Originally from Los Angeles, I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Over the years I’ve worked as a middle school teacher, a college professor, a business owner, a stay at home mom, a journalist, a columnist, a legislative staffer, and a state government administrator. For most of my working life I haven’t used the Ph.D. I earned in ancient history.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t write. First it was fragments of novels I never finished. Then I forced myself to write short stories, because people said you should when you’re starting out. Then, like half the population of LA, I wrote screenplays.
I finished my first novel in the ‘90s, collected some rejection letters from agents and editors, then gave up fiction to write other things in various graduate programs and jobs—a doctoral dissertation, academic articles, book reviews, policy papers, grant proposals, federal reports, and other scintillating beach reading material.
I finished my second novel in 2019 and a third in 2o20. This blog post explores how I suddenly became so prolific even with a day job. Novel #2 was a finalist in both the Tall Poppy Writers Popstar Writing Contest (I won) and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association (WFWA) Rising Star Award (I did not). I was seeking representation for it when life sort of melted down during the pandemic.
Between family crises, health crises, and my day job, I haven’t gotten back to writing apart from the dry, bureaucratic stuff I churn out at work. Maybe someday.