When I carried wood as a pre-teen so my Great Aunt Martha could stoke up the iron stove to prepare dinner, I wasn't thinking, "I could use this in a novel someday." Yet almost 60 years later, the skills I learned from my horse-and-buggy ancestors translate into backdrops for my historical romance novels.

Growing up with paternal grandparents born in the 1890's made creating historical novels a logical choice. I had first-handle knowledge of:

• cooking on a wood-burning stove
• pumping water
• storing food in ground cellars
• depending on blocks of ice to cool food
• cleaning outhouses, chamber pots, chicken coops, and rabbit hutches
• beating dust from rugs
• hanging wash on clotheslines in the dead of winter
• picking berries under the hot sun
• growing vegetables
• canning in the heat of late summer

When the Silicone Valley dot.com bubble burst and I was laid off as a database administrator, I opted for Social Security, but not for retirement. Believing "it's never too late to create your dream", I resurrected a life-long desire to write.

From the beginning, I put the project on a business footing. Drawing from my M.B.A. studies, I developed a business plan with short-term and long-term goals.

I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A.in a double major of English and Social Sciences and from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a Masters in Teaching English. My M.B.A. studies are from Pepperdine University.

I like to walk, swim, and read. I live in California with my son, Dennis.

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