Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} When I was about 5 our TV broke and it stayed that way long enough for me and my sisters to discover a lifelong love of reading. As the middle child, I was forced to take it up a notch. In my mid-teens I was at a secondhand store and fell in love with a manual typewriter that had cursive keys. It cost about $10 more than I had on hand and weighed, to my unexercised arms, a ton. I was forced to hide it behind some house wares and hope that it was there when I came back. It took me longer than I thought to guilt my mother into giving me the $10 and a ride, but I did it even though I had to return once in the meantime to make sure the typewriter was still were I'd hidden it. She gave me the $10 except she flaked on giving me a ride and I ended up carrying the thing home.(My first experience of suffering for my craft.) I started pecking out short stories and informational pamphlets that I'd give to my sisters who were nice enough to read them. At the time, I thought I was just fooling around. I certainly didn't consider what I was doing writing. I'd never gotten the hang of knitting so for me this was the next best thing. At the tail end of my junior college career, when I was ready to get real and get a job, my mother suggested that I try something to do with writing. I scoffed, something I'd gotten very good at as a middle child. Shortly thereafter I was forced to drop my algebra class due to a sever math disability and needed another class to maintain my full-time status. My sister had mentioned she was having a good educational time in her Mass Communications 101 class. On the last day to add I exhorted Mr. Michael Eberts to let me add which he did even though I knew I was imposing on his already full roster. I ended up getting an A and he asked if I'd be interested in taking his next class which focused on news writing. And so it was that I discovered I could not only learn a skill and get a job but that I could combine both and do something I loved, writing. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} I went on to transfer as a journalism major and, for a time, made an actual living as a writer happily toiling for websites and freelancing for magazines. Then life circumstances changed (remember the dot.com crash?) and I found myself with no job and a newborn. Since I had nothing else to lose, I decided to try my hand at fiction and, well, that’s a whole other story.  

Aside from somehow conceiving, completing and seeing three of my manuscripts published, I haven't won anything. Though, I did come in second at a Krispy Kreme pyramid building contest using, yes, doughnuts. I lost to a 12-year-old budding structural engineer but got to keep all the doughnuts I used in my effort. The taste of almost glory was just as sweet.