Growing up in a small town can limit a person's world view. I was fortunate in having parents who valued education and understood that life was way larger than our hometown of 4000 people. They taught me to read at the age of 4 and since my first primary school books, I have been a voracious reader. My college studies focused heavily on literature and although I could not immediately see how I could turn my love of reading into a way to make a living, but it actually happened. I had developed persuasive writing skills and I was well grounded in the pure mechanics of effective writing. My new career: Fund raising and marketing for non-profit organizations. It would be impossible to identify a single major influence on me nor any particular period. I enjoy fiction, history, biography, and poetry. I admire the style of Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens but I also enjoy the contemporary fiction of Elizabeth George, Ken Follett, Walter Mosley and Daniel Silva. I LOVE the poetry of William Blake and Emily Dickinson and I am proud of my ability to remember some of the most memorable lines from Shakespeare (though many would consider that trite!) My own life has been filled with some severe medical challenges but also with a lot of joy. I hope, thru my writing, to encourage those who may have been in despair and to bring pleasure to others who might appreciate a way to find humor in the problems that life throws at us and more joy in the treasures that come to us in disguise. the