Hello

I am an author, wife, mother of four wonderful women, and a grandmother to three teenagers. I have lived in a suburb north of Seattle for the past 18 years. Living in the Pacific Northwest is rather like living in a land of Christmas trees and mountains filled with natural beauty. I find the weather is temperate most of the year, never getting too hot or cold for extended periods. People associate the Seattle area with being overly rainy but I don’t think it is that bad. We get many overcast days, but no real downpours. The majority of it is a light drizzle where you need not even bother with raingear. However, when the sun comes out, I love the beauty of the mountains and the trees. To me, the views across the valleys are breathtaking. I developed a love of poetry writing in my teens and have been writing ever since.

Traveling was part of my joys when I was younger. As an adult, I lived in Turkey for about a year and lived in the Netherlands for almost as long. I have visited Germany, Belgium and Moscow. In an aside, I do not suggest you visit Moscow during the winter. It was cold like I’d never thought could exist outside of the vacuum of space. I have taken cruises to the Caribbean and Alaska, and I highly recommend the experience. During our Alaska trip, we went whale watching. Whales are big! One must see them to get the full scope of their size. If I had to choose where I would wish to live the most, I would probably pick right here in the Pacific Northwest though.

I grew up Washington, DC. I am the second eldest of four children. My older sister and I are the same age for one month out of the year, a fact I drive home for the entire time. For the other 11 months, she reminds me she is ‘in charge’ again. 

My father was a musician and passed his music genes down to all of his children. My siblings and I were members of the DC Youth Orchestra program where we learned various instruments. I attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Georgetown where I played clarinet and violin. During that time, I worked as a writer and photographer on our school newspaper. The photography didn’t stick, but my love of writing blossomed from there.

I have always had a love of nature and marine life. When I was younger, I wanted to become a marine biologist. I used to pretend I was a “playground expert” on sharks and rays having read all the books I could get my hands on about the subject. After graduating high school, I went to Howard University to study Zoology. As is life, my plans changed. My academic days were cut short as I started my family and my life went in a different direction. However, I was rather happy to part ways with academia.

In addition to my love of music, I have always been and always shall be a Star Trek fanatic. I am a die-hard card-carrying trekker since the original series and on through the rest of the world of trek. To date, I have watched every show, every episode, and every movie of every Star Trek series. I can watch five seconds of any of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) episode and will be able to tell you the title and plot with 99% accuracy. I am not a fan of Deep Space Nine (DS9) but I tolerate it. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the best Star Trek movie, in my opinion. Trek stands for all that we could become as humans. Although we fall far from the mark as a species, still we try and for that, I am hopeful. However, I do wish Shatner and Takei would put their feud behind them finally. In addition, Trek is better than Wars, Kirk was the better captain and bearded Riker for the win.

My spirit animal is a dragon. I love them and have an abundance of stuffed animals and figurines to prove it. My gamer tags all have some sort of dragon name. I love role-playing games the most, but never first person shooters. I get bad vertigo from them. I was a die-hard World of Warcraft player for many years, but I no longer play it. I am sticking to Diablo III and Minecraft for now. Once upon a time, I combined my love of Trek and my love of gaming and I ran a Star Trek multi-user dungeon (MUD) called the United Federation of Planets MUD. That was a text based dungeons and dragons type game based in a Star Trek theme.  You fought monsters, collected loot and interacted with other players. It was a game meets chat room environment.  I made many friends there and some are still friends 30 years later. In fact, I met and fell in love with my husband from our online world.

Nowadays, I fill my days making greeting cards for my friends and family and writing. I started making cards about ten years ago. I find it to be an enjoyable and creative hobby. I have my own YouTube channel dedicated to sharing the cards I design.