Why did you become a writer?
It was a conspiracy!  The women in my life conspired to make it so.

My mother used to read poems and books to us at night before bed: Heidi, Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Oliver Twist, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, and many others.  I treasured those nights curled up in the window seat listening to her read. 

She died when I was thirteen, almost fourteen.  I still miss her.  But because of her, I loved reading and spent many long hours with wonderful authors like: Kipling, Victor Hugo, Dickens, Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, O’Henry, Daphne De Maurier, Katherine Anne Porter, Frank Herbert, Jane Austen...  These authors and their stories became part of my blood and bone.  I have walked with them in worlds they spun out of magic words.

My grandmothers and great aunts were vivid storytellers.  They taught me that this is a thing women do--they tell their stories, and those of their mothers.  I was fortunate to have all four of my great grandmothers alive when I was little.  What magnificent women!  And, oh, how I loved hearing them tell their stories.  These remarkable women live on in me--in my writing and in my heart. 

My teachers -- conspirators all!  They kept excusing me from English class to read in the library, or to sit in the corner and write, beginning with Mrs. Davis in first grade.  This wouldn’t be so extraordinary, except it kept happening every time I changed schools.  And I went to several different schools before high school.  At Madison No. 1 in Phoenix, I pitched a fit when they ran out of Dickens.  I suppose my English teachers, Mrs. Chamberlain and Mrs. Shakespeare, (yes, she really was named Shakespeare) got wind of my reading list from the librarian and that’s why they excused me from class.  All of them, except Mrs. Merrick--she made me stay in class and memorize poetry.  That’s when I fell in love with Browning and Wordsworth.      Our family moved again, this time to Tempe, AZ.  At McClintock high school, Mrs. Auten reviewed our first assignment and transferred me out of sophomore English into a creative writing class.  And that, as they say, was that.

Are you married?  Do you have children?
    Yes, I live in Texas with my husband of twenty-three years.  Brilliant, and always supportive, he’s been an tremendous blessing in my life and my writing.  We have four untamed children who are bravely taking on the world.  I’m very proud of all of them--they are all out-of-the-box thinkers.  Although they haven’t completely left our nest, it’s exciting to watch them embarking on the adventures of life.      (One hears about ‘empty-nest syndrome’, but no one warns how nerve-wracking this part of parenting is--the letting go part.)

What does your family think of having an author in their midst?
    The only one who is impressed is my wonderfully supportive mother-in-law.  In many respects, writing was simply expected of me.  I come from a long line of writers, from my great grandmother on down.  She wrote for the newspaper, and was the first woman to have a daily radio program in Arizona.  My step-sister is published, my brother-in-law has nine books out.  My oldest son had a column in the Dallas Morning News when he was still in high school.  In my family, writers put their pants on the same way everyone else does.  That’s good.  We understand one another--the ups and the downs of the creative world.

Tell us something not very many people know about you.
    Well, sometimes people think I’m shy.  When, really, there isn’t a shy bone in my body.  Ironically, I am far more comfortable speaking to a group of thousands than talking one-on-one to a new acquaintance at a party.  The reason is, I don’t think in words.  I think in images, visual impressions, colors, shapes, graphical constructs.  So, if I’m not prepared with the exact words, as when giving a speech, I have to translate complex imagery into English. 
    Translating takes time, time that, misinterpreted, makes others uncomfortable in social settings.  I’ve learned tricks to use socially.  Generally, I lure the other person into talking about themselves, so I’m off the hook.  Unfortunately, I’m extremely opinionated, and if I really want to say something, and often I do, then I must first grapple with language and struggle to interpret visual concepts into words. 
    Do you remember that old exercise in writing class, where you had to compose an essay explaining how to tie a shoe?  Yeah, well, that’s what it’s like for me all the time.
Weird, huh? A writer who doesn’t think in words.

If there was one thing in the world you could change what would it be.
    Oh gosh, please don’t pin me to one.  There are some extremely critical problems facing our modern culture.  But okay, I’ll hold it to two burning issues. 

Women.
    At the heart of my work, especially in my upcoming projects, you will note a theme of empowering women.  It’s my dream that women will study who they are, discover their real strengths, and arise and take hold of the enormous influence they have on society.  We must begin to comprehend our awesome position in the universe.  And with that knowledge comes responsibility.  Right now, I believe many women are floundering.  We’ve got our freedom in this country, we’ve been liberated and now what?  Women don’t really know who and what they are. 
    For centuries they’ve looked to men for the standard.  That comparison was grossly misleading.  Don’t get me wrong, I like men.  I have three strong amazing sons, and I adore my husband.  But men are almost a different species from us, powerful in their own right, but their strengths are not the same as the untapped powers of women.  This may sound a little ‘woo-woo’ to some people, but I believe women have been kept in the dark and confused about their strengths because men, and other forces, are afraid of women standing up and wielding their true power.              Consequently, women have been lost for centuries.  This breaks my heart.  My next book touches on this, cracks open the door for a peek at what might be if women knew the truth about who they are.

Education. 
    The way we structure our schools--it isn’t even logical.  I would even go so far as to say we are destroying our greatest resource--the minds of our children.  This is America, land of innovation, and yet we still teach using the same format/structure as we did two centuries ago.  Egad!!! 
    The solution is clear and easy to implement, but we have too many fearful hesitant people trying to protect the status quo.  Ironically, teachers jobs wouldn’t be in danger if structuralists would stop being so protective and amend the format.  Good teachers would be lauded as heroes under a correctly designed system.
    Do you want to see the United States zoom to the top of global charts academically? (We’ve sagged to a ranking of 25th at last comparison.) Stop teaching our children to bounce from one subject to another every forty-five minutes.  Is it any wonder why we have to re-teach concepts year after year before we can add new ones?  It’s that simple.  Everyone knows inundation is the most effective way to learn. 
    We live in the computer age.  There is no reason why individualized instruction and evaluation isn’t the norm.  It would foster self-motivation and competition.  (Two ideas which are not mutually exclusive regardless of what you may have been told.)  By the end of ninth grade students should have enough of a broad classical background to begin focusing their strengths and talents and pursuing interest areas in more depth.  It is extremely frustrating to observe that we scarcely allow them to do that in college. 
    Let’s face facts, we are a specialized global economy.  If a sixteen year old in high school is jazzed about Chemistry, there is no reason why he isn’t taking more labs so he can explore this interest.  At least half the day should be devoted to interest area exploration.  Summer school is a good example of how this works.  Kids who have trouble passing a class during the year, when it’s doled out in forty-five minute increments, pass with flying colors when they’re inundated with it for four hours over a three week period. 
    Socrates would laugh himself back into the grave if he woke up and saw the resources being dumped into education in this country and the ineffectual way they are being used.  I have much more to say on this. (See Speak/Spoke) As you can see, it’s an issue I feel passionately about.

How can readers get in touch with you?
I love hearing from readers.  Tell me what you think.  Ask questions. 
To email me click here