Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I grew up in Richmond, Virginia in the suburbs in the late 1950s and '60s when kids actually played together on their streets and houses never needed to be locked. Organized sports were rare. Most families only had one car. The transportation of choice for kids was the bicycle. I led a neighborhood gang of mostly girls in bicycle adventures all over Richmond. Our parents did not have complete knowledge of just how far we roamed. The key was to be back in time for lunch or supper. Chapter 3 in my novel, The Z Redemption, basically is a slight exaggeration of my childhood.
When did you first start writing?
I read a lot of science material as a kid, mostly astronomy and physics, and these fueled my imagination and gave me fire to explore. So I wrote a number of short stories until I got busy in college. I went to the College of William and Mary, a liberal arts school, and majored in history. Most of our exams required us to write three essays in less than an hour. I ended up with a career in accounting and hospital administration and did a lot of business and marketing-related writing. I retired (too young) at age 54. Five years ago I went to live in Mexico for a year and had experiences there which resulted in my renewed passion for writing. The most excruciating experience was the murder of a young friend whose company I enjoyed daily. He was an innocent who got tortured and murdered by a drug cartel. Writing truly has been a form of therapy for me.
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