Books, those I've read and the words I've written, have been my most important bridge to the world, articulating what I have felt but have not spoken and helping me to understand the lives of others.
My father served in WWII on the carrier Enterprise, and joined the army after the war. I was an army brat. Before I was a one year old, we left for Germany, where my father was the commander of a brigade escorting the trains between Germany and the American sector of Berlin. We lived in Kassel and Frankfurt. Returning to the U.S., we moved to my mom's home town, the most southwesterly city in the U.S, Imperial Beach, California. My mom loved the outdoors and most of all, the ocean. She could body surf with the best of them, clear into her seventies!
It is at the center of my writing, this little town of Imperial Beach (fondly known as IB). For a different look at it, the town is featured in "Tijuana Straits" by Kem Nunn. I lived there long before drugs and violence hit the outer reaches.
Many of my memoir stories and the novel-in-progress are set in Imperial Beach and the San Diego area, which will always be home to me. I left San Diego for UCLA and never lived "down south" full-time again.
Majoring in English at UCLA was a dream come true for me. . . I was going to get college credit for READING as much of the great literature of the world as the curriculum could require and then some, as I read in my free time too. And as I taught, I learned of more authors and more books, poems, essays. . .things I continue to think of and quote to myself even now.
Favorite authors? I would say poet, William Blake; poet, Mary Oliver; novelists Nina Revoyr (Southland, The Age of Dreaming); Susan Kenney (Sailing); JonEllen Heckler (Safekeeping); Mary Lawson (The Other Side of the Bridge); Steve Pressman (The Afghan Campaign and Gates of Fire); Cecilia Brainard (When The Rainbow Goddess Slept); and Eve LaSalle Caram (The Blue Geography); Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants). Check my listmanias on Amazon under "Gladdy Me eg" of Santa Clarita. I must have 1000 more books to list.
When I remarried, I think I married Daniel Boone. He worked in Alaska and Dinky Creek, CA, and is bristling that we have neighbors near our retirement home in Galena, MO. (We didn't know they were THAT close until we saw a plane's view photo of the house).
I taught high school senior English until I realized that I had more homework (grading papers) than my students did and finally said, "Hey--it's time to LIVE!
I am involved in the UCLA Writers' Program, which I love. I have used writing as my voice in the wilderness since I was about seven. As Annie Lamott said in "Bird by Bird," a writer is often the good, quiet child, watching from the sidelines, observing and remembering. So it was with me.
My husband and I plan to move to the Ozarks as soon as we can. I often visit our Missouri home for the solitude it provides for thinking and writing. We can't wait to move out of LA madness.
I am in love with books and have to divide my day into house chores, time to write and time to read. And then there is dog time too. . .and always, time for my Daniel Boone, Patrick.--unless he starts playing his electric guitar too loud or turns on the Van Halen full blast!
Birth Place: New Orleans, LA
Accomplishments: I have been a CSPA judge for scholastic yearbooks for the past 3 years. Interesting work.
