I was born in Reno, Nevada in 1966 as the last addition to a family of eight. My siblings include one sister, Catrina and five brothers, Chris, Robert, Kevin, George and Peter. At age six, my family and I moved to a forty acre farm in Fallon, Nevada, ten miles from town and almost a mile from the nearest neighbor. Did I mention that place was haunted? No joke!
Living on a farm granted opportunities I would not have otherwise had. I was strongly involved in 4-H Clubs where I did everything from growing my own fruits and vegetables to canning, dehydrating, freezing and cooking my harvest. I competed in bread making, food and nutrition, photography, gardening and horticulture, dairy cows, dairy goats, sewing, dairy and livestock judging, speech and demonstration, rabbits and chickens. I’m sure I have left something out, but can’t seem to remember all of my many projects at the moment. I suppose you could say I was an overachiever. At the age of thirteen, I was the youngest person to have won the Nevada State Speech and Demonstration contest. Unfortunately because of my age I was not allowed to compete at the national level.
At the age of sixteen, after the divorce of my parents, my mother, siblings and I moved back to the Reno/Sparks area. I completed my High School education at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada. It was during this time I began writing poetry.
My love of horror prompted me to seek a career as a special effects make-up artist (remember this was the 80’s). I completed Beauty College to become a licensed Aesthetician in three states. Sadly those skills were only used for a few months. July 7, 1987 I got married and became pregnant all in the same day. Taking my child into consideration, I gave up on a career as a make-up artist and instead took jobs that provided a steady income and good health insurance.
My daughter, Tawny was born in 1988, I separated from my husband in 1989, divorced in 1990, met my second husband in 1991, married him later that year, bought the house where I still reside in 1992, gave birth to my daughter Meagan in 1993 and was divorced in 1995. Those were some very eventful years. Needless to say I’m not going through that again. I think I will just stay single :o))
Although there were some ups and downs, nothing significant happened in my life until the birth of my grandson, Russell in 2006. He has been one of the greatest joys in my life. In my eyes that boy can do no wrong. In 2008 I took a departure from the norm (partly due to the economic recession) by changing careers. It had been in my mind to write a book for some months, but it wasn’t until the photo my daughter Tawny took of my mouth did I have the idea for the novel. The cover of The Nefarious Tongue is a transformed image of me sticking my tongue out at my daughter. That sparked the question “What if there can be a physical representation of the spoken word in a parallel existence?” From there The Nefarious Tongue was born.
A twist near the end of The Nefarious Tongue gave birth to my second novel, Lost in the Flesh. This second book begins where The Nefarious Tongue left off with Jon Stillwell in custody at the Reno Police Department. While writing Lost in the Flesh, I couldn’t help but add some of my own experiences as a child growing up on the farm. I won’t disclose how much of Jon Stillwell’s childhood was actually my own. That will have to remain a mystery for the time being.
In early 2009 some of my poetry was selected to appear in the Nevada Poets 2009 book sponsored by The Inquisition Poetry. You can also find a collection of my poems in the June 2009 issue of Worlds Within–Worlds Beyond Magazine. My short story, The Big Bad Wolf will appear in the June 2009 issue of Twisted Dreams Magazine and my short story Catrina of Rozvalean will appear in a special edition of Morpheus Tales Magazine in the UK called Fantasy Femme.
My next project is the third book in the series tentatively called The Right Hand of Lucifer. It will answer a lot of questions raised in Lost in the Flesh. I hope to have it completed by the end of 2009 or early 2010.
Through all of the stresses life can bring, the hardship of changing careers and trying to find success during an economic downturn, it is having faith in a living God, a savior named Jesus Christ that keeps my feet moving forward along the path.. Without his unchanging and unequivocal love, there are days I don’t think I could get out of bed.