I remember holding a pencil in my hand at age four and feeling an incredible compulsion to create the magic of words. I knew it could be done. But I couldn't make it happen. At four, I could read, having been taught to read by my older brother, who taught me everything as he learned it, including being left-handed (which may explain why I am both left and right-brained and thoroughly ornery.) At nine, I sat down to a typewriter with a story in mind. But before I had pecked out the first paragraph, my words had already strayed in a different direction. I couldn't give them up, but I couldn't make them fit, and I gave up in confusion. Eventually, maturity, experience, and the abandonment of false dignity resolved most of my barriers to writing. Of course, it helped when the kids grew up.

Since I also have an avid interest in history, along with a Bachelor's Degree in Geography and Anthropology, and an enduring love of romance, I particularly enjoy putting timeless human problems into a romantic, historical perspective.

In my other life, I am married to the One True Hero and have a wild and wonderful collection of children, step-children, and grandchildren. I live in Washington State within a day's drive to mountains, ocean, rivers, volcanoes, or deserts, and just about any climate except the Arctic.