 About the Author
 Writing a biography for characters in one of my books is much easier than writing one for myself. With my characters, I can arbitrarily decide what their history is and adjust it for a story's impact, which means they usually have had problems to overcome. In truth, my life has been so blessed, which means it would make for boring fiction.
After living in Colorado for all but four years of my life, I moved last year to the central Texas coast after my husband's temporary assignment there became permanent. Leaving friends behind was the most difficult part, but I've made new friends in my new home while keeping in touch with old ones. I never minded winter, but now that I've experienced a winter where there has been only ten days of frost and no snow, I'm liking this change a lot. The area we live in is forested, which came as a surprise to me, and so our home is surrounded by shade and the songs of colorful birds.
I'm learning to garden all over again since I've moved from Zone 5 to Zone 9. No more of my beloved peonies, which require a period of winter, but gardenias, hibiscus, jasmine, azelias, and crape myrtle bloom in abundance. I miss the water garden left behind in Colorado, and I have a spot picked out in our new back yard for another one. Hopefully construction on that will begin soon. There's still nothing quite as soothing as the sound of running water and watching gorgeous fish swimming lazily in the water.
I find that gardening is a wonderful metaphor for writing and vice versa. Both begin with a basic plan that almost instantly undergoes ongoing revision. Both have to be nurtured. Both offer unexpected beauty and surprises. Both have to be weeded. I always tell myself that I hate weeding, but in actual fact, some of my best ideas have come to me while weeding. This is my own version of that "chop wood, haul water" axiom to find clarity and solutions to problems.
Before I became a full time writer, I spent a lot of years as a technical writer, mostly preparing software documentation for huge commercial systems. I'm sometimes asked about the differences and if writing novels isn't easier. Well . writing novels is both harder and more rewarding. Unlike technical writing, the writing of novels has no clear cut right answer except for reader satisfaction. Finding ways to deliver a good story that touches a reader is, for me, the most rewarding writing of all.
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