I remember my kindergarten classmates having to take naps (in the early 1950s during the polio scare) while I, promising to be quiet, was allowed to stay awake reading. I thank my mother for that intervention.

After earning a BS in zoology from Tufts University, I looked through the list of

potential jobs gathered by the college’s placement office. As I raced through the list—picture a yards-long dot-matrix printout—I said to myself, “Nope, nope, nope, no way, uh-uh.” All the jobs related to science teaching or to hospital or lab work, none of which appealed to me. I wished I had majored in English. Way down the list appeared acompany I didn’t recognize, and neither did the person at the counter when I asked, “What’s this place?” That person went to ask someone else and came back with, “It’s a publisher.”

The proverbial lightbulb flashed over my head. My fate was sealed. I have

enjoyed a career devoted entirely to books—from textbook publishing (starting out as the high-school science department’s secretary) to trade publishing (founding a new company) and now writing.

My husband, Gary (deceased in 2021), and I spent our marital years in

Massachusetts before retiring to Florida and Maine. Gary’s two sons from a prior marriage gave us five grandchildren. Decades of pets centered on cats and dogs. Animals (a cat and a moose) make cameo appearances in my debut novel, The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More, set in Midcoast Maine.

A one-time tennis player, snow skier, and scuba diver, my hobbies now include

bridge, mahjong, and crossword puzzles. I look at writing as the job I’ve been fortunate to age into.

You might also enjoy this Interview of me included in the publisher Atmosphere Press’s “Meet the Author” section (find the actual interview below the first few paragraphs and book cover at this link)