Happy to Join Y'all

Today is the first day I'm getting to join y'all. I am so happy to be asked to become a part of this gathering of fantastic mystery authors. Since I'm new, I'll tell you a little about myself and hope I'll get to know lots about all of you.

I'm fortunate enough to live in south Louisiana surrounded by greenery and slow-moving bayous and a large gathering of family members and other loved ones. If you read the October issue of the magazine called The Writer, you may have spied my article called "Forget Her Writing Dream? Not an Option." In the article I describe, as I do in many of my talks, the long, tenuous journey I made to reach that dream I'd taken hold of as a youth--that of becoming a writer. By the time I sold a novel, my five children were all grown with their own families.

I didn't start trying to write novels for most of those years inbetween, but I learned so much about persistence and not letting your dream drop by the wayside. I had become a widow with five young children and really wanted to write--but my kids were silly and wanted to eat and wear shoes and such nonsense and did not want to wait around while I read lots of novels and then tried to learn to write them. I completed a degree in education in our local college and began teaching.

Some time later I said, "Oh, I have a little time now. I'll become a writer." But the main things I'd read were college textbooks and before that, the backs of cereal boxes. I didn't have much time to read and write, so I wrote smaller pieces. Along the way I eventually sold essays and poems and had one-act plays produced.

But now I've sold three books in a series. Deadly Ink nominated the first one, RELATIVE DANGER, for its David award for Best Mystery of the Year. That book is available in various formats, including Kindle. N.Y. Times bestselling author Heather Graham said of the second book, KILLER COUSINS, "Killer Cousins is great! In the a la mode of Miss Marple and onward!" The third book, DEADLY REUNION, comes out next summer.

Since this is my first time here, I'll cut it a little short so maybe you'll want to hear from me again. I hope to hear from many of you. Thanks again for letting me be here.