I am a natural storyteller. I am from the South, that is how we communicate - through stories. And I have so many stories to tell: Fiction and Non-Fiction. I want people to loose themselves in my worlds and re-emerge with all of their senses satiated. Just as when one devours a delicious meal, leans back from the table and says sleepy eyed, "That was fantastic, I cannot wait till the next one."

Smashwords has let me publish my books and novellas on my own terms. I trust my own editing, my vision and my talent. I have full control. This is rare in the publishing world. Numerous great authors self published: Jane Austin and the Bronte sisters, Lord Byron and Louis L'Amour to name a few. I am in good company.

Writing itself. Getting those scenes and characters that bang against the gates of my imagination to be freed upon the page. I have no peace until I do this. And then of course new characters, ideas, storylines beg to be released. It is exciting, frustrating, intimidating and most of al... never ending. Thank God.

I visited the petroglyphs out West. My favorite petroglyph was a lovely etching inside one the red canyons. A beautifully carved story using a type of flint that created a chemical reaction in the rock that has lasted over 4 thousand years. Much longer that the faded graffiti paint which has attempted and failed to desecrate this journey. A hunter painstakingly etched a very difficult journey he had made. He travelled miles to find food and finally he caught the trail of a buffalo herd, he tracked them for weeks and finally brought one down. He was joyous to feed his family. So joyous he had to write about it, deep in a cool canyon shaded from the desert sun. He did not know 4 thousand years later I would read that and be completely inspired but he hoped someone would read it and share in his victory, his art work and an extremely important moment in his life. Fans are the reason I write. To connect and share.

I have been working on 2 different novels. One is based on a true story of a very naughty baroness. The ending, as in most of my stories is a surprise. I didn't even have to make it up, when I came across it in a book of dueling I realized I had to write her story. She is brave, beautiful and unfortunately fatally foolish.
My second one is about Babylonian priestesses who are at war with the Gargoyles of Vesuvius. This one is especially fun to write as I get to incorporate demons and monsters who are so deliciously foul and thwart my heroine at every turn. My research into Babylonian gods and culture is making the story very rich and sensuous.

Charles Dickens, Milton, Confucius, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stephenson, Alexander Dumas

The smell of coffee, bacon, biscuits and the sound of children laughing.

I am always writing if not on paper then in my head. I travel the world. I cycle. I hike. I read voraciously.

Yes. I was 7 and I described how a cottonmouth snake caught a fish and pulled it up onto the bank where I was fishing. It did not see me and I did not move a muscle. It ate the fish alive - inches next to my left foot. It was black, with black eyes and a cotton white mouth. Very poisonous. The bass fish stared at me as it was being consumed. As it struggled the snake tightened its scales around it in a deadly hug. My line tugged. For the first and only time in my life I regretted getting a bite. I prayed the fish would take my worm and go but unfortunately it had hooked its mouth. The line started to jump and sway