I’m baaack!
I know it’s been a while since I’ve had a website, and the story of why is not very amusing. I started my original website in 2012, and it was great, until 2018. Sometime in 2018, I went to update my website and discovered that the company hosting it and managing it had somehow meshed my website with that of another author – a children’s book author. The website had my personal/professional contact info with her photo and her books! It was a mess. Even worse, when I contacted the company they claimed there was no way to undo/untangle our websites. They said I would just have to start over from scratch and recreate everything. Ugh! I was so upset that emotionally and mentally I just didn’t have it in me to rebuild my website at that time.
But I’m here now - with a brand new website, and a new company to manage it, of course! And I am excited to catch up and share with you what I’ve been up to in those 4 ½ years offline, so to speak.
Oh my, where to begin? Shortly after the website debacle, I ended my romantic relationship, moved to a small town in Minnesota, took a second part-time job (that will eventually end up in a romance novel), started painting, and decided to go back to school to get my degree! By a stroke of fate, I found myself living barely 30 minutes away from the first college to have an Associate of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree. Not only that, but their program is so good that colleges across the country go there to learn how they did it! In 2020, I made the Dean’s List (something my mother never thought I would do), I won their big poetry contest worth $250, had several poems published in various journals and anthologies, and, sadly, lost my father (my favorite guy in the world) at age 92. (A chapbook dedicated to his memory is in the works.) In 2021, I graduated with honors, had several more poems published, and I moved back to my childhood home in Indiana, which I had inherited. In 2022, I won the local St. Joe County Library’s Spill the Ink Poetry Contest – adult division, had even more poems published, and started school at Southern New Hampshire University to get my Bachelor’s degree, and, finally, re-created my website. Whew!
2023 starts with me working a part-time job at a local television station, finishing my first screenplay, shopping around that chapbook about my father, continuing to publish in journals, blogs, and anthologies, and hopefully getting a chance to travel a little.
On this website, I will be sharing not only news of my writing and publications, but readings or events I’m doing, writing/publishing tips/hints, and books I recommend, as well as my travels, my pets, and general news about my life. I am so glad to be back in touch with all of you!