be a horse. Anyone who knows me can tell you that occasionally, I have succeeded at becoming only a part of that animal's anatomy.

My favorite memory ...

Hot sun on my shoulders and the smell of hay .

Why I write ...

To be fully myself.

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

Yoga books/Bleach and Naruto (who knew my inner child was a fifteen-year-old Japanese boy?)/Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder.

My first job ...

Veterinay assistant.

My best moment ...

Can happen whenever I have the courage to be fully present.

My inspiration ...

couldn't begin to tell you. It's just there when I need it. And am I grateful? You betcha.

Food & Drink > Cooking (Other) How to make bread

1 of 2

Making bread is a simple task that pays big dividends. Nothing tastes or smells better than fresh bread. To make bread, you need flour, yeast, salt and water. Eggs, milk and oil will make the final product taste better or improve its texture, but the Big Four are all you need in the way of ingredients. It takes about three hours to make bread. If you work, this may be a weekend project, although it's perfectly possible to rise bread overnight, then give it a second rise in the refrigerator while you work:  I call this the "24-hour method." Below are instructions for both three and twe...

More..

Writing:

• Marketplace Approved Writer
• Helium Charter Member