Before

 You must want to know what makes me tic, since you’ve come to this page on my website. So, here goes.

I’ve been a writer as far back as my memories take me. When I wasn’t verbally spinning a tale from my imagination, I was writing plays, poetry, lyrics, or short stories.

In grade school, I’d coerce my friends into taking parts in my newest stageplays, which sometimes made a debut at our PTA or on holidays. During my early teen years, I wrote poetry for our church bulletin under the pen name of Lora Dinn, but soon my poetry turned to pouring out my heart in unrequited love, as most teenage girls do.

After

I learned my love of reading at a young age, when I found some old Nancy Drew mysteries. In the attic, I uncovered a book called The Odyssey. I spent many hours in my quiet little hiding place reading through all those great stories. Even the pictures were scary…the cyclops and Medussa were the most frightening of all. In my teen years, I discovered Gone With The Wind and other romances in my mother’s library. I was partial to the romances that swept me off to another world, especially the romantic suspense novels. Give me a good mystery, a bit of nail-biting, and a satisfying love story and I’m content to escape into the book for hours. I dreamed of one day writing a novel, but didn’t know how or where to start. I had multitudes of stories floating around in my head, but they never made it to paper. It took losing a job and being unemployed for six months to jolt me into pursuing my dream. I signed up for writing classes and from there I was hooked. It took me three months to write my first novel, “Hit and Run.” Of course it was terrible. But after several more classes, and much constructive criticism, it began to click. I revised the book with all the newfound knowledge I’d gained. That was my first full-length published novel.

Since then, I have published two more full-length novels and several short stories.

My husband and I love to vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains, and that is where my novels are set. I love the beautiful mountains with their haunting smoky tops, the lush greenery, and slow and friendly pace of living.

We own three cats named for E.B. White’s characters in “Charlotte’s Web.” The biggest and fluffiest cat is appropriately named Wilbur. His brother, always the investigative mischievous rat, is aptly named Templeton. Our little girl, a tiny lady with a huge voice, is named Charlotte.

On weekends, we love to take our pop-up camper to local state parks. My hubby spends the day fishing while I spend quiet hours in the shade composing my latest novel.

I think that age is a state of mind. I love playing in the snow, eating ice cream cones, hiking in the woods, and curling up with a good book when it rains. I hate spiders. Life is interesting, fun, and I intend to enjoy every moment that God allows me to be here in this dimension.

My Special Cause

About four years ago, we had a female cat roaming our neighborhood. She was feral…meaning no one could come near her. She had several litters of kittens behind our neighbor’s garage. He took pity on them and began to feed them. Over the course of a year, he managed to tame one of the kittens, a male orange and white tabby, he named Boots. The cats lived in his yard and began to depend on him for food and water. All was good until one fall morning he announced that he was moving. He put the house up for sale and suddenly he was gone, but he left the cats behind. The house sat vacant over the winter months, and we took pity on the poor animals and started leaving cat food on the back patio where he’d always fed them.

Spring arrived and with it came a new owner of the house–a woman who despised cats. We began leaving food out on our patio for the cats, although they were becoming a neighborhood menace. People complained about the cats digging in their flower beds. One morning we heard some weird noises coming from the closed in area below our deck where we keep firewood. Upon inspection, we found several kittens. Over the next few days, we began to see several litters of kittens as the mothers brought their young to the “safe” yard. Yikes! We counted seventeen kittens and cats.

Concerned for our welfare, as well as the cats, I began to search for help. I found it through Pet Promise and their City Kitty program to help feral cats. With their help, we managed to trap all the cats and kittens and have them spayed/neutered and given rabies shots. Though we hadn’t rid the neighborhood of the cats, we had managed to stop their perpetuating. We agreed to feed and shelter the cats for the rest of their lives in exchange for the help provided.

The cats, now only thirteen, stay mainly in our back yard. They enjoy hiding in the bushes and laying around the fish pond. Many are now semi-feral. Though still afraid of outsiders, they allow us to pet them. We can even pick up a couple of them. They are beautiful cats and though we have given up the joy of having birds eating from our feeders, we enjoy watching the multi-colored felines at play.

There are so many innocent animals who are abandoned. Most aren’t adoptable. Many shelters won’t accept them. They didn’t ask to be born, nor did they ask to be abandoned.

Pet Promise is a wonderful organization. Please check out their site and give a donation if you can. God will bless you as he has blessed us in our mission of caring for our ferals.