In college, I majored in English, of course, which didn't really qualify me to do anything after I graduated. I interned at Sacramento Magazine during the era of Melrose Place, and so I dressed like someone off that show, complete with padded shoulder pads in my suits, making me stand out among the jeans-clad crew, who must have had a good snicker behind my back.

I also interned at Methodist Hospital, doing PR for a very patient boss/mentor who gently went through sentence by sentence with a BLACK pen, showing me how to leave out the flowery stuff and stick with the facts. I will be forever grateful to him.

My first reporter job was at a dinky hometown paper called the Benicia Herald. I scored the highest on their copy editing test, so despite my lack of experience, I was in. The pay was horrible, and I think I was the only one there who didn't smoke and who therefore never got a break, but I thrived on it. Our computers were so old that I had to memorize code just to bold something, and we still cut and pasted the papers on a board with a razor blade.

I boldly called the 'big' paper for a job, and reached an empathetic ear of an editor who called in a favor from a friend at the Contra Costa Sun. I was such an eager beaver that soon I rose the ranks from the education reporter for Moraga to taking over as Features Editor from a woman who'd done the job for, like, a 100 years.

Two bleeding ulcers later, I decided to call it quits when I married (now divorced) a co-worker (never a good idea) and wanted babies. I did freelance work on the side, but dabbled in running a non-profit after school program, working at the YMCA as a Program Director, then owning a yoga studio and later a massage/yoga studio, all in an effort to try and RELAX.

My first book, "Yoga for a Broken Heart,' came out in 2007, about the same time I was going through the previously mentioned divorce, funny enough. It was a tough year, but I came through it all fairly unscathed and with new material from my angst.

Now I can honestly say I'm the happiest I've ever been in my life, with just the right balance of physical and mental work, with a great guy and two amazing kids and a (soon-to-be) bestselling novel ("All In Her Head") just out the door!

I am inspired by anyone who has the discipline and courage to write. Right now I'm reading Susan K. Perry books on "Writing in Flow" and "Loving in Flow", I just finished "the Shack", and I'm in the middle of "Pride and Prejudice" again. I'm ordering Jennifer Weiner's "Good in Bed" because I think she's hilarious and I hope I can give interviews half as riveting and real as hers.

I truly hope you give my books a read. I write because I have something to say, because I just can't help myself. Most of my messages are about loving yourself and finding peace as your prosperity and a lot of touchy-feely stuff like that, but I think I'm pretty grounded and funny while saying it.