I was born on July 3, 1930 in Oxnard, California. I was the
first of three children, my sister Dorothy was born in 1934 and
my brother “Butch” was born in 1941, seven days before
the attack on Pearl Harbor.
My childhood was filled with outdoor activities. I was my father’s
boy and he took me fishing, hunting, claming and even skeet shooting
with him. From the time I could hold a fishing pole almost every
weekend was taken up with trips to the streams surrounding Santa
Maria where we had moved when I was four. Then there were trips
to Pismo Beach to dig for clams, Morro Bay to hunt ducks, the
Cuyama hills to hunt for quail and pheasant, and the Guadalupe
Mesa to hunt the scores of cotton tail rabbits. I was, as you
might have guessed, a tomboy.
In my four years of high school I took any subject I could that
had to do with writing. I took four years of journalism, radio
broadcasting and public speaking.
During the past 60 years I have worked in a vegetable packing
shed, then as a payroll clerk, an accounts payable clerk, cashier,
secretary in an insurance office, sales clerk in a retail store,
a record shop and a feed and seed store. I acquired my real estate
sales person license, a bail bonds license and before I retired
I was a rural mail carrier for the U.S. Post Office, part time
and then full time for 30 years.
After marrying in 1951, my writing days slowed as I had my first
son in 1952, then a daughter in 1954 which was stillborn. In 1959
my daughter Punky came along and two years later another son,
Rusty. I figured that was plenty since we had adopted my husband’s
daughter in 1956. To my surprise in 1968 I had another daughter,
Kelly. There was no time to write except for letters to my parents
who lived in Redding, and long letters to my brother when he was
in Korea. I did take the job of writing and printing my church’s
monthly newsletter for eight years.
My writing was almost stifled until my father had a major heart
attack and died in 1971. He and I were extremely close and to
work though my grief I wrote a book about our adventures when
we went hunting and fishing together. Then another one about Spit
and Spot, two orphaned coyote pups based on the hundreds of stories
daddy told me when I was very young.
After raising five children, having nine grandchildren and nine
great grandchildren I had ample material to turn into stories.
Once I retired from the Post Office in 1994 I joined the Writers
of Kern, a group of writers and aspiring writers. Then I joined
the SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
and I was on my way to writing my passion, children’s books
and children’s short stories. I even had a couple of poems
published in Humpty Dumpty in 1998. That was my first sale as
a professional author.
Many of my middle grade novels are still waiting for a publisher,
but I used 37 of my short stories to do a collection called Grannies’
Shorts. I had so many stories left I decided to publish a second
book, Grannies Critters I’m still editing some of my books,
and sending out many of the short stories to children’s
magazines. Others I’m putting on this web sight so you might
download them and read them to your children.
So now, in 2005, I live alone surrounded by delightful memories.
My computer gets a five to six hour work-out every day and my
cocker spaniel, Missy keeps me company.
Emphysema and asthma have slowed me down, but sitting at the computer
writing stories takes very little energy. At seventy-five my mind
is still full of short stories and I intend to keep on writing
as long as possible.
