When I showed up at a writers’ group at a local bookstore a number of years ago, a page and a half of copy in hand, I wasn’t planning to write a novel, or even a short story. I just wanted to share some thoughts about my experiences as a divorced single parent, returning to the frustrating, bewildering, and anxiety-provoking world of dating. When I read what I’d written to the group, they roared with laughter and insisted that I keep writing. I followed their advice, persevered, and dedicated myself to learning as much as I could from other writers and editors who generously provided encouragement, support, and wisdom. I found myself on an amazing, sometimes torturous, usually joyous, and always challenging, journey that led to the publication of my first novel -- PROJECT EX!
Although I grew up in New England, I've lived in the Philadelphia area for over thirty-five years. I've been writing short plays, parodies, and stories all my life and love public speaking and performing almost as much as I love writing. During the pandemic, I wrote two one-act plays—A Calling in the Clearing and Back to the Clearing— that, while whimsical and funny at times, express my increasingly deep-seated concerns about the future of our planet. In addition, as a social worker, private clinician and as therapist/case manager in a behavioral health system, I've had plenty of first-hand experience with the twists and turns of both mind and heart.
My life has changed dramatically since my beloved husband Steve passed away in March 2022. Steve was my second husband and it was love at first sight when we met. However, from the beginning, I sensed something different about him — something that turned out to be Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which had a deep impact on our relationship. There were a lot of laughs along the way too, and a lot of tears of frustration, anger and sadness, as we did our best to make adaptations and accommodations to life as a “threesome”— Steve and me and ADD. Now I’m writing a stage play that was inspired by my memories of our life together, which was sometimes chaotic, often joyful, sometimes frustrating, hysterical, and anxiety-producing but never, ever boring!