Inspired at a young age to write the stories in my head, I continued to find writing to be my escape from the world.  Years spent off my path gave me insights into life and enabled me to eventually begin writing again, this time as a single parent.  There was no sacred space in those days.  With a pen and yellow legal pad I wrote on the sidelines of soccer games, under an umbrella on rain drenched fields, in hotels across the map and on my kitchen table.