...There are few things in life that can prepare you
for being a writer as well as growing up on an island. It is a capsulated
environment flush with characters, setting and sometimes, pure
drama. There are few places on earth more beautiful than Casco
Bay, Maine. Over the centuries the islands were scratched from the earth by
the retreating oceans creating perfect havens for adventures, pirates, and
explorers galore. Even today, you need only travel a few scant miles to find
yourself transported into a world that is simple, yet complex, beautiful, yet
demanding, and modern, yet timeless. All of these things have inspired
authors, poets and artists since the beginning of time.
But I would be remiss without saying that without my
family I would not be a writer. My mother insisted that books would open up
worlds to me and that I had only to open the cover to be transported. She
fought hard to make me a reader and then had to deal with the consequences.
My father gifted me with complete confidence in my burgeoning abilities,
never once accepting that I might not succeed. And my grandmother fed me
Fig Newtons along with stories of seeing the Rockettes, of growing up poor,
and aspiring to experience it all. She also contributed to my love of the
paranormal by telling me of her own experiences that
left me to ponder those things I couldn't see.
I have been blessed enough to travel to many of the
places I dreamed of as a child. I have watched the Sea Lions lolling on the
docks of San Francisco Bay. I have picked my way through the melee
on New Orleans' Bourbon Street in New Orleans, sipped coffee in the shadow
of the greats at the famed
Algonquin Hotel in New York City, and I've watched the sunrise over the
Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. And I've
found that despite the travels, coming home is always best.
More formally, I have been married many years and been
with my husband for many more. I have two beautiful, intelligent, and
creative children who challenge me daily and I have the privilege of much
more family... some of whom I chose and others who were mine by birthright.
I am truly blessed...
