When I grew up, I wanted to be Brenda Star, girl reporter after I graduated from journalism school at the University of Iowa. Then I was, but first became a medical book editor in St. Louis. I grew up in Iowa where the tall corn grows and some natives, like me, become restless.  St. Louis was a small step forward. Until I moved further West.  I still have a difficult time with the geography.  In Iowa, we knew a lot more about the East.  Somehow,  I found Montana on a job-shopping trip (some day that deserves a story) and not only was a job created for me but I also found my beloved husband who'd opened a branch engineering office in Great Falls. I'm half Swedish and half Polish.  The Swedish half may live in a city but longs also for a country place.  First I had sixty acres in the Ozarks south of St. Louis.  Then came McGregor along the Mississippi River when I lived in Iowa and later a tiny hippie shell of a cabin when Bud brought me to Spokane.  That little cabin in a remote green  valley north of Colville we call the Lazy Bee is now HOME.  Hello mountains.  Those are what  Iowans long for and don't realize what they're missing until they feel the difference.  Goodbye Iowa sweet corn whose sweetness can never be duplicated because it grows in such fertile Iowa soil. In Spokane when I felt the urge to write fiction, I was blessed to find Victor West in California who became my mentor.  We spoke often by phone.  One day a young woman phoned to tell me that he was very ill.  My heart is sad because he must be dead. He was a stern practitioner, but sometimes would write a beautiful-sounding phrase in the margin in red ink,   "This is good.  Put in more of these."   I lived for those words and became a better writer because of them. Often my writing life is complicated by demands of the mountain lifestyle, the fact that we have ten children and twenty-four grandchildren, and because now I'm a writer who sells books, not just a writer who writes books.  And there's the little fact that we do love to travel.  Bud has a Commanche.  We have a son who is an Alaska airline pilot and occasionaly we can fly standby.  Plus, our hearts belong to San Miguel d'Allende north of Mexico City where we get "into" the whirl of cultural activities.  Next year I hope to present a workshop during the International Writers' Community there in February.  It'll be about use of Google Alerts.  I was a presenter once and people actually paid to hear me tell the story of "Cries in the Desert," treasure-hunting adventure story.                                

Missouri Press Awards
American Red Cross National Public Relations Awards