"Why do you write?" a friend recently asked me.

"Why do you breathe?" I countered.

She thought for a moment.

"Because I have to."

"There's your answer."

WRITING


Clarke County Exemplary Writers Contest Winner
Wright State University, 1993 and 1994


Canterbury Tales Award
Boiling Springs Jr/Sr High School, 1996


For exposé titled “Silent Strength: The Status of Women in India’s Kerala State”--
Departmental Honors Award
Outstanding Senior Anthropology Student Award
Millersville University, 2000


PERSONAL


Semester Abroad in Kerala, India, 1999


BA in Anthropology/Women's Studies, 2000


Appalachian Trail Thru-Hike (GA - ME), 2002


Weekend Vagabond (co-owner, co-pilot of Volkswagen Westfalia camper van), 2005


Pacific Crest Trail Thru-Hike (Mex - Can), 2006

Although I have been known to run away with the occasional poem, romantic fiction is my main squeeze.

COMPLETED NOVELS:

Kinder Justice, 2002

Leonora Kinder is a woman on a mission to punish the man responsible for her father's untimely death. But she is soon to learn that things are not always as they seem.

Beyond Katahdin, 2003

On a cold day in March, four hikers meet on a mountain in Georgia with nothing in common but the goal of trekking all the way to Maine. The Appalachian Trail will be the force that unravels them--and the thread that binds them together.

Elliot's Ghost, 2004

What if someone you loved disappeared without a trace? To Jessie Monaco, the answer is simple--fly to India and bring Elliot home. To Elliot's estranged brother Ben, it's more complicated. In spite of Ben's reluctance, he joins forces with Jessie and they begin a journey that will lead them across the diverse face of India's Kerala State, and eventually to Elliot. But he is not the same Elliot they knew.

Down the Road, 2007

All her life, Angelina Mauzy has been drawn to the carnival. As an undergraduate, she takes up anthropology as an outlet for her obsession. But when her journey leads to the carnival she is torn between academic pursuits and a magical world where anything is possible. Trevor Diggs is a smooth-talking carnie who enjoys a life where money and women come easy. But when fate brings a dark-haired angel into his world he begins to long for the kind of love that only Angelina can give him.

Sundowning, 2007

After ten years in the big city dreaming of something more, Frankie Novak has returned to her hometown pregnant and alone. She arrives to find her father overbearing as ever and her oafish brother engaged to an exotic woman that Frankie suspects he ordered through the mail. At best, her homecoming is depressing. When she is reunited with first love Harlan Dixon and lands a rewarding job at the local retirement community things begin to look up. But there's still the issue of a baby she isn't sure she wants and a father-to-be who vanished without a trace. It's enough to keep a girl up all night...

PICTURES:

Most pictures seen on this site are my own work; however some were borrowed from www.freeimages.co.uk and http://joansjewelrybox.com.