I decided to be a writer when I was a little kid typing out stories on my mothers' Royal typewriter.  My big influence at that time was Walter Farley, author of the classic Black Stallion.  At the same time I developed a huge crush on a young military school cadet who went to mass the same time as my family, so my earliest efforts involved my begin stranded on a desert island with a horse and a cadet.  Being in fourth grade, I had no idea what to do with the cadet, so he spent his time fishing and making fires while I raced around the island on the horse.  I'd probably write things differently now. There were not a lot of creative writing majors available in the 70's, so I tried being a journalism major.  That didn't work.  I went from job to job for a while, payng bills and having a family, not really thinking too much about what I wanted to be when I grew up.  But when my second daughter was heading to kindergarten, I began thinking about returning to work, and what kind of work that would be.  One morning, while listening to WOR talk radio, I heard a woman say if you wanted to know what work you would enjoy, think about what you were playing at when you were ten, because whatever it was, you probably loved it.  That week I started writing again. My first attempt got me forty-seven rejection letters from some of the best agents in the business.  My second manuscript got me an agent.  The third book, Better Off Without Him, gave me a valuable lesson - writing a good book isn't enough.  It also has to be a book that falls easily into a specific catagory so that the marketing boys don't have to work too hard. After the most apologetic rejection letters I'd ever read from editors who loved the book but couldn't figure out how to sell it, I decided to publish it myself as an ebook.  My idea here is simple.  If a book is well written and enjoyable to read, people will find it. 

My greatest achievents are my daughers. Oh wait - you mean book-wise? Hitting the button at Smashwords.com and sending my book into the cyber marketplace.