I’ve been a writer all my life.  

Okay, first I should start with saying I’ve been a reader all my life. You know the kind . . . always has her nose in a book, reading at the breakfast table (where I could get away with it -- dinner time, no way!) and on long car rides with my family. One of my lasting childhood memories is my mom saying to me, “If I find one more book lying around this house . . .”

Stuart Little, Wilbur and Charlotte, Sheila the Great and Margaret (from Are You There God, It’s Me), Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames and of course, Jo, Beth, Amy and Meg, the wonderful March sisters, were among my many literary friends.

According to my aunt, both Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe are in my family tree on my mother's side, so perhaps writing is in my blood. I went from making up stories as a kid to writing teenage angst poems and diaries to discovering the instant gratification of writing fan fiction on the internet.

I started, stopped and started again writing romance many times during the last twelve years. It wasn’t until the fall of 2002 when my husband challenged me to actually write (a.k.a. – finish!) a book (of my own characters that could actually be published), that I decide to seriously pursue this dream. I found the Romance Writers of America and joined a local chapter in New Hampshire and the rest was a lot of learning and writing, writing and writing some more!

I come from a military family so it’s no surprise the hero in my first book is a former United States Marine. My father served in the US Air Force which explains my birth in Taipei, Taiwan, while my older sister was born in Niagara Falls, NY and my younger sister in Manchester, NH. We grew up all over the world, settling in Merrimack, New Hampshire when my father retired in time for me to stick around the same school all four years until I graduated.  The military life called to me (or maybe it was seeing Top Gun too many times!) in my early 20’s and I joined the United States Navy.

I fell in love with reading romances while serving in the Navy with the very distinctive memory of opening a box of paperbacks while on board my first ship, the USS VULCAN AR-5. I was helping put away donations in the ships library, and discovered that someone remembered women were in fact serving aboard seagoing vessels and had sent a box full of paperback romances.

I now live in Central Massachusetts with my daughter, my former Marine/retired US Air Force husband, and my six stepchildren are scattered about in NH, MA and PA -- less than a days' drive away. I guess old habits die hard, because when I can find the time I still love to read (I always have a romance novel with me!) and except for my husband, no one seems to mind that I have books lying all around my house.

More Inside Information:

·        Yes, that is how you really spell my first name, after my mother’s good friend in the 8^th grade who spelled her name the same way.

·        My first completed book, titled A Single Yellow Rose is a fan fiction written in 1999/2000 about the teens of the daytime soap opera, Days of our Lives.

·         While in the US Navy I served onboard two ships, the USS Vulcan AR-5, a repair tender and the first US Navy ship (other than nurses on hospital ships) on which women were deployed starting in 1978, and the USS Hunley AS-31, a submarine tender.

·        Yellow roses have very special meaning to me. They are the official flower of my non-academic sorority Beta Sigma Phi and I put them somewhere in each of my stories.

Appearances:

May 24, 2008
ALL BOOKED UP ~ A READER'S PARADISE
1126 Bichara Blvd, The Villages, Florida 32159
 10:00 am - 12:00 noon

July 29 - August 2, 2008
ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA
28th Annual National Conference --- “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing
San Francisco, CA
5:30 - 7:30 pm

Favorites:

Books: I am a voracious reader and enjoy biographies like Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, historicals like Flag of our Fathers and of course romances! See the list of my recent additions to my "to-be-read" pile here and visit my Links page for my favorite authors!

Music: I usually listen to country music (Kenny Chesney…yum!) unless my teenage daughter is in the car and then it can be anything from McFly to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus to Faber Drive. I also love the big band sounds from the 40's and Elvis will always be the King!

Movies: Casablanca, Guys & Dolls (pretty much all the movie musicals from the golden era of Hollywood), Pretty In Pink, Pride & Prejudice (both the 2006 and the PBS versions!), Return To Me, Top Gun (of course!), When Harry Met Sally, White Christmas, Yankee Doodle Dandy . . . oh, the list goes on and on!

TV Shows: I've fallen in love with Brothers & Sisters this season and Night Lights is one of the best shows on tv! I enjoy Dancing With The Stars, The Biggest Loser and American Idol and yes, I tape Days of our Lives every day. Long gone shows I still miss --- The West Wing and JAG!

Snacks: Tootsie Rolls are #1 but good, old fashioned Hershey bars and mini m&m's run a close second and third. A big bowl of popcorn is always great with one of my favorite movies!

Currently reading . . .

from Harlequin/Silhouette

waiting in my
to-be-read pile . . .

from Samhain Publishing

from Harlequin/Silhouette

from Harlequin/Silhouette

from Harlequin/Silhouette

from Harlequin/Silhouette



from HQN


from Samhain Publishing

Listening to:

Last movie seen . . .

Gotta see this . . .