Doing Research in Dakota, W.Va.

Let's see.
What to say about me?
Everything from A to Z.

Uh, frustrated poet--sorry.

My entire childhood was carefree and great! I grew up in Bedford, a beautiful town in south-central Pennsylvania. Climbing trees, sledding at the Elks golf course, swimming at the Bedford Springs' indoor pool and icy lake, and palling around with Donna, Nancy, Linda, Sandy, and Jaime bring back the most vivid memories. Boys and Bedford High loom large, of course, until I met Joe Cool. We married and escaped to Cape May, New Jersey. As we changed license plates every three to five years, I lost count of moves after no. 10. School and restless wanderings took us to Terre Haute and Fort Wayne, Indiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Bluefield, Virginia, where I developed an inexplicable fascination for coal; Upper Marlboro, Maryland; and finally the coalfields of northern West Virginia and the neat city of Fairmont. Careerwise, I've been a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker.

Uh, there's that poet thing again.

Teaching elementary kiddos and working as a librarian were my favorite real jobs until I discovered writing and its out-of-this-world quality. What's that tired saying? "Life happens while you're making other plans." Something like that. During teacher training at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, I took a writing course every semester. I fell in love with words--in my middle years, yet. For the curious, what actually found the printed page is on the Other page. Unpublished children's books lie three inches deep on my desk. This worthy project is my first book, a natural first, maybe, because biographies top my favorite reading. And westerns. I love paperback westerns and western movies. Go figure. Must be some link to the past. Maybe I was a pioneer in another life. Or a grasshopper.

Two novels keep doing the back stroke inside my head.

The beginning