| About
the Author
About
the Author
Being handicapped from Cerebral Palsy and epilepsy, I
felt uncomfortable in groups of my peers until I entered
the seventh grade. Our teacher was a simple little soul
more afraid of us than we of her. This turnabout of control
climaxed over a note passed through me to my cousin. The
teacher caught me and sent me off to the principal. Before
I could march out the door she panicked and demanded I
return to her desk. I knew we had her when the whole class
cheered me on. I became accepted and loved by my classmates.
I love people and befriend the world bringing everyone
into my family. That’s why my brother, Ben and my
cousins, Sylvia, Emily, and Bun said the two I placed
in my home (Kevin and Claudina) are as much my son and
daughter as if they were legally mine.
I have had a great variety of jobs from salad bar attendant,
to teacher's aid and later a teacher. In Tennessee I became
a librarian at a college radio station. Then I moved to
upstate New York to run an Appaloosa horse farm with my
husband and finished off with acting as secretary/assistant
to a night club owner in Philadelphia. In 1980 I returned
home to West Palm Beach to relax from jobs for a couple
of years.
Then a young man visited me who promoted new authors.
After reading some of my short stories he suggested I
take a creative writing class at the local college. I
took his suggestion and the English department head encouraged
me to go for a degree. As I entered the senior year my
life became a bit complicated with new employees and a
second divorce.
In 1989 my friend, who had seen great improvement, hired
me as a writer on his magazine, Seabreeze, and has stuck
by me ever since. The fields I write in are regional history,
environmental subjects, research articles, and culture.
This included one on wheelchair tennis. I have recently
sent my first book, a novella about my maid, to a college
press. Now I have completed a novel for the middle reader,
influenced by my son’s early life. So much for careers.
The goal toward my contributing in my community is to
develop programs to stimulate students to want to learn.
In recent years I’ve volunteered for local environmental
protection programs through a high school and a local
Everglades organization. Through sports programs I also
promote bringing the handicapped into the main stream.
All this through my philanthropic foundation.
After 37 years as a trustee of a charitable foundation
in Cleveland, Ohio, I formed my own charitable organization
in 1986, also housed in Cleveland. At the same time, I
established a business as an editor/consultant. My charitable
work includes three years with the Wilderness on restoring
the Everglades, scribing for them at the South Florida
Water Management District designers meetings and later
the Governor’s commission for Sustainable South
Florida. I also put out the newsletter for the Florida
Academy of Sciences and went on the boards of the Loxahatchee
Nature Preserve Nature Center and the Friends of the Academy
of Environmental Sciences at Forest Hill High School.
Experience in editorial work: production editor (local
literary magazine), editor (philanthropic foundation Code
of Regulations, foundation history handbook and two professional
newsletters), resumes for local clientele including: hotel
management, medical personnel, news journalists, performing
artists, philanthropic documents, and charitable program
grants.
Geographic area: Ohio, upstate New York, Maryland Eastern
shore, coastline from Myrtle Beach to Key West.
Experience in environmental work: board member of Florida
Academy of Science, and Friends of the Academy of Environmental
Science, the Loxahatchee Preserve Nature Center, plus
three years working with the Wilderness Society at the
South Florida branch on restoring the Everglades.
Memberships: Society of Children’s Book Writer and
Illustrator, South Florida Poetry Review, Florida/Georgia
Freelance Writers Association, Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society,
National Writers Club, Palm Beach County Bookfest, The
Molly Bee Fund, the Florida Academy of Sciences, Friends
of the Academy of Environmental Science, and the Loxahatchee
Preserve Nature Center
References/Clips/Samples/Resume available on request
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