I'm mom to two gorgeous little girls who are growing up way too fast! I was born in Denver, Colorado, and lived there until the age of 13, when we moved to SE Oklahoma. I get my love for all things artistic from both sides of my family. Growing up, there was always a record or cd playing, or my Dad strumming away on his guitar, and there was always someone in my house writing or drawing. I was fortunate enough to have very liberal and eclectic parents, whose tastes in art, music, and literature ran from classic to obscure, along with everything beyond and in between. Anything that made you think, made you feel, made you stretch outside the comfort zone and consider new ideas. As far as writing, my influences came first, of course, from my parents. Aside from them, my world of imagination was fed by great authors such as Robert H. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land always has been, and always will be, a favorite of mine, and always stocked in my personal library), Orson Scott Card (I fell in love with Card the first page into Ender's Game, and the love affair hasn't cooled since), Isaac Aasimov, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R.R. Tolkien (I read the LOR trilogy the first time in the 7th grade, long before it became a box office legend), Edgar Alan Poe, Stephen King, Douglas Adams (to this day, I can't hear someone ask for a towel and not giggle), and many, many others. I must also mention that I am very partial to Bob Dylan - not a novelist, but still a very prolific and insightful writer, nonetheless. I realize that my age I don't have the range of experience or understanding that many (far better) writers out there have, but I enjoy the learning process immensely, and do my best to pay close enough attention to the world around me to learn something new, as often as possible. I may never be an excellent writer, but I love the art. I'm just me, short of extraordinary, but I'm okay with that. Life isn't about being perfect, just about being the best that you can be. After all, as someone once said, "Don't take life too seriously - no one gets out alive, anyway." Dare to dream. Sandra