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Eclectic. It's an overused word but it describes the varied writing genres I've pursued. I started out in public relations, promoting icons such as Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton. From there, I freelanced at Disney Studios before landing a gig as a writer for BOP magazine. Yes, the teen idol magazine. Name a teen idol of the late 1980's and I probably interviewed them.
After my tenure with BOP, I worked for a few other magazines before relocating from Los Angeles to rural Colorado. It was the first big risk I ever took and it became the best decision I ever made because it changed the direction of my life forever. I authored two non-fiction books on plant medicine and 10 booklets on alternative health, wrote nearly 1000 articles for national magazines, enjoyed an 11 year stint as a newspaper columnist and lectured across the U.S. and Canada.
But my heart was always geared toward fiction writing. I'd had a western themed novella, "In the Name of the Land," published and nominated for a Silver Spur Award. A collection of short stories followed. Friends would jokingly ask when I was going to write my big novel. I never had a reason to pour my heart into something like that until...until I had something to say and a character who could voice those words. When I first started writing it, I privately told myself it was just for myself...that it was enough to quietly create the characters and the story and know that I could do it. But halfway through, I read the pages and I realized that it was a story that could easily touch a lot of people. It was a story that had power and compelled readers to have greater compassion and think outside the proverbial box.
That novel was released on January 1st, 2007. It's called "Protector" and I put my soul into it. I look forward to hearing what you think.
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