About the Author

I’m not a native Texan; I just sound like one.  As the daughter of a sailor and oldest of four children, I was born out of state, on a naval base.  But I’ve lived in Texas ever since I was two, which lends credibility to that whole “nature over nurture” theory.  Yes, you can be warped by your environment. 

While my parents were apparently busy making more children, ones that they hoped would turn out right, I learned to entertain myself.  I’d make mud pies, play with horned toads and pretend to be a scribe.  At an imaginary desk I’d sit and act like I was writing. 

By the time I was in junior high school, I’d begun crafting short stories and ghostwriting my classmates’ love letters.  All too soon, I found my first romance.  At sixteen, I quit school to become a wife and mother (though not necessarily in that order).   

Two high school dropouts are pretty much destined to a life of despair, and it didn’t take me long to recognize this.  I quickly obtained my G.E.D. and then went to work on an assembly line, building calculators.  Later, after I’d divorced, I continued working full-time and attended college. In merely twelve years of night school that took me an additional ten years to pay for, I earned my B.B.A. degree from Amberton University in 1989. 

I’ve been fortunate to hold many positions in the financial services, real estate, and transportation industries where folks were crazy enough to give me titles like securities representative, real estate manager and manager of right-of-way (Dallas Area Rapid Transit).  In these professions I found ways to use my writing skills (which means I got to write a lot of memos, board presentations and policies and procedures that others took all the credit for producing). 

In 1990, I married my husband, Jim, and later left the corporate world to pursue a freelance writing career.  I believed I could do this even after an English instructor had thrown me out of his class.  The dean of a college honors program said to me, “You’ve surpassed the instructor.  Get out there and do what you already know how to do.”  After I’d followed this insightful instruction, The Dallas Morning News published two of my guest columns.  

During my first year as a full-time freelancer, I garnered an assignment from The Washington Post. This lead to stints of public speaking and an assignment as a U. S. delegate to a UNESCO conference in Germany.   

Along the way, I managed to craft several works of fiction that have yet to be published.  However, in the course of writing a few novel-length manuscripts, I found I had a knack for comedy.  

In early 2005, I secured the opportunity from The Murphy Messenger to write a weekly humor column titled “The View Askew.”  So now I can no longer lurk in the neighborhood Starbucks, eavesdropping, without being noticed.   

After my Web site began drawing national and international traffic, I entered into an agreement with Brown Books Publishing Group to produce Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road: Humorous Views on Love, Lust, and Lawn Care.  The collection which includes columns published by The Dallas Morning News, The Murphy Messenger, Road & Travel and other print and online publications, will be released in June 2006. 

Most of my days are spent in Murphy, Texas, where getting your photo published in the newspaper can make you an overnight celebrity.  Strangers recognize and stop me in the supermarket to talk about my columns. That’s always humbling, especially when I’ve recently bragged about dieting and my shopping cart is filled with sodas, cookies and chips.  

I reside with my husband, Jim, now that our four children are grown.  Together, we have four grandchildren, one cat and one overly spastic granddog.   

I’m fortunate to be living my dream—one that waited many years to manifest.  I remember that carefree, five-year-old girl writing at her imaginary desk and smile.  She must have known then what she didn’t yet have sufficient words to tell me. 

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Last Updated: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 09:01 PM