I knew back in junior high school that I wanted to be a writer, but Life got in the way!

I majored in journalism at Baylor University when newspaper-writing was the objective approach to fact-telling. The focus relied on the “who, what, when, why” of what really happened.

My first newspaper job was as a summer intern for The Orange Leader in Orange, Texas.

After graduation, I was invited back as a reporter. Without even a wink, my editor threw this naïve Baptist school girl into the flames of the real world.

He sent me to car wrecks, home fires, and heated school board meetings in rural areas. He even assigned me to interview a former madam (unbeknownst to me).

A year later, when I got married, I moved to Austin where my husband was in school at The University of Texas. I was lucky to find a position with the Texas Education Agency for the summer. I wrote and edited Texas teachers’ articles for their statewide magazine.

My husband’s career moved us to Florida and I found myself in Tampa, as the Entertainment Editor of The Tampa Tribune. Now that was a great writing job! I edited the weekly TV magazine. I interviewed celebrities, wrote features for the Women’s Pages, critiqued movies, plays, concerts and other entertainment events. All on the newspaper’s dime.

It wasn’t without its hazards, though. One time, I almost got socked in the face by the irate director of the local Little Theater. I’d panned his play. I found out the hard way that a reviewer must always find some redeeming factor in local community theater. I was ordered to see the play again and write another review.

My husband’s career took us many places in a few short years.

While in Cincinnati and as a new mom, I started freelance writing—a merry-go-round of sending out articles on all sorts of subjects. The daily mail delivery brought acceptances or rejections, fueling my daily ups and downs.

Many published articles later, I told myself I still wanted to be “a writer”.

In Houston, my second child arrived, and my husband quit his job to start a home-based business in personnel recruiting for insurance firms. I was his personal assistant. He often bragged that my writing abilities (business letters, newsletters, advertising) was the reason why Insurance Search and Rainbow Personnel became so successful — but, in my mind, business writing wasn’t real writing.

Still wanting to be a “writer”, I took a community college class in novel-writing. My first assignment became my first published book, a young adult novel entitled The Courturiere of Galvez. I followed it with two more YA novels – Reyna’s Reward, and A Yank Among Us.

For my next project, a simple conversation with a cousin about her daughters’ thumb-sucking habits inspired the children’s book, Little Thumb.

The adult novel, Washed in the Blood came next. Adult subject matter, featuring a 16-year-old protagonist, it blurred the line between adult and young adult fiction. I have followed it with several adult suspense novels – Loved to Death , Bleeding Heart and No One’s Fault but Her Own.

In the meantime, I spent my life with a wonderful man for 54 years, mothered two great kids; built a business; and fulfilled my dream of writing professionally. Sadly, all three of my immediate family have left this world for the next. But like the heroines in my stories I survive and carry on. I currently live in the Houston area.

Yes, Life Happens!

But I am a Writer—have been one all along! And the ideas just keep coming!