It’s hard to say where I’m “from.” I started off in a London suburb in 1936, spent the World War II years in Washington DC, USA, then returned to England with an accent that sounded pretty funny to my schoolmates. Two years later, I’d acquired a new accent that sounded pretty funny to my schoolmates in Scarsdale, NY, and later in Seattle WA. Five blissful years in one place until, at age 16, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to Philadelphia, PA where I finished high school and began working my way back west. First stop, Delaware, OH and Ohio Wesleyan University, (BA in English) second stop, Boulder, CO. I suddenly found myself with four children under age five and a husband who’d decided to move to Fort Collins, CO where, except for six years on the high plains in Greeley, CO, I’ve lived ever since. I completed an MA in Western American Literature at Colorado State University in 1971.
I’ve worked in a college admissions office, as a sixth grade teacher, community college teacher, feature writer and magazine editor, and in a non-traditional classroom, working with high school dropouts. I’ve taught memoir writing, edited a couple of books, and taught English as a second language to adults. For nearly 20 years I led biking and hiking tours--first in Vermont, later all over the western US and Canada.
I’ve done RAGBRAI, that crazy bike ride across Iowa five times, and in 1986, when one daughter graduated from college and the other finished law school, we biked from Iowa to Maine carrying all our own stuff.
In 2004-05, I spent nine months in Mozambique, Africa, an experience that opened my eyes to my own great good fortune. While there I shared my experiences through a web site for elementary school students, “Come to Africa with Me.” White Shadow, historical fiction, grew out of that experience.
I've been an avid runner for more than 40 years.
I’ve always loved working with words. Writing and running, that’s what I do. And sometimes I play around with used tea bags to create cards and bookmarks.