I grew up and presently live in the deep rural South. It's a small town where Elvis Presley was born and lived until he moved to Memphis. The richness of the culture and the gumbo of different types of people is a delight . This beautiful culture is where I learned to appreciate the myriad of stories told to me as I was growing up in Mississippi. The tapestry of  daily life  has molded me into the writer that I am becoming. The beauty of the land and people and the vibrant colors inspire my art and photography as well inspiring a need, a deep passion, to share all that I have been privledged to witness, good and bad. My family was pure inspiration. My Mother was divorced and my grandparents lived with us. We were very poor in the late fifties and early sixties but the love of family was my saving grace, my insulator. We were taught to never feel sorry for ourselves,  solve our own problems, and to always help others, Most importantly we were taught to always be respectful of not only all people, but all living things. So much of Southern life is beginning to dissolve. I want to capture it in any way that I can to preserve it for those who will never know the wonders of dirt roads, red clay hills, crystal blue skies. emerald green forests and dusty cotton fields. My time is ebbing away with cell phones, video games, tv and people whose only meaningful conversation revolves around daily gossip. Kid's ideas of conversation  today involves ' texting ' each other  when they are sitting side by side ... sigh. But this is who I am. A composite of all that has touched my life until this moment.

Blossom in the Dawning,
Poetry Anthology,'Lovers'p.210,
Watermark Press,1999
Editors Choice Award

Woven Magic,
Poetry Anthology,'The Silence of a Heart'p.116,
Watermark Press, 2001
Editor's Choice Award

Life in the Pond, Thoughts on Moonlight, Ripples, Hearts and Frogs, A Collection of Poetry, Xlibris, August 2010 Soft Cover and Ebook
Housed in Lee County Library, Mississippi Room, Tupelo, Mississippi, December 2010

Magnolia Quarterly, A Magazine for Creative Writers, Summer 2011 edition
Washing Dishes is Good for the Soul, Short Fiction, p.3
Mississippi Heart, Poetry, p. 31

Mississippi Writer's Guild, 2010, Independent Author's Guild, 2010, Gulf Coast Writer's Association, 2011