Welcome

I'm a baby boomer, a psychiatric nurse with 50 years experience, and a former nurse officer in the Army Reserve Nurse Corps. I grew up in a small town in upstate NY as an only child with a funny, loving, and strict mother who had a lively but troubled relationship with my dad. I grew up, went to college, started working, and never did much wrong. I go to church and pay my taxes. I'm what I'd call a 'lively straight arrow'.

It's relevant to my writing, so I need to tell you that my favorite book was Gone With the Wind. I refuse to judge it by today's standards. I believe you have to judge by what was happening in the world at the time. Margaret Mitchell was incredibly brave in 1936 to produce that story. To this day, I admire her ability to create memorable characters. Ashley and Rhett are prefectly balanced on the opposite side of masculinity. Ashley seems weak until you remember he endured years of brutal war and was held prisoner in conditions that would kill me. Rhett's bravado is balanced by his ability to see Scarlet as she is and love her while she's not giving him anything in return. Scarlet's strength and beauty are balanced by her totally insane desire for a man not right for her, and her inability to understand anything or anyone unlike her. Sweet little Melanie was a fine thread of steel cable who held Scarlet together, though of course she didn't understand that. Even the slaves were written to show that they had their own inner strength, and kept the lives of the 'white folks' in order.The ending left me, and every other woman who read it, with a tissue in one hand, yelling 'no'. After over a thousand pages of investment in the story, Mitchell made a perfectly reasonable, 'hard left' ending, to show that actions have consequences, and everyone has their breaking point.

I aspire to emulate her abilities. A few years ago, I  started writing in earnest and I have a dozen books that I always feel can be better because I'm a perfectionist. I aim to create strong and complex characters who get involved in relatable situations, and I use everything I know about human behavior when I write to try to do that. I think of the general storyline, and I create the people who would need to be involved. After they are real in my mind, I sit back and let them tell me the story. Some characters are awful people and some are almost perfect. Most are a bit of both because that's how people are.

I want to engage the reader to love or hate my characters, to laugh unexpectedly, and to need a tissue once in awhile. If you turn pages and wish it wasn't over, I'll be thrilled. Looking at my pictures, I see the lively kid inside and that's what I become when I write. My small-town, good girl background flies out the window when the keyboard is in front of me. Then I'm capable of anything. My husband jokes "I sleep next to the woman who wrote that."

Please find a book that appeals to you and give me a try.