Bio

Welcome to my Blog!

I am happy to be sharing with you some of the things I love!

Here’s a little about me:

I was born in Bakersfield, California in 1962; I grew up, went to school, married my husband Jeff, had four children, and lived in Bakersfield until age 35.  Growing up I attended Horace Mann School until the sixth grade; I transferred to Norris School when my parents moved our family to the Olive Drive area. I went on to North High School where I participated  in as many extracurricular activities as I could fit into my schedule, basketball, softball, 4-H, student council, cheerleading, many clubs…and plenty of fun.  I went on to Bakersfield College, as all good Bakersfield kids do, as my dad before me, and my mother also.  My mother was an English major, and a wonderful writer; a trait I inherited I’m sure. She was always writing poetry and little limericks for school functions, co-worker’s birthday celebrations and her sorority events. I’m sure my love for poetry began with her.  I loved the cleverness of her rhyming words, how she captured the essence of the person or event, was captivating.

I feel like my childhood was a typical Bakersfield childhood, long, hot summer days spent riding my bike with friends, softball at Fruitvale-Norris Park, pool parties, barbeques, homemade ice cream, shopping with my friends at the Valley Plaza Mall and movies at Stockdale Theater.  I have such wonderful memories of my childhood.  I especially remember days spent with my grandma Hattie; she had a push mower that I thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread!  I couldn’t wait until I was big enough to mow her lawn with that mower!  Every spring was decision time at her house, what flowers would she plant this year?  Zinnias and dahlias seem to be her favorites for the front yard, along with her trailing ice plant.  Her beautiful chrysanthemums filled the flowerbeds in her back yard!  Those days spent in her garden, digging in the dirt, watering her flowers with the garden hose, carefully plucking the weeds from the flowerbeds, mowing grass with the best mower in the world, then breaks to cool off with a cold glass of iced tea under her swamp cooler were the best!  The aroma of her flowers, the wet soil, fresh-cut grass, and the time spent with her in her garden are cherished memories that have instilled in me a love for gardening, and which inspired me to write Miss Hattie’s Amazing Garden.

In 1997, we welcomed our daughter, who was born ten years after our youngest son she was a surprise and a blessing. Ten months after her birth my husband was transferred, and so, we packed up and moved to Durango, Colorado, where we lived for 15 years.  We spent those years working and raising our four children, spending as much time as we could outdoors; with the Rocky Mountains at our doorstep we skied, hiked and my husband and boys hunted and fished as much as possible.  I didn’t write much in those years, we were too busy raising children and working, but it seemed like we blinked and our boys were grown, and gone, only our daughter was left at home.  Things settled down considerably, and so I began writing again.  A few years later, my husband’s job took us to Ohio, where we currently live.  Our family is scattered, my husband, myself and our daughter are in Ohio, our oldest son in Dallas, Texas, our middle son  and his family in southern California, and our youngest son, in New York City.  We are a very close family so I cherish those times we can all be together; it’s much too rare for my satisfaction.

I’ve always been a writer; as a teenager I used to write short stories about my friends and their antics, things I loved about them, things I felt were unique, things I wanted to remember.  However, I think poetry is my favorite way to express myself.  I love the challenge of telling a story in rhyme, and I love using my imagination. I really like all types of writing; My day job for years was in engineering, first in civil engineering where I wrote marketing publications, like informational brochures about wetlands, and water hydrology.  I moved on to oil and gas, where amongst other things, I wrote construction contracts and procedures and protocols for Request for Proposals.  Sounds somewhat dry compared to creative writing, but I actually enjoyed it.

Life has taken us down some crazy paths, but God has blessed us beyond measure.  To be able to do something you love and to share it with others is a gift and a blessing, and for that, I am truly thankful.