I've wanted to write science fiction since I was a kid. How's that for a cliché? Well, maybe not the science part so much. I grew up watching Star Trek reruns, Creature Feature and reading science fiction magazines. Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw in the theater a second time.
The not-so-fictional, not-so-fantastical journey through life of marrying, raising kids, divorcing, remarrying and raising more kids happened before I acted upon my dream. Now, with the youngest graduated from high school, and my loving husband supporting my habit (of writing), I have nothing to stand between me and my dream. I'm writing science fiction and getting published. And getting read. That's what it's really all about, although making money at it would be nice. One day, I'll have a book or two published and stories in major print magazines. Then I can answer that infernal question, "What do you do ('for a living' always being understood, though never stated)?" with "I build worlds."
Awesome Lavratt, my first published novel, was made available directly from the publisher, Unlimited Publishing, in March 2008. The public release (on non-cyber bookshelves) will probably be in August.
My stories "Long Term Memory" and "Marfina" can be found in anthologies at my local library. If you don't live in Sonoma County, or you do, but would like to support our branch of the oldest writing club in the nation, California Writers' Club, you can purchase Vintage Voices I and Vintage Voices II online.
What do I do when I'm not writing? Reading goes without saying. You can't be a writer, without being a reader. I enjoy dancing--especially at Papa's Taverna, listening to the Blues, web design and walking our beagle along the creek.
Our menagerie, at present, consists of the aforementioned beagle, an African Grey parrot named Einstein who is still overcoming the trauma of his former home and won't even talk about it - or at all, and two cats. They don't talk, either. Although the old arthritic male seems to have conversations with us in meow-speak. The female will do anything to get to his food once she's finished her own. We had to put her on a diet after we discovered that a) she was too fat to lick her own behind and b) she couldn't fit through the cat door to get to the litter box in the garage.
And because I have that disease I call volunteeritis, I am the organizer for the Glendi Ethnic Food Fair, a two day festival at my church and coordinate critique groups and five readings a year for Redwood Writers' Club. That's the short list. You should have seen my list of volunteer positions before I did what is turning out to be my annual "spring cleaning." I really must learn to say no and not pipe up even before I'm asked just because 'they' need help and I know how.
It's way too easy to fill your time with other things when you work for yourself. I'm still learning to spend at least two hours writing at the same time every day. Starting is sometimes hard, but once I get going I can lose track of time, forget to eat, feed the cats, etc. I LOVE what I do and I hope you do, too. Okay, I never said I was a poet. That slipped out.
Want to "friend" me on the web? Here's all the places you can find me:
Novels:
Awesome Lavratt, SF novel, 2008
Stories published online:
"The Heist," Every Day Fiction, June 2008
"Jolaneering," Nanobison.com, June 2008
"Immunity Project," Wayfarer's Journal, Fall 2007
"The Visitor," Sputnik57, Winter, 2007
"Inevitability," a SF poem, Surprising Stories, Spring 2006
"The Awesome Lavratt" (serialized in nine parts), Surprising Stories,2005-2007
"The NHILs," GateWay-SF Magazine, Spring 2005
Stories in print anthologies:
"Marfina," Vintage Voices II, 2007
"Long Term Memory," Vintage Voices I, 2006
Reviews at Mostly Fiction
Upcoming:
"The Rosary" (a short memoir), Vintage Voices III
Also in A Simple Touch of Fate II
Works in Progress:
Blind Date Blues (An anti-romance)
Under the Suns of Sarshan
Untitled Novel with collosal sentient sea creatures
Untitled bull riding story
And numerous stories making the rounds...looking for homes.