My interest in writing began when I was nine-years-old, though I don't think I realized the significance of what I was doing. I started out with stories about the family dogs. I compiled these stories into my own version of a newspaper, which I called The Belvedere Press (after the cartoon dog, Belvedere).

The first thing I was ever paid to write, which I guess makes me a professional, was a weekly newspaper column called Scenes From Real Life.
I wrote this column for my hometown newspaper for four years.

I wrote my first novel in my early twenties, but it was never published. It was a romance set in the years after the Civil War. Looking back, I realize that I became too discouraged too quickly.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY LIFE THUS FAR


I am a North Carolina native. I grew up on a farm with my maternal grandmother, my electrician father, a stay-at-home mom, a brother, a sister and the family dogs.

The baby in the family, with six years between myself and my sister, I had to develop a big imagination early in life to keep myself entertained. I began writing at the tender age of nine by making up stories revolving around the family dogs.

I started to take writing seriously when I had my first creative writing class in junior high school. After that, I was hooked on writing for life.

To learn more about me, vist my blog, News From My World Here
THINGS YOU MIGHT BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT ME



When I first met my husband, he was a Civil War Reenactor. For a few years, I had a little side business making clothes for other reenactors.

For three years, I served as a lay pastor at a small rural church.

I'm a real computer geek. I've studied programming, several different software applications, and I can also open one up and work on the hardware, too.

MY LOVE

Some people say that the story of mine and Bryan's romance is unusual for two reasons.
To begin with, we both grew up in the same county, attended the same high school at the same time, continued to live our adult lives in our hometown but never met until we were 35-years-old.
The second reason it's unusual is that neither one of us had ever been married. Bryan's mother has said that it was as if we were just waiting for the right time and place to meet our true loves.
We met in May of 1994 when I took a job at the same company where he was working. I can't really say that it was love at first sight. Bryan and I took the friendship road to romance.
Our breaks were scheduled simultaneously, and we began sitting together in the break room, talking and discovering that we had a lot of interests in common. We stayed "break room buddies" for the next five months until I took the initiative to ask him out to dinner for his birthday.
Even after we began dating, friendship was still the basis for our relationship. I can't tell you how many movies we missed seeing, because we would sit in the restaurant talking without realizing that the show time had passed.
We became engaged December 16, 1995, following a Christmas party at the Sunspree Resort in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Little did I know, he had brought with him to the party an engagement ring and intended to propose to me that night.
I remember vividly that it was a very chilly 36 degrees that night, and the wind was blowing around 20 miles per hour. So when he suggested that we take a walk along the beach, I asked him if he had lost his mind.
With a little coaxing, he managed to get me out to the beachfront gazebo, where he surprised me with the ring and a proposal.
Seven months later, on July 6, 1996, we were married in a small church cermony, surrounded by our closest friends and family.
After we were married he confessed something to me that he had never told me in all the months we had dated. Years earlier, he used to read my newspaper columns and wish that he could meet a girl like me.
Now, that's a man with a romantic soul and one I'm glad I waited for.