After being a stay-at-home mom for twenty years, I entered Edison Community College. In my eighteen months at Edison, I was invited to join Phi Theta Kappa. I finished my AA in Liberal Arts with honors in 1984. I entered the University of South Florida as an upper division student. While at USF, I served as president and State Conference Coordinator of the Phi Theta Kappa Alumni chapter. I also became a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Alpha Theta, ODK and the Society of Arts and Letters.

While still an undergraduate at USF I was fortunate enough to accomplish two things that were extraordinary for an undergraduate. Doctor Wynn, one of my American History professors arranged for me to be in the Hillsborough County Speakers Bureau. I did presentations on Native American Culture at public schools. I also had my first research paper published the same year. It was done jointly with Professor Wynn in the Journal of Atlanta and the South in their winter 1987 issue. It was published under my married name Barbara Ann Grim.

After my graduation with a BA Magna Cum Laud in Creative Writing and American History I entered USF’s Masters Program in American Studies. Unfortunately, my studies had to be interrupted because I got divorced and had to work to support my two children who were still at home.

My daughter is mentally challenged and lived with me until 2007. Knowing she was happily married and well taken care of, I decided to resume my education. However, I was not idle in the years between earning my BA and entering FAU.

In addition to being the Special Events Coordinator for the Dreher Park Zoo in West Palm Beach, I wrote for the Critter Chronicles and wrote all the promotional and educational materials for special events.

During those years I also did book reviews and wrote a column for New Direction for Better Living Magazine; did book reviews for www.yetanotherbookreview.com; and book reviews and articles for www.womenonwriting.com; www.booksandbytes.com and I began my website www.authorsden.com/bobbiduffy. In the six years I have maintained the site; I have posted over four hundred poems, short stories and articles and had approximately 300,000 hits on my work.

I completed work on the first three books of my fantasy series called Daughters of Destiny. The three books cover a span of ten years in the life of the protagonist, Amara, a captain in the Light Riders Mercenary Corps. The book opens with her sitting on the battlefield next to the body of her arch enemy. She is badly wounded and close to dying. After weeks of barely clinging to life she is sent home on leave for five months to recuperate As she leaves the winter quarters she has no idea that her life is about to change in ways no one could have imagined. The whirlwind her life becomes begins in earnest when her guardian and her adoptive brother, Edgwyn are attacked by magic designed to kill them. As the book unfolds, Amara discovers that everything she knows about her guardian, her brother and her life is a collection of lies that could end all their lives.

The second book, “Ghost Maker” begins five year later when she is given a small package from a child she loves. Inside the box is the broken living necklace her brother, the dragon mage, made for the child. To ensure the rescue of the child and the other children and women of her clan, Amara seeks out the High Priest of the Cloister of the Guardian Tessara to request the Oath of the Ghost Maker. The guardian agrees, but tells Amara the price for her guaranteed success in her quest to rescue the hostages is that she must forfeit her own life. Amara agrees and is given the powers of a Ghost Maker including the ability to transform into the shape of a wolf. With her new power, Amara set out only to be plagued by mishap after mishap brought about by those who want to help her. The book ends with Amara returning to the cloister to pay her debt to the Guardian.

In the third book, “Terra Terror” a neighboring society is threatened with annihilation. Amara is sent to offer them sanctuary in Pylaria. In the book she also has to deal with the marriage of the little girl she saved five years before in the second book and her brother‘s reluctance to allow her to return to the cloister after her task is completed. Once again Amara is at the center of events that could end not only her life, but the lives of those she is trying to save.

In 2003 my first poetry book was published by Bad Dragon Press. “Songs of Survival: Life is a Journal” deals with surviving the darker aspects of life as an abused child and other terrible events and traumas without losing yourself in the pain.

The year before my poetry book was published, I taught Creative Writing in the Community Education Program at Lantana Middle School. I also became a member of MENSA.

Among my other credits, I managed and wrote all the material for a Puppet Ministry youth group for the Community Christian Church in Black River Falls. As part of my preparation for my role as MC for our shows I attended clown school at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, learned to create balloon sculpture and ventriloquism.

I have also taught theater history and wrote and directed a play at the First Christian Church in Fort Myers, Florida, taught a youth class on creative writing for the Children’s Home Society and wrote and edited newsletter for three taverns.

My goal in getting my MFA in Creative Writing Fiction is to be able to teach Creative Writing at the college level. I want to be part of the growing movement to bring poetry and literature back to the forefront of world literature. I would like to volunteer services to women’s shelters teaching them to use writing as a means of catharsis and possible career. I also hope to continue to write poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction. One of the projects I am currently working on is a book on how to “build” a realistic fantasy world.

I am currently deciding which of my poems to submit for the 2010 edition of Coastlines Literary Journal and competitions.