I am a freelance writer now, though I launched my journalism career unofficially at the age of four when my father, also a journalist, began sometimes taking me along with him. He taught me a lot about news and writing, and instilled in me an irresistible need to satisfy my curiosity.
    My first formal newspaper job began, literally, in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner when I was 19. The city editor called, told me I got the job I applied for, and could I start, um, right now? Could I!
       They started me out doing obituaries--the deadbeat. Obituaries are traditionally the most widely read section of a newspaper, and the one section where a writer must "get it right."
    My first love is fiction. Three of my novel manuscripts won awards at Authorlink in the International New Authors Writing Competitions. Two of those won first place in their genres (mystery and science fiction).
    One of those, a mystery, has been languishing in the offices of a publisher for more than a year. I've given up on hearing from them and am exploring other options now. Dying to Meet You is about a serial killer plying his trade at a fictional army post (which I named for one of the colonels I worked for during my days in civil service at Fort Benning, GA).
   The other manuscript is currently somewhere within the halls of the venerable publisher, St. Martin's Press. I have high hopes for that novel, called Memory's Child, which eventually will be one-third of a science fiction trilogy set in the future we seem to be racing towards.
    In 2003, I had the honor of being a Fellow at the Hambidge Center, where I met several fine artists and poets. Rabun County, GA, is a beautiful place, and the setting for the as-yet untitled sequel to Dying to Meet You, which is still in first draft.