I'm just finishing up an economics textbook, and then I look forward to starting the fourth novel in my Life and Travels of da Vinci series. So far I've been averaging about one novel per year on da Vinci. I don't know how long the series will be when I finish it, since the first two books, Leonardo the Florentine and Leonardo: Masterpieces in Milan each covered decades of his life, and the latest one, Leonardo: To Mantua and Beyond, only covered six months of his life.

I love to read and write historical fiction, so not surprisingly my favorite author is Jeff Shaara. His are among the few books that I will actually rush out and pay full price for when they come out. I think historical fiction is a great way to learn about history, and I hope that my historical novels will succeed in having even a portion of the influence on others that Shaara's have had on me.

I wrote my first travel book (Stars Over Central America) when I was nine-years-old and my family was driving from the Panama Canal Zone through Central America, Mexico and the United States. It was almost thirty years later when I finally slowed down long enough in the midst of raising children to write my second book (An American Looks at Wuerzburg, Germany). Many years and many books later, I'm glad to be writing again!

I'm in the last few years of homeschooling my own twleve children and teaching classes for other homeschoolers. In the time I find around those tasks I travel and write as much as possible.

My father was in the military and my husband was in the military, so I've spent much of my life moving and traveling. These experiences have helped me appreciate the world in a way that I'm afraid many Americans never do. Now, for the first time in my life, I've actually lived in the same place for more than a decade; but I make up for that by traveling often. My writing is definitely better as a result of those experiences!

I self-published my second book on a copy machine in Germany. I sold over 100 copies of it locally, with very little effort. Years later, when I finally had a chance to write my next few books, I did the same thing, only this time I was in the United States. For several years that was how my books were made available to a mostly local homeschool audience - through the power of a copy machine and a comb binder. It wasn't much, but it was what I had available to me at the time for options. Then in 2010 I started learning about a number of great indie options, and I was sold! I cried the first time I held one of my books in my hands as a paperback, and again when I made my first sale on Smashwords. Even now, after three years, I still check my stats often, celebrating each sale!

Much of what I write is historical in nature - whether it is historical fiction or just good historical information. As such I often start with a timeline of what I'm going to be writing about. I alternate between writing on legal pads and on my laptop, depending on what else I'm doing at the time, and where I am. (When I'm standing in line somewhere I've even been known to jot down notes on my phone for a story I'm in the middle of.) When I get a ways into a story, I type up what I have so I can print it out. The printed drafts will go almost everywhere with me, so that I can read over them, scribble on them, and share with anyone who strays too close!

I like to do things myself as much as possible, but I've had to admit that cover design is not my "cup of tea." Fortunately I have a son that is very talented in such things, and I hire him to do most of my covers. That way I can stick to what I enjoy, and seem to do much better - the writing.