I have worked in telecommunications, from digging ditches to programming central offices.  There were many men in my life who influenced me, my rancher dad for whom the whole community waved and stoped to visit.  I had a grandfather who was a power linemen.  I read every Louis L Amour that Louis wrote.  My mothers' side, whom I knew briefly was Blackfoot and Cherokee.  Though I never knew my mother I feel that influence.  Writing, for me, is all about the reader.   If I cannot feel what I write, then how can I expect the reader too.  Maybe it will be in a store, or at work and I will witness a persons' pain or joy.  I carry that feeling like a protected fire and when I get home, write it, often in tears.  A story or a poem or a book must help the reader, or it has not purpose to be written. I am happily married.      

I have sold many poems, had short stories published on websites, had many of my poems published in a book, "Spirit Of The Badge" by Ingrid P. Dean. I am 54 and have been writing poems since I was 9. That doesn't mean they are good, but I do have a passion for it.