In a nutshell, I’m a veteran ER nurse, Mom, and wife. I’m a native Californian in training as a Texan and loving it; can identify a Whooping Crane and a Black Crested Titmouse, do a passable Boot Scootin’ Boogie, and whip up a deceivingly decadent low-fat tiramisu. I own chili-pepper red cowboy boots and ocean cruises are hands down my favorite way to travel! Oh, you were asking about writing?

People always ask writers, “How long have you been writing?” For me, it would be more pertinent to ask when it was that I got serious about my writing. Without a doubt that would be April 12, 1997. That was the day that my horse launched me into the dirt, broke my neck in three places and gifted me with an acute awareness of the ephemeral quality of life. The neurosurgeon said that I was millimeters from the same fate as my longtime hero, Christopher Reeve. Even without the broken ribs and punctured lung, that was enough to take my breath away.

To say that a person re-evaluates her life at such times is an understatement. There was something I was meant to do, and I suddenly knew that I needed to write.

At the request of my pastor, and after I could use my arms well enough, I wrote a simple, but heartfelt account of the accident for my church. It became the basis for “By Accident,” the story published in “Chicken Soup for the Nurse’s Soul.”

Coincidentally, about that same time I was awarded my healthcare system's “Nurse Excellence Award,” which evolved into some much needed educational R&R: A Caribbean Cruise to attend an onboard seminar of “Jocularity for Nurses”--the Therapeutic Benefits of Humor. Yes, Continuing Education Credit for drinking pina coladas and laughing! Don’t ya love it?

Thus my unique blend of story material evolved--shipboard comedy mixed with mystery, and always with a rich dollop of romance and a happy ending. Because I’ve learned that what we all need--what is the best medicine of all-- is to be loved, and to laugh deeply enough to free the joy in our souls.